Can there exist two functions \(f\) and \(g\) that take only integer values such that for any integer \(x\) the following relations hold:
a) \(f (f (x)) = x\), \(g (g (x)) = x\), \(f (g (x)) > x\), \(g (f (x)) > x\)?
b) \(f (f (x)) < x\), \(g (g (x)) < x\), \(f (g (x)) > x\), \(g (f (x)) > x\)?
The surface of a \(3\times 3\times 3\) Rubik’s Cube contains 54 squares. What is the maximum number of squares we can mark, so that no marked squares share a vertex or are directly adjacent to another marked square?
The student did not notice the multiplication sign between two three-digit numbers and wrote one six-digit number, which turned out to be seven times bigger than their product. Determine these numbers.
The student did not notice the multiplication sign between two seven-digit numbers and wrote one fourteen-digit number, which turned out to be three times bigger than their product. Determine these numbers.
Each of the 1994 deputies in parliament slapped exactly one of his colleagues. Prove that it is possible to draw up a parliamentary commission of 665 people whose members did not clarify the relationship between themselves in the manner indicated above.
A cherry which is a ball of radius r is dropped into a round glass whose axial section is the graph of the function \(y = x^4\). At what maximum r will the ball touch the most bottom point of the bottom of the glass? (In other words, what is the maximum radius r of a circle lying in the region \(y \geq x^4\) and containing the origin?).
Cut the interval \([-1, 1]\) into black and white segments so that the integrals of any a) linear function; b) a square trinomial in white and black segments are equal.
The centres of all unit squares are marked in a \(10 \times 10\) chequered box (100 points in total). What is the smallest number of lines, that are not parallel to the sides of the square, that are needed to be drawn to erase all of the marked points?
Consider the powers of the number five: 1, 5, 25, 125, 625, ... We form the sequence of their first digits: 1, 5, 2, 1, 6, ...
Prove that any part of this sequence, written in reverse order, will occur in the sequence of the first digits of the powers of the number two (1, 2, 4, 8, 1, 3, 6, 1, ...).
Three functions are written on the board: \(f_1 (x) = x + 1/x\), \(f_2 (x) = x^2, f_3 (x) = (x - 1)^2\). You can add, subtract and multiply these functions (and you can square, cube, etc. them). You can also multiply them by an arbitrary number, add an arbitrary number to them, and also do these operations with the resulting expressions. Therefore, try to get the function \(1/x\).
Prove that if you erase any of the functions \(f_1, f_2, f_3\) from the board, it is impossible to get \(1/x\).