There are 40 identical cords. If you set any cord on fire on one side, it burns, and if you set it alight on the other side, it will not burn. Ahmed arranges the cords in the form of a square (see the figure below, each cord makes up a side of a cell). Then, Helen arranges 12 fuses. Will Ahmed be able to lay out the cords in such a way that Helen will not be able to burn all of them?
The pupils of class 5A had a total of 2015 pencils. One of them lost a box with five pencils, and instead bought a box with 50 pencils. How many pencils do the pupils of class 5A now have?
Author: Shapovalov A.V.
Let \(A\) and \(B\) be two rectangles. From rectangles equal to \(A\), a rectangle similar to \(B\) was created.
Prove that from rectangles equal to \(B\), you can create a rectangle similar to \(A\).
At a contest named “Ah well, monsters!”, 15 dragons stand in a row. Between neighbouring dragons the number of heads differs by 1. If the dragon has more heads than both of his two neighbors, he is considered cunning, if he has less than both of his neighbors – strong, the rest (including those standing at the edges) are considered ordinary. In the row there are exactly four cunning dragons – with 4, 6, 7 and 7 heads and exactly three strong ones – with 3, 3 and 6 heads. The first and last dragons have the same number of heads.
a) Give an example of how this could occur.
b) Prove that the number of heads of the first dragon in all potential examples is the same.
Author: A. Glazyrin
In the coordinate space, all planes with the equations \(x \pm y \pm z = n\) (for all integers \(n\)) were carried out. They divided the space into tetrahedra and octahedra. Suppose that the point \((x_0, y_0, z_0)\) with rational coordinates does not lie in any plane. Prove that there is a positive integer \(k\) such that the point \((kx_0, ky_0, kz_0)\) lies strictly inside some octahedron from the partition.
For the anniversary of the London Mathematical Olympiad, the mint coined three commemorative coins. One coin turned out correctly, the second coin on both sides had two heads, and the third had tails on both sides. The director of the mint, without looking, chose one of these three coins and tossed it at random. She got heads. What is the probability that the second side of this coin also has heads?
In one box, there are two pies with mushrooms, in another box there are two with cherries and in the third one, there is one with mushrooms and one with cherries. The pies look and weigh the same, so it’s not known what is in each one. The grandson needs to take one pie to school. The grandmother wants to give him a pie with cherries, but she is confused herself and can only determine the filling by breaking the pie, but the grandson does not want a broken pie, he wants a whole one.
a) Show that the grandmother can act so that the probability of giving the grandson a whole pie with cherries will be equal to \(2/3\).
b) Is there a strategy in which the probability of giving the grandson a whole pie with cherries is higher than \(2/3\)?
In each cell of a board of size \(5\times5\) a cross or a nought is placed, and no three crosses are positioned in a row, either horizontally, vertically or diagonally. What is the largest number of crosses on the board?
An after school club is attended by 4 boys from class 7A, and four from class 7B. Of those who attended three were named Ben, three were named Will, and two were named Tom.
Is it possible for it to be the case that each boy had at least one namesake classmate who attended the club?
Authors: B. Vysokanov, N. Medved, V. Bragin
The teacher grades tests on a scale from 0 to 100. The school can change the upper bound of the scale to any other natural number, recalculating the estimates proportionally and rounding up to integers. A non-integer number, when rounded, changes to the nearest integer; if the fractional part is equal to 0.5, the direction of rounding can be either up or down and it can be different for each question. (For example, an estimate of 37 on a scale of 100 after recalculation in the scale of 40 will go to \(37 \cdot 40/100 = 14.8\) and will be rounded to 15).
The students of Peter and Valerie got marks, which are not 0 and 100. Prove that the school can do several conversions so that Peter’s mark becomes b and Valerie’s mark becomes a (both marks are recalculated simultaneously).