With $21$ tiles, some white and some black, a $3 \times 7$ rectangle is formed. Show that there are always four tokens of the same color located at the vertices of a rectangle.

A $5\times 5$ board is covered by eight hooks (a three unit square figure, shown in the picture) so that one unit square remains free. Determine all squares of the board that can remain free after such covering. [img]https://cdn.artofproblemsolving.com/attachments/6/8/a8c4e47ba137b904bd28c01c1d2cb765824e6a.png[/img]

We have $10$ identical tiles as shown. The tiles can be rotated, but not flipper over. A $7 \times 7$ board should be covered with these tiles so that exactly one unit square is covered by two tiles and all other fields by one tile. Designate all unit sqaures that can be covered with two tiles. [img]https://cdn.artofproblemsolving.com/attachments/d/5/6602a5c9e99126bd656f997dee3657348d98b5.png[/img]

We consider tilings of a rectangular $m \times n$-board with $1\times2$-tiles. The tiles can be placed either horizontally, or vertically, but they aren't allowed to overlap and to be placed partially outside of the board. All squares on theboard must be covered by a tile. (a) Prove that for every tiling of a $4 \times 2010$-board with $1\times2$-tiles there is a straight line cutting the board into two pieces such that every tile completely lies within one of the pieces. (b) Prove that there exists a tiling of a $5 \times  2010$-board with $1\times 2$-tiles such that there is no straight line cutting the board into two pieces such that every tile completely lies within one of the pieces.

Show that we cannot tile a $10 x 10$ board with $25$ pieces of type $A$, or with $25$ pieces of type $B$, or with $25$ pieces of type $C$.

You have a large number of congruent equilateral triangular tiles on a table and you want to fit $n$ of them together to ma€ke a convex equiangular hexagon (i.e. one whose interior angles are $120^o$) . Obviously, $n$ cannot be any positive integer. The first three feasible $n$ are $6, 10$ and $13$. Determine if $19$ and $20$ are feasible .

(a) Prove that a square with sides $1000$ divided into $31$ squares tiles, at least one of which has a side length less than $1$. (b) Show that a corresponding decomposition into $30$ squares is also possible. [i](Walther Janous)[/i]

Two right isosceles triangles of legs equal to $1$ are glued together to form either an isosceles triangle - called [i]t-shape[/i] - of leg $\sqrt2$, or a parallelogram - called [i]p-shape[/i] - of sides $1$ and $\sqrt2$. Find all integers $m$ and $n, m, n \ge 2$, such that a rectangle $m \times n$ can be tilled with t-shapes and p-shapes.

The central square of the City of Mathematicians is an $n\times n$ rectangular shape, each paved with $1\times 1$ tiles. In order to illuminate the square, night lamps are placed at the corners of the tiles (including the edges of the rectangle) in such a way that each night lamp illuminates all the tiles in its corner. Determine the minimum number of night lamps such that even if one of those night lamps does not work, it is possible to illuminate the entire central square with them.

Let $ n$ be a positive integer. A $4\times n$ rectangular grid is divided in$ 2\times 1$ or $1\times 2$ rectangles (as if it were completely covered with tiles of domino, no overlaps or gaps). Then all the grid points which are vertices of one of the $2\times 1$ or $1\times 2$ rectangles, are painted red. What is the least amount of red points you can get?

The workers laid a floor of size $n \times n$ with tiles of two types: $2 \times 2$ and $3 \times 1$. It turned out that they were able to completely lay the floor in such a way that the same number of tiles of each type was used. Under what conditions could this happen? (You can’t cut tiles and also put them on top of each other.)

The next board is completely covered with dominoes in an arbitrary manner. [img]https://cdn.artofproblemsolving.com/attachments/8/9/b4b791e55091e721c8d6040a65ae6ba788067c.png[/img] a) Prove that we can paint $21$ dominoes in such a way that there are not two dominoes painted forming a $S$-tetramino. b) What is the largest positive integer $k$ for which it is always possible to paint $k$ dominoes (without matter how the board is filled) in such a way that there are not two painted dominoes forming a $S$-tetramine? Clarification: A domino is a $1 \times 2$ or $2 \times 1$ rectangle; the $S$-tetraminos are the figures of the following types: [img]https://cdn.artofproblemsolving.com/attachments/d/f/8480306382d6b87ddb8b2a7ca96c91ee45bc6e.png[/img]

We are given a supply of $a \times b$ tiles with $a$ and $b$ distinct positive integers. The tiles are to be used to tile a $28 \times 48$ rectangle. Find $a, b$ such that the tile has the smallest possible area and there is only one possible tiling. (If there are two distinct tilings, one of which is a reflection of the other, then we treat that as more than one possible tiling. Similarly for other symmetries.) Find $a, b$ such that the tile has the largest possible area and there is more than one possible tiling.

A board of $6\times 6$ is totally covered by $18$ dominoes (of $2\times 1$), that is, there are no overlaps, gaps, and the tiles do not come off the board. Prove that, regardless of the arrangement of the tiles, there is always a line that divides the board into two non-empty parts, and without cutting tiles.

A rectangle is tiled with rectangles of size $6\times 1$. Prove that one of its side lengths is divisible by $6$.

Consider a $1 \times n$ rectangle and some tiles of size $1 \times 1$ of four different colours. The rectangle is tiled in such a way that no two neighboring square tiles have the same colour. a) Find the number of distinct symmetrical tilings. b) Find the number of tilings such that any consecutive square tiles have distinct colours.

The workers laid a floor of size $n\times n$ ($10 <n <20$) with two types of tiles: $2 \times 2$ and $5\times 1$. It turned out that they were able to completely lay the floor so that the same number of tiles of each type was used. For which $n$ could this happen? (You can’t cut tiles and also put them on top of each other.)

The sword is a figure consisting of $6$ unit squares presented in the picture below (and any other figure obtained from it by rotation). [img]https://cdn.artofproblemsolving.com/attachments/4/3/08494627d043ea575703564e9e6b5ba63dc2ef.png[/img] Determine the largest number of swords that can be cut from a $6\times 11$ piece of paper divided into unit squares (each sword should consist of six such squares).

Describe a method to convert any triangle into a rectangle with side 1 and area equal to the original triangle by dividing that triangle into finitely many subtriangles.

Determine for which natural numbers $n$ it is possible to completely cover a board of $ n \times n$, divided into $1 \times 1$ squares, with pieces like the one in the figure, without gaps or overlays and without leaving the board. Each of the pieces covers exactly six boxes. Note: Parts can be rotated. [img]https://cdn.artofproblemsolving.com/attachments/c/2/d87d234b7f9799da873bebec845c721e4567f9.png[/img]

How many ways are there to tile a $3 \times 3$ square with $4$ dominoes of size $1 \times 2$ and $1$ domino of size $1 \times 1$? Tilings that can be obtained from each other by rotating the square are considered different. Dominoes of the same size are completely identical

Given are two positive integers $k$ and $n$ with $k \le n \le 2k - 1$. Julian has a large stack of rectangular $k \times 1$ tiles. Merlin calls a positive integer $m$ and receives $m$ tiles from Julian to place on an $n \times n$ board. Julian first writes on every tile whether it should be a horizontal or a vertical tile. Tiles may be used the board should not overlap or protrude. What is the largest number $m$ that Merlin can call if he wants to make sure that he has all tiles according to the rule of Julian can put on the plate?

Each square on a $ n \times n$ board, with $n \ge 3$, is colored with one of $ 8$ colors. For what values of $n$ it can be said that some of these figures included in the board, does it contain two squares of the same color. [img]https://cdn.artofproblemsolving.com/attachments/3/9/6af58460585772f39dd9e8ef1a2d9f37521317.png[/img]

For a positive integer $n$, we consider an $n \times n$ board and tiles with dimensions $1 \times 1, 1 \times 2, ..., 1 \times n$. In how many ways exactly can $\frac12 n (n + 1)$ cells of the board are colored red, so that the red squares can all be covered by placing the $n$ tiles all horizontally, but also by placing all $n$ tiles vertically? Two colorings that are not identical, but by rotation or reflection from the board into each other count as different.

Consider a $ 2018\times 2018$. board. An "LC-tile" is a tile consisting of $9$ unit squares, having the shape as in the gure below. What is the maximum number of "LC-tiles" that can be placed on the board without superposing them? (Each of the $9$ unit squares of the tile must cover one of the unit squares of the board; a tile may be rotated, turned upside down, etc.) [img]https://cdn.artofproblemsolving.com/attachments/7/4/a2f992bc0341def1a6e5e26ba8a9eb3384698a.png [/img] Alexandru Girban