Math Gold Medalist

Lor

2022 AMC 12B

Problem 18

Each square in a $5 \times 5$ grid is either filled or empty, and has up to eight adjacent neighboring squares, where neighboring squares share either a side or a corner. The grid is transformed by the following rules:

  • Any filled square with two or three filled neighbors remains filled.
  • Any empty square with exactly three filled neighbors becomes a filled square.
  • All other squares remain empty or become empty.

A sample transformation is shown in the figure below.[asy] import geometry; unitsize(0.6cm); void ds(pair x) { filldraw(x -- (1,0) + x -- (1,1) + x -- (0,1)+x -- cycle,mediumgray,invisible); } ds((1,1)); ds((2,1)); ds((3,1)); ds((1,3)); for (int i = 0; i <= 5; ++i) { draw((0,i)--(5,i)); draw((i,0)--(i,5)); } label("Initial", (2.5,-1)); draw((6,2.5)--(8,2.5),Arrow); ds((10,2)); ds((11,1)); ds((11,0)); for (int i = 0; i <= 5; ++i) { draw((9,i)--(14,i)); draw((i+9,0)--(i+9,5)); } label("Transformed", (11.5,-1)); [/asy]Suppose the $5 \times 5$ grid has a border of empty squares surrounding a $3 \times 3$ subgrid. How many initial configurations will lead to a transformed grid consisting of a single filled square in the center after a single transformation? (Rotations and reflections of the same configuration are considered different.)[asy] import geometry; unitsize(0.6cm); void ds(pair x) { filldraw(x -- (1,0) + x -- (1,1) + x -- (0,1)+x -- cycle,mediumgray,invisible); } for (int i = 1; i < 4; ++ i) { for (int j = 1; j < 4; ++j) { label("?",(i + 0.5, j + 0.5)); } } for (int i = 0; i <= 5; ++i) { draw((0,i)--(5,i)); draw((i,0)--(i,5)); } label("Initial", (2.5,-1)); draw((6,2.5)--(8,2.5),Arrow); ds((11,2)); for (int i = 0; i <= 5; ++i) { draw((9,i)--(14,i)); draw((i+9,0)--(i+9,5)); } label("Transformed", (11.5,-1)); [/asy]$\textbf{(A)}\ 14 \qquad\textbf{(B)}\ 18 \qquad\textbf{(C)}\ 22 \qquad\textbf{(D)}\ 26 \qquad\textbf{(E)}\ 30$

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   Solution