Sum of Dot Products
Discrete Mathematics
Level
3
Let \(a_1, \ldots, a_{16}\) be the list of \(2^4 = 16\) distinct vectors which have 4 coordinates, whose values are either 0 or 1. What is the maximum possible value of \(a_1 \cdot a_2 + a_3 \cdot a_4 + \cdots + a_{15} \cdot a_{16}\)?
Details and assumptions
\( u \cdot v \) represents the dot product of vectors.
Examples of vectors which have 4 coordinates and whose entries are either 0 or 1 are: \( (0, 0, 0, 0), (1, 1, 1, 1), (0, 1, 0, 1), (1, 0, 0, 0) \).
The list is a set of all the 16 distinct vectors which satisfy the condition.
by
Calvin Lin