MathDB
battleship revisited

Source: XI May Olympiad (Olimpiada de Mayo) 2005 L2 P5

September 19, 2022
combinatoricscombinatorial geometry

Problem Statement

The enemy ship has landed on a 9×99\times 9 board that covers exactly 55 squares of the board, like this: https://cdn.artofproblemsolving.com/attachments/2/4/ae5aa95f5bb5e113fd5e25931a2bf8eb872dbe.png The ship is invisible. Each defensive missile covers exactly one square, and destroys the ship if it hits one of the 55 squares that it occupies. Determine the minimum number of missiles needed to destroy the enemy ship with certainty .