Problems

Age
Difficulty
Found: 1975

Ladybirds gathered in a sunny clearing. If the ladybird has \(6\) spots, then it always speaks the truth, and if it has \(4\) spots, then it always lies. There are no other types of ladybirds in the meadow. The first ladybird said: “We each have the same number of spots on our backs.” The second one said: “Everyone has \(30\) spots on their backs in total.” “No, we all have \(26\) spots on their backs in total,” the third objected. “Of these three, exactly one told the truth,” – said each of the other ladybirds. How many ladybugs were gathered in the meadow?

Thirty girls – 13 in red dresses and 17 in blue dresses – led a dance around the Christmas tree. Subsequently, each of them was asked if her neighbour on the right was in a blue dress. It turned out that those girls which answered correctly were only those who stood between two girls in dresses of the same color. How many girls could have said yes?

Here’s a rather simple rebus:

\(EX\) is four times larger than \(OJ\).

\(AJ\) is four times larger than \(OX\).

Find the sum of all four numbers.

Some inhabitants of the Island of Multi-coloured Frogs speak only the truth, and the rest always lie. Three islanders said:

Bree: There are no blue frogs on our island.

Kevin: Bree is a liar. She herself is a blue frog!

Clara: Of course, Bree is a liar. But she’s a red frog.

Are there any blue frogs on this island?

When cleaning her children’s room, a mother found \(9\) socks. In a group of any \(4\) of the socks at least two belonged to the same child. In a group of any \(5\) of the socks no more than \(3\) had the same owner. How many children are there in the room and how many socks belong to each child?

In the family of happy gnomes there is a father, a mother and a child. The names of the family members: Alex, Charlie and Jo. At the dinner table two gnomes made two statements.

Charlie said: “Alex and Jo are of different genders. Alex and Charlie are my parents”.

Alex said: “I am Jo’s father. I am the daughter of Charlie”.

Who is who? That is, what is the name of the father, the mother and the child, if it is known that each gnome lied once, and each told the truth once.

On the first day of school, in all three of the first year classes (1A, 1B, 1C), there were three lessons: Maths, French and Biology. Two classes cannot have the same lesson at the same time. 1B’s first lesson was Maths. The Biology teacher praised the students in 1B: “You have even better marks than 1A”. 1A’s second lesson was not French. Which class’s last lesson was Biology?

A bag contains balls of two different colours – black and white. What is the minimum number of balls you need to remove, without looking, to guarantee that within the removed balls at least two are the same colour.

A forest contains a million fir trees. It is known that any given tree has at most 600,000 needles. Prove that there will be two trees with the same number of needles.