Problems

Age
Difficulty
Found: 220

Kai has a piece of ice in the shape of a “corner” (see the figure). The Snow Queen demanded that Kai cut it into four equal parts. How can he do this?

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a) In the construction in the figure, move two matches so that there are five identical squares created. b) From the new figure, remove 3 matches so that only 3 squares remain.

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A toddler has \(25\) lego pieces in a box:

  • In how many ways are there to choose three pieces to play with?

  • In how many ways can he choose three pieces for the foundation, main walls and roof? Note that the order is important.

Cut the shape (see the figure) into two identical pieces (coinciding when placed on top of one another).

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There is a \(5\times 9\) rectangle drawn on squared paper. In the lower left corner of the rectangle is a button. Kevin and Sophie take turns moving the button any number of squares either to the right or up. Kevin goes first. The winner is the one who places the button in upper right corner. Who would win, Kevin or Sophie, by using the right strategy?

Is it possible to place 12 identical coins along the edges of a square box so that touching each edge there were exactly: a) 2 coins, b) 3 coins, c) 4 coins, d) 5 coins, e) 6 coins, f) 7 coins.

You are allowed to place coins on top of one another. In the cases where it is possible, draw how this could be done. In the other cases, prove that doing so is impossible.

The centres of all unit squares are marked in a \(10 \times 10\) chequered box (100 points in total). What is the smallest number of lines, that are not parallel to the sides of the square, that are needed to be drawn to erase all of the marked points?