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Source. Theorem 7 and its following remark, printed p. 345, physical p. 5 of the published paper. The source credits the argument to S. Burr.
Let be the four vertices of a unit square. Then
The graph lemma
Every red-blue coloring of the edges of has a monochromatic -cycle. To prove this, choose a vertex with at least three incident edges of one color, say red.
If has at least four red neighbors, the red edges among any four of them form a matching: two sharing a vertex would combine with to make a red -cycle. The complement of a matching on four vertices contains a blue -cycle, a contradiction. Thus, in the only remaining case, has exactly three red neighbors and two blue neighbors .
The red edges among again form a matching, so after relabeling are blue. Each of has at most one red neighbor among , since two would make a red -cycle through . Hence each has at least two blue neighbors there. If they have two common blue neighbors, those four vertices form a blue -cycle. Otherwise their blue-neighbor sets are, after relabeling, and . Then
is a blue -cycle. This proves the lemma.
Euclidean realization
Let be the standard basis of . For every edge of , put
A two-coloring of colors these fifteen points and hence the edges of . Let be a monochromatic -cycle. Then
are monochromatic. Consecutive differences in (4) have two nonzero coordinates, each of magnitude , so have length . Consecutive side vectors use disjoint coordinate pairs and are orthogonal; opposite side vectors are negatives. Thus (4) is a unit square, proving (1).
The planar counterexample in the source
Color by the parity of . Suppose a unit square with orthonormal side vectors were monochromatic. Along each edge the vertical change has absolute value at most , so equal parities at its endpoints force the two floor values to be equal. Connectivity forces all four vertical coordinates into one half-open unit interval, whose diameter is strictly below . On the other hand their vertical span is
because are orthonormal. This contradiction proves false, including points on stripe boundaries. The paper's 1973 remark that dimensions were then undecided is historical context, not a current-status claim.