Olympiad problems

2022 Azerbaijan BMO TST, C3

In an exotic country, the National Bank issues coins that can take any value in the interval $[0, 1]$. Find the smallest constant $c > 0$ such that the following holds, no matter the situation in that country: [i]Any citizen of the exotic country that has a finite number of coins, with a total value of no more than $1000$, can split those coins into $100$ boxes, such that the total value inside each box is at most $c$.[/i]

2021 Bolivian Cono Sur TST, 1

Tags: combinatorics , coin

[b]a)[/b] Among $9$ apparently identical coins, one is false and lighter than the others. How can you discover the fake coin by making $2$ weighing in a two-course balance? [b]b)[/b] Find the least necessary number of weighing that must be done to cover a false currency between $27$ coins if all the others are true.

2021 Hong Kong TST, 3

Tags: combinatorics , coin , operation

On the table there are $20$ coins of weights $1,2,3,\ldots,15,37,38,39,40$ and $41$ grams. They all look alike but their colours are all distinct. Now Miss Adams knows the weight and colour of each coin, but Mr. Bean knows only the weights of the coins. There is also a balance on the table, and each comparison of weights of two groups of coins is called an operation. Miss Adams wants to tell Mr. Bean which coin is the $1$ gram coin by performing some operations. What is the minimum number of operations she needs to perform?

2014 German National Olympiad, 5

Tags: weight , combinatorics , coin

There are $9$ visually indistinguishable coins, and one of them is fake and thus lighter. We are given $3$ indistinguishable balance scales to find the fake coin; however, one of the scales is defective and shows a random result each time. Show that the fake coin can still be found with $4$ weighings.