Problem

Source: Czech-Polish-Slovak Match 2018, Problem 5

Tags: combinatorics, inequalities



In a $2 \times 3$ rectangle there is a polyline of length $36$, which can have self-intersections. Show that there exists a line parallel to two sides of the rectangle, which intersects the other two sides in their interior points and intersects the polyline in fewer than $10$ points. Proposed by Josef Tkadlec, Czechia and Vojtech Bálint, Slovakia