Problems

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Found: 13

A snail climbs a 10-meter high tree. In day time the snail manages to climb 4 meters, but slips down 3 meters during the night time. How long would it take the snail to reach the top of the tree if it started the journey on a Monday morning?

In Mexico, environmentalists have succeeded in enacting a law whereby every car should not be driven at least one day a week (the owner informs the police about their car registration number and the day of the week when this car will not be driven). In a certain family, all adults want to travel daily (each for their own business!). How many cars (at least) should the family have, if the family has a) 5 adults? b) 8 adults?

Three friends decide, by a coin toss, who goes to get the juice. They have one coin. How do they arrange coin tosses so that all of them have equal chances to not have to go and get the juice?

There are 8 glasses of water on the table. You are allowed to take any two of the glasses and make them have equal volumes of water (by pouring some water from one glass into the other). Prove that, by using such operations, you can eventually get all the glasses to contain equal volumes of water.

A broken calculator carries out only one operation “asterisk”: \(a*b = 1 - a/b\). Prove that using this calculator it is possible to carry out all four arithmetic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division).

One hundred cubs found berries in the forest: the youngest managed to grab 1 berry, the next youngest cub – 2 berries, the next – 4 berries, and so on, until the oldest who got \(2^{99}\) berries. The fox suggested that they share the berries “fairly.” She can approach two cubs and distribute their berries evenly between them, and if this leaves an extra berry, then the fox eats it. With such actions, she continues, until all the cubs have an equal number of berries. What is the largest number of berries that the fox can eat?

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?

100 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 her pasta into other children’s bowls (to whomever she wants). What is the least amount of transfers needed so that everyone has a different number of pieces of pasta in their bowl?

Hannah Montana wants to leave the round room which has six doors, five of which are locked. In one attempt she can check any three doors, and if one of them is not locked, then she will go through it. After each attempt her friend Michelle locks the door, which was opened, and unlocks one of the neighbouring doors. Hannah does not know which one exactly. How should she act in order to leave the room?

There are 30 students in a class: excellent students, mediocre students and slackers. Excellent students answer all questions correctly, slackers are always wrong, and the mediocre students answer questions alternating one by one correctly and incorrectly. All the students were asked three questions: “Are you an excellent pupil?”, “Are you a mediocre student?”, “Are you a slacker?”. 19 students answered “Yes” to the first question, to the second 12 students answered yes, to the third 9 students answered yes. How many mediocre students study in this class?