My flawed brain can't do anything 3D.
Round one of USAMTS just ended. The hardest problem for me? Problem 1.
Other problem are like "humm.. why is this... I see! solved..."
Problem 1 is the odd one out.
I do not believe a problem requires brutal force search of results, but in the end that's exactly what I did.
At first I believe there must be some algebraic way to do it, so I turned it into an graph theory problem.

Now what. I don't know. I don't know what I need to find on this graph. Back to brutal force search. Such an waste of time.
I use the computer to calculate, the result was 22.
Then I tried to do it by hand, I get way more than 22.
I'm confused as how this happens. Made this problem way harder than it is.

Thx for JJ's help. I realized why I'm keeping getting more stuff than I suppose have.

Mgccl 18:10:54
uhh... you can't rotate one and get a reflection
.JJ 06:11:06
yes u can
.JJ 06:11:07
= =
Mgccl 18:11:43
you mean you can rotate
xx-
---
---
to
-xx
---
---
.JJ 06:11:55
yeah
Mgccl 18:12:01
O RLY?
.JJ 06:12:12
= =
duh
Mgccl 18:12:20
NO WAI!
Mgccl 18:12:26
I don't see how that's possible.
.JJ 06:12:53
flip this way so the face on cube one that's facing forward is now facing down
.JJ 06:13:08
and then rotate the side facing forward 180°
.JJ 06:13:09
= =
.JJ 06:13:23
apparently u don't play the rubiks cube..
Mgccl 18:13:29
...
Mgccl 18:13:34
wow. that was amazing...
.JJ 06:13:41
噗
.JJ 06:13:42
= =
.JJ 06:13:44
。。。
Mgccl 18:13:43
then I was right
Mgccl 18:13:46
the answer was 22!
.JJ 06:13:52
ur stubborness is amazing
.JJ 06:13:53
yeah
.JJ 06:13:56
= =...
Mgccl 18:14:18
oh god... I was like why is my program keep saying those 2 are the same thing after rotation...

I shall train my skill in 3D manipulation. Rubik's cubes are for nerds.

If I finish my Intel in 2 days, maybe I will go to China.
Hard decision.
Just yesterday people in my school told me they want me to go back.
But JJ will kill me if I fail to bring her stuff from China.
I really want to have some nice Chinese food, while staying at Beijing doing math with a friend... but school is really fun too >.<