10x10 tiling


Suppose there is a 10x10 grid.

10x10 grid

Can you tile it completely with 1x4 tiles (oriented in any direction)?

1x4 tile

No, it is impossible.

Proof

Label the grid cells with letters A-D as follows, filling in each diagonal line with each successive label:

10x10 grid labelled

Note that anywhere you place a 1x4 tile, it will cover one of each label A-D. Thus each letter will be covered the same number of times.

However, the grid has an unequal count of each letter. Note that each row has either two or three of each letter. Looking at just the letters A and B:

10x10 grid labelled AB

There are 5 rows with 3 As, but 6 rows with 3 Bs. Hence there is one more B than As in the grid. Thus any tiling that covers every A will leave a B uncovered.