Can 100 weights of masses 1, 2, 3, ..., 99, 100 be arranged into 10 piles of different masses so that the following condition is fulfilled: the heavier the pile, the fewer weights in it?
Four children said the following about each other.
Mary: Sarah, Nathan and George solved the problem.
Sarah: Mary, Nathan and George didn’t solve the problem.
Nathan: Mary and Sarah lied.
George: Mary, Sarah and Nathan told the truth.
How many of the children actually told the truth?
The teacher wrote on the board in alphabetical order all possible \(2^n\) words consisting of \(n\) letters A or B. Then he replaced each word with a product of \(n\) factors, correcting each letter A by \(x\), and each letter B by \((1 - x)\), and added several of the first of these polynomials in \(x\). Prove that the resulting polynomial is either a constant or increasing function in \(x\) on the interval \([0, 1]\).
A monkey, donkey and goat decided to play a game. They sat in a row, with the monkey on the right. They started to play the violin, but very poorly. They changed places and then the donkey was in the middle. However the violin trio still didn’t sound as they wanted it to. They changed places once more. After changing places 3 times, each of the three “musicians” had a chance to sit in the left, middle and right of the row. Who sat where after the third change of seats?
There is a group of 5 people: Alex, Beatrice, Victor, Gregory and Deborah. Each of them has one of the following codenames: V, W, X, Y, Z. We know that:
Alex is 1 year older than V,
Beatrice is 2 years older than W,
Victor is 3 years older than X,
Gregory is 4 years older than Y.
Who is older and by how much: Deborah or Z?
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?
Let \(x_1, x_2, \dots , x_n\) be some numbers belonging to the interval \([0, 1]\). Prove that on this segment there is a number \(x\) such that \[\frac{1}{n} (|x - x_1| + |x - x_2| + \dots + |x - x_n|) = 1/2.\]
You are given 8 different natural numbers that are no greater than 15. Prove that there are three pairs of these numbers whose positive difference is the same.
Several football teams are taking part in a football tournament, where each team plays every other team exactly once. Prove that at any point in the tournament there will be two teams who have played exactly the same number of matches up to that point.
a) What is the maximum number of squares on an \(8\times 8\) grid that can be shaded in with a black pen such that each ‘L’ shaped group of 3 squares has at least one unshaded square.
b) What is the maximum number of squares on an \(8\times 8\) grid that can be shaded in with a black pen, such that each ‘L’ shaped group of 3 squares has at least one shaded square.