Problems

Age
Difficulty
Found: 1979

1. A bagel is cut into sectors. Ten cuts were made. How many pieces did this make?

2. Woodchucks are sawing a log. They made 10 cuts. How many pieces were made? How can we explain why the answers in the previous two questions are different?

Are the sum and product odd or even for:

a) two even numbers?

b) two odd numbers?

c) an odd and an even number?

In a race between 6 athletes, Andrew falls behind Boris and two athletes finish between them. Vincent finished after Declan, but before George. Declan finished before Boris but after Eric. Which order did the athletes finish the race in?

One person says: “I’m a liar.” Is he a native of the island of knights and liars?

In the language of the Ancient Tribe, the alphabet consists of only two letters: M and O. Two words are synonyms, if one can be obtained by from the other by a) the deletion of the letters MO or OOMM, b) adding in any place the letter combination of OM. Are the words OMM and MOO synonyms in the language of the Ancient Tribe?

In a purse, there are 2 coins which make a total of 15 pence. One of them is not a five pence coin. What kind of coins are these?

15 points are placed inside a \(4 \times 4\) square. Prove that it is possible to cut a unit square out of the \(4 \times 4\) square that does not contain any points.

On an island, there are knights who always tell the truth, and liars who always lie. What question would you need to ask the islander to find out if he has a crocodile at home?

An investigation is being conducted into the case of a stolen mustang. There are three suspects – Bill, Joe and Sam. At the trial, Sam said that the mustang was stolen by Joe. Bill and Joe also testified, but what they said, no one remembered, and all the records were lost. In the course of the trial it became clear that only one of the defendants had stolen the Mustang, and that only he had given a truthful testimony. So who stole the mustang?