MathDB
Numbers in an array

Source: Dutch Mathematical Olympiad 2005

September 19, 2005

Problem Statement

Consider an array of numbers of size 8×88 \times 8. Each of the numbers in the array equals 1 or -1. "Doing a move" means that you pick any number in the array and you change the sign of all numbers which are in the same row or column as the number you picked. (This includes changing the sign of the "chosen" number itself.) Prove that one can transform any given array into an array containing numbers +1 only by performing this kind of moves repeatedly.