Problems

Age
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Found: 1890

10 guests came to a party and each left a pair of shoes in the corridor (all guests have the same shoes). All pairs of shoes are of different sizes. The guests began to disperse one by one, putting on any pair of shoes that they could fit into (that is, each guest could wear a pair of shoes no smaller than his own). At some point, it was discovered that none of the remaining guests could find a pair of shoes so that they could leave. What was the maximum number of remaining guests?

How can one measure out 15 minutes, using an hourglass of 7 minutes and 11 minutes?

In the TV series “The Secret of Santa Barbara” there are 20 characters. Each episode contains one of the events: some character discovers the Mystery, some character discovers that someone knows the Mystery, some character discovers that someone does not know the Mystery. What is the maximum number of episodes that this tv series can last?

Two boys play the following game: they take turns placing rooks on a chessboard. The one who wins is the one whose last move leaves all the board cells filled. Who wins if both try to play with the best possible strategy?

A traveller who came to the planet hired a local as a guide. They went for a walk and saw another alien. The traveller sent the guide to find out to whether this native is a liar or truth teller. The guide returned and said: “The native says that they are a truth teller.” Who was the guide: a liar or a truth teller?

In a basket there are 13 apples. There are scales, with which you can find out the total weight of any two apples. Think of a way to find out from 8 weighings the total weight of all the apples.

A raisin bag contains 2001 raisins with a total weight of 1001 g, and no raisin weighs more than 1.002 g.

Prove that all the raisins can be divided onto two scales so that they show a difference in weight not exceeding 1 g.

10 numbers are written around the circle, the sum of which is equal to 100. It is known that the sum of every three numbers standing side by side is not less than 29.

Specify the smallest number \(A\) such that in any such set of numbers each of the numbers does not exceed \(A\).