17 squares are marked on an \(8\times 8\) chessboard. In chess a knight can move horizontally or vertically, one space then two or two spaces then one – eg: two down and one across, or one down and two across. Prove that it is always possible to pick two of these squares so that a knight would need no less than three moves to get from one to the other.
A group of psychologists developed a test, after which each person gets a mark, the number \(Q\), which is the index of his or her mental abilities (the greater \(Q\), the greater the ability). For the country’s rating, the arithmetic mean of the \(Q\) values of all of the inhabitants of this country is taken.
a) A group of citizens of country \(A\) emigrated to country \(B\). Show that both countries could grow in rating.
b) After that, a group of citizens from country \(B\) (including former ex-migrants from \(A\)) emigrated to country \(A\). Is it possible that the ratings of both countries have grown again?
c) A group of citizens from country \(A\) emigrated to country \(B\), and group of citizens from country \(B\) emigrated to country \(C\). As a result, each country’s ratings was higher than the original ones. After that, the direction of migration flows changed to the opposite direction – part of the residents of \(C\) moved to \(B\), and part of the residents of \(B\) migrated to \(A\). It turned out that as a result, the ratings of all three countries increased again (compared to those that were after the first move, but before the second). (This is, in any case, what the news agencies of these countries say). Can this be so (if so, how, if not, why)?
(It is assumed that during the considered time, the number of citizens \(Q\) did not change, no one died and no one was born).
A square is cut by 18 straight lines, 9 of which are parallel to one side of the square and the other 9 parallel to the other – perpendicular to the first 9 – dividing the square into 100 rectangles. It turns out that exactly 9 of these rectangles are squares. Prove that among these 9 squares there will be two that are identical.
In a row there are 2023 numbers. The first number is 1. It is known that each number, except the first and the last, is equal to the sum of two neighboring ones. Find the last number.
A game takes place on a squared \(9 \times 9\) piece of checkered paper. Two players play in turns. The first player puts crosses in empty cells, its partner puts noughts. When all the cells are filled, the number of rows and columns in which there are more crosses than zeros is counted, and is denoted by the number \(K\), and the number of rows and columns in which there are more zeros than crosses is denoted by the number \(H\) (18 rows in total). The difference \(B = K - H\) is considered the winnings of the player who goes first. Find a value of B such that
1) the first player can secure a win of no less than \(B\), no matter how the second player played;
2) the second player can always make it so that the first player will receive no more than \(B\), no matter how he plays.
Two people are playing. The first player writes out numbers from left to right, randomly alternating between 0 and 1, until there are 2021 numbers in total. Each time after the first one writes out the next digit, the second switches two numbers from the already written row (when only one digit is written, the second misses its move). Is the second player always able to ensure that, after his last move, the arrangement of the numbers is symmetrical relative to the middle number?
In Conrad’s collection there are four royal gold five-pound coins. Conrad was told that some two of them were fake. Conrad wants to check (prove or disprove) that among the coins there are exactly two fake ones. Will he be able to do this with the help of two weighings on weighing scales without weights? (Counterfeit coins are the same in weight, real ones are also the same in weight, but false ones are lighter than real ones.)
Janine and Zahara each thought of a natural number and said them to Alex. Alex wrote the sum of the thought of numbers onto one sheet of paper, and on the other – their product, after which one of the sheets was hidden, and the other (on it was written the number of 2002) was shown to Janine and Zahara. Seeing this number, Janine said that she did not know what number Zahara had thought of. Hearing this, Zahara said that she did not know what number Janine had thought of. What was the number which Zahara had thought of?
On a table there are 2022 cards with the numbers 1, 2, 3, ..., 2022. Two players take one card in turn. After all the cards are taken, the winner is the one who has a greater last digit of the sum of the numbers on the cards taken. Find out which of the players can always win regardless of the opponent’s strategy, and also explain how he should go about playing.
2022 dollars were placed into some wallets and the wallets were placed in some pockets. It is known that there are more wallets in total than there are dollars in any pocket. Is it true that there are more pockets than there are dollars in one of the wallets? You are not allowed to place wallets one inside the other.