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2015 SDMO (High School)
2
2
Part of
2015 SDMO (High School)
Problems
(1)
Card flipping to get all the same
Source: 2015 SDMO High School Problem 2
8/24/2016
N
N
N
cards are arranged in a circle, with exactly one card face up and the rest face-down. In a turn, choose a proper divisor
k
k
k
of
N
N
N
. You may begin at any card on the circle and flip every
k
k
k
-th card, counting clockwise, if and only if every
k
k
k
-th card begins the turn in the same orientation (either all face-up or all face-down).For example, with
15
15
15
cards, you may start at any position and flip the
3
3
3
rd,
6
6
6
th,
9
9
9
th,
12
12
12
th, and
15
15
15
th cards around the circle if they all begin the turn face up (or all face-down).For what values of
N
N
N
can all of the cards be flipped face-up in a finite number of turns?