Problems

Age
Difficulty
Found: 1966

An \(8 \times 8\) square is divided into \(1 \times 1\) cells. It is covered with right-angled isosceles triangles (two triangles cover one cell). There are 64 black and 64 white triangles. We consider "regular" coverings - such that every two triangles having a common side are of a different colour. How many "regular" covers are there?

You are given a pentagon \(ABCDE\) such that \(AB = BC = CD = DE\), and \(\angle B = \angle D = 90^\circe\). Show how the plane can be tiled with pentagons equal to the given one.

Ms Jones vacuums her car every 2 days, she washes her car every 7 days and polishes it every 52 days. The last time she did all three types of cleaning on one day was on the 13th of March last year. What time will she do it again?

The numbers \(a\) and \(b\) are integers and \(a>b\). Show that the gcd of \(a\) and \(b\) is equal to the gcd of \(b\) and \(a-b\).

A brave witch is out there hunting monsters for coin. She noticed that every 5th monster she encounters has wings, every 16th has a fiery breath, every 6th has fangs and every 14th has a pile of treasure. Now, the only monster with wings, fiery breath, fangs and a pile of treasure is a dragon and witches don’t hunt dragons. Assuming that the witch has just met a dragon, how many monsters will she have to hunt to meet another one?

Let \(a = 8 \times 9^2 \times 31^2 \times 7\) and \(b= 7^2 \times 2^3 \times 3^6 \times 23^2\). Find their greatest common divisor and least common multiple.

A number \(n\) is an integer. Show that the gcd of \(12n+9\) and \(9n+6\) is \(3\).

The gcd of numbers \(a\) and \(b\) is \(72\). What can be their smallest possible product? What could be their greatest possible product?

a) Can you measure \(5\) litres of milk using two buckets of volumes \(4\) and \(11\) litres respectively?
b) Can you measure \(7\) litres of milk using buckets of volumes \(8\) and \(12\) litres respectively?

a) A mighty dragon has several rubies in his treasure. He is able to divide the rubies into groups of \(3\), \(5\) or \(11\). How many rubies does he have, if we know that is fewer than \(200\)?
b) The same dragon also has some emeralds. He is \(6\) emeralds short to be able to divide them into groups of \(13\), one emerald short to be able to divide them into groups of \(5\), but if he wants to divide them into groups of \(8\), he is left with one emerald. How many emeralds does he have if we know it is fewer than \(500\)?