Problems

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Three hedgehogs divided three pieces of cheese of mass of 5g, 8g and 11g. The fox began to help them. It can cut off and eat 1 gram of cheese from any two pieces at the same time. Can the fox leave the hedgehogs equal pieces of cheese?

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).

To transmit messages by telegraph, each letter of the Russian alphabet () ( and are counted as identical) is represented as a five-digit combination of zeros and ones corresponding to the binary number of the given letter in the alphabet (letter numbering starts from zero). For example, the letter is represented in the form 00000, letter -00001, letter -10111, letter -11111. Transmission of the five-digit combination is made via a cable containing five wires. Each bit is transmitted on a separate wire. When you receive a message, Cryptos has confused the wires, so instead of the transmitted word, a set of letters is received. Find the word you sent.

a) There are 21 coins on a table with the tails side facing upwards. In one operation, you are allowed to turn over any 20 coins. Is it possible to achieve the arrangement were all coins are facing with the heads side upwards in a few operations?

b) The same question, if there are 20 coins, but you are allowed to turn over 19.

The White Rook pursues a black horse on a board of \(3 \times 1969\) cells (they walk in turn according to the usual rules). How should the rook play in order to take the horse? White makes the first move.

In one move, it is permitted to either double a number or to erase its last digit. Is it possible to get the number 14 from the number 458 in a few moves?

Initially, on each cell of a \(1 \times n\) board a checker is placed. The first move allows you to move any checker onto an adjacent cell (one of the two, if the checker is not on the edge), so that a column of two pieces is formed. Then one can move each column in any direction by as many cells as there are checkers in it (within the board); if the column is on a non-empty cell, it is placed on a column standing there and unites with it. Prove that in \(n - 1\) moves you can collect all of the checkers on one square.