MathDB

A square table of size

7\times 7

with the four corner squares deleted is given.
[*] What is the smallest number of squares which need to be colored black so that a

5-

square entirely uncolored Greek cross (Figure 1) cannot be found on the table? [*] Prove that it is possible to write integers in each square in a way that the sum of the integers in each Greek cross is negative while the sum of all integers in the square table is positive.
[asy] size(3.5cm); usepackage("amsmath"); MP("\text{Figure }1.", (1.5, 3.5), N); DPA(box((0,1),(3,2))^^box((1,0),(2,3)), black); [/asy]

Problem Statement