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?
Gabby is standing on a river bank. She has two clay jars: one – for 5 litres, and about the second Gabby remembers only that it holds either 3 or 4 litres. Help Gabby determine the capacity of the second jar. (Looking into the jar, you cannot figure out how much water is in it.)
Cut the interval \([-1, 1]\) into black and white segments so that the integrals of any a) linear function; b) a square trinomial in white and black segments are equal.
\(x_1\) is the real root of the equation \(x^2 + ax + b = 0\), \(x_2\) is the real root of the equation \(x^2 - ax - b = 0\).
Prove that the equation \(x^2 + 2ax + 2b = 0\) has a real root, enclosed between \(x_1\) and \(x_2\). (\(a\) and \(b\) are real numbers).
With a non-zero number, the following operations are allowed: \(x \rightarrow \frac{1+x}{x}\), \(x \rightarrow \frac{1-x}{x}\). Is it true that from every non-zero rational number one can obtain each rational number with the help of a finite number of such operations?
Given a square trinomial \(f (x) = x^2 + ax + b\). It is known that for any real \(x\) there exists a real number \(y\) such that \(f (y) = f (x) + y\). Find the greatest possible value of \(a\).
In the king’s prison, there are five cells numbered from 1 to 5. In each cell, there is one prisoner. Kristen persuaded the king to conduct an experiment: on the wall of each cell she writes at one point a number and at midnight, each prisoner will go to the cell with the indicated number (if the number on the wall coincides with the cell number, the prisoner does not go anywhere). On the following night at midnight, the prisoners again must move from their cell to another cell according to the instructions on the wall, and they do this for five nights. If the location of prisoners in the cells for all six days (including the first) is never repeated, then Kristen will be given the title of Wisdom, and the prisoners will be released. Help Kristen write numbers in the cells.
We are given a polynomial \(P(x)\) and numbers \(a_1\), \(a_2\), \(a_3\), \(b_1\), \(b_2\), \(b_3\) such that \(a_1a_2a_3 \ne 0\). It turned out that \(P (a_1x + b_1) + P (a_2x + b_2) = P (a_3x + b_3)\) for any real \(x\). Prove that \(P (x)\) has at least one real root.
An \(8 \times 8\) square is painted in two colours. You can repaint any \(1 \times 3\) rectangle in its predominant colour. Prove that such operations can make the whole square monochrome.