Problems

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Found: 220

Catherine laid out 2016 matches on a table and invited Anna and Natasha to play a game which involves taking turns to remove matches from a table: Anna can take 5 matches or 26 matches in her turn, and Natasha can take either 9 or 23. Without waiting for the start of the game, Catherine left, and when she returned, the game was already over. On the table there are two matches, and the one who can not make another turn loses. After a good reflection, Catherine realised which person went first and who won. Figure it out for yourself now.

At a round table, there are 10 people, each of whom is either a knight who always speaks the truth, or a liar who always lies. Two of them said: “Both my neighbors are liars,” and the remaining eight stated: “Both my neighbors are knights.” How many knights could there be among these 10 people?

There are 23 students in a class. During the year, each student of this class celebrated their birthday once, which was attended by some (at least one, but not all) of their classmates. Could it happen that every two pupils of this class met each other the same number of times at such celebrations? (It is believed that at every party every two guests met, and also the birthday person met all the guests.)

In a \(10 \times 10\) square, all of the cells of the upper left \(5 \times 5\) square are painted black and the rest of the cells are painted white. What is the largest number of polygons that can be cut from this square (on the boundaries of the cells) so that in every polygon there would be three times as many white cells than black cells? (Polygons do not have to be equal in shape or size.)

In a convex polygon, which has an odd number of vertices equal to \(2n + 1\), two independently of each other random diagonals are chosen. Find the probability that these diagonals intersect inside the polygon.

10 children were each given a bowl with 100 pieces of pasta. However, these children did not want to eat and instead started to play. One of the children started to place one piece of pasta into every other child’s bowl. What is the least amount of transfers needed so that everyone has a different number of pieces of pasta in their bowl?

There is an elastic band and glass beads: four identical red ones, two identical blue ones and two identical green ones. It is necessary to string all eight beads on the elastic band in order to get a bracelet. How many different bracelets can be made so that beads of the same colour are not next to each other? (Assume that there is no buckle, and the knot on the elastic is invisible).

On the school board a chairman is chosen. There are four candidates: \(A\), \(B\), \(C\) and \(D\). A special procedure is proposed – each member of the council writes down on a special sheet of candidates the order of his preferences. For example, the sequence \(ACDB\) means that the councilor puts \(A\) in the first place, does not object very much to \(C\), and believes that he is better than \(D\), but least of all would like to see \(B\). Being placed in first place gives the candidate 3 points, the second – 2 points, the third – 1 point, and the fourth - 0 points. After collecting all the sheets, the election commission summarizes the points for each candidate. The winner is the one who has the most points.

After the vote, \(C\) (who scored fewer points than everyone) withdrew his candidacy in connection with his transition to another school. They did not vote again, but simply crossed out \(B\) from all the leaflets. In each sheet there are three candidates left. Therefore, first place was worth 2 points, the second – 1 point, and the third – 0 points. The points were summed up anew.

Could it be that the candidate who previously had the most points, after the self-withdrawal of \(B\) received the fewest points?

Four outwardly identical coins weigh 1, 2, 3 and 4 grams respectively.

Is it possible to find out in four weighings on a set of scales without weights, which one weighs how much?

On a lottery ticket, it is necessary for Mary to mark 8 cells from 64. What is the probability that after the draw, in which 8 cells from 64 will also be selected (all such possibilities are equally probable), it turns out that Mary guessed

a) exactly 4 cells? b) exactly 5 cells? c) all 8 cells?