Problems

Age
Difficulty
Found: 1860

11 scouts are working on 5 different badges. Prove that there will be two scouts \(A\) and \(B\), such that every badge that \(A\) is working towards is also being worked towards by \(B\).

Prove that \(n^2 + 1\) is not divisible by \(3\) for any natural \(n\).

Prove there are no natural numbers \(a\) and \(b\), such as \(a^2 - 3b^2 = 8\).

The board has the form of a cross, which is obtained if corner boxes of a square board of \(4 \times 4\) are erased. Is it possible to go around it with the help of the knight chess piece and return to the original cell, having visited all the cells exactly once?

In the Far East, the only type of transport is a carpet-plane. From the capital there are 21 carpet-planes, from the city of Dalny there is one carpet-plane, and from all of the other cities there are 20. Prove that you can fly from the capital to Dalny (possibly with interchanges).

The numbers 25 and 36 are written on a blackboard. Consider the game with two players where: in one turn, a player is allowed to write another natural number on the board. This number must be the difference between any two of the numbers already written, such that this number does not already appear on the blackboard. The loser is the player who cannot make a move.

Consider a chessboard of size (number of rows \(\times\) number of columns): a) \(9\times 10\); b) \(10\times 12\); c) \(9\times 11\). Two people are playing a game where: in one turn a player is allowed to cross out any row or column as long as there it contains at least one square that is not crossed out. The loser is the player who cannot make a move. Which player will win?

Two people take turns placing bishops on a chessboard such that the bishops cannot attack each other. Here, the colour of the bishops does not matter. (Note: bishops move and attack diagonally.) Which player wins the game, if the right strategy is used?