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.
Are there such irrational numbers \(a\) and \(b\) so that \(a > 1\), \(b > 1\), and \(\lfloor a^m\rfloor\) is different from \(\lfloor b^n\rfloor\) for any natural numbers \(m\) and \(n\)?
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.
Two players in turn paint the sides of an \(n\)-gon. The first one can paint the side that borders either zero or two colored sides, the second – the side that borders one painted side. The player who can not make a move loses. At what \(n\) can the second player win, no matter how the first player plays?
In a basket, there are 30 mushrooms. Among any 12 of them there is at least one brown one, and among any 20 mushrooms, there is at least one chanterelle. How many brown mushrooms and how many chanterelles are there in the basket?
100 cars are parked along the right hand side of a road. Among them there are 30 red, 20 yellow, and 20 pink Mercedes. It is known that no two Mercedes of different colours are parked next to one another. Prove that there must be three Mercedes cars parked next to one another of the same colour somewhere along the road.
20 birds fly into a photographer’s studio – 8 starlings, 7 wagtails and 5 woodpeckers. Each time the photographer presses the shutter to take a photograph, one of the birds flies away and doesn’t come back. How many photographs can the photographer take to be sure that at the end there will be no fewer than 4 birds of one species and no less than 3 of another species remaining in the studio.