Problem

Source: New Zealand NZMOC Camp Selection Problems 2012 Juniors 6

Tags: combinatorics



The vertices of a regular $2012$-gon are labelled with the numbers $1$ through $2012$ in some order. Call a vertex a peak if its label is larger than the label of its two neighbours, and a valley if its label is smaller than the label of its two neighbours. Show that the total number of peaks is equal to the total number of valleys.