Found problems: 1385
Let $n$ $\geq$ $2$ and $k$ $\geq$ $2$ be positive integers. A cat and a mouse are playing [i]Wim[/i], which is a stone removal game. The game starts with $n$ stones and they take turns removing stones, with the cat going first. On each turn they are allowed to remove $1$, $2$, $\dotsb$, or $k$ stones, and the player who cannot remove any stones on their turn loses. \\\\ A raccoon finds Wim very boring and creates [i]Wim 2[/i], which is Wim but with the following additional rule: [i]You cannot remove the same number of stones that your opponent removed on the previous turn[/i]. \\\\Find all values of $k$ such that for every $n$, the cat has a winning strategy in Wim if and only if it has a winning strategy in Wim 2.
Pablo and Nacho write together a succession of positive integers of $2006$ terms, according to the following rules: Pablo begins, who in his first turn writes $1$, and from then on, each one in his turn writes an integer positive that is greater than or equal to the last number that the opponent wrote and less than or equal to triple the last number that the opponent wrote. When the two of them have written the $2006$ numbers, the sum $S$ of the first $ 2005$ numbers written (all except the last one) and the sum $T$ of the $2006$ numbers written. If $S$ and $T $ are co-cousins, Nacho wins. Otherwise, Pablo wins. Determine which of the two players has a winning strategy, describe the strategy and demonstrate that it is a winning one.
Let $n$ be a given positive integer. Sisyphus performs a sequence of turns on a board consisting of $n + 1$ squares in a row, numbered $0$ to $n$ from left to right. Initially, $n$ stones are put into square $0$, and the other squares are empty. At every turn, Sisyphus chooses any nonempty square, say with $k$ stones, takes one of these stones and moves it to the right by at most $k$ squares (the stone should say within the board). Sisyphus' aim is to move all $n$ stones to square $n$.
Prove that Sisyphus cannot reach the aim in less than
\[ \left \lceil \frac{n}{1} \right \rceil + \left \lceil \frac{n}{2} \right \rceil + \left \lceil \frac{n}{3} \right \rceil + \dots + \left \lceil \frac{n}{n} \right \rceil \]
turns. (As usual, $\lceil x \rceil$ stands for the least integer not smaller than $x$. )
Two players play a game on a pile of $n$ beans. On each player's turn, they may take exactly $1$, $4$, or $7$ beans from the pile. One player goes first, and then the players alternate until somebody wins. A player wins when they take the last bean from the pile. For how many $n$ between $2014$ and $2050$ (inclusive) does the second player win?
Rodolfo and Gabriela have $9$ chips numbered from $1$ to $9$ and they have fun with the following game: They remove the chips one by one and alternately (until they have $3$ chips each), with the following rules:
$\bullet$ Rodolfo begins the game, choosing a chip and in the following moves he must remove, each time, a chip three units greater than the last chip drawn by Gabriela.
$\bullet$ Gabriela, on her turn, chooses a first chip and in the following times she must draw, each time, a chip two units smaller than the last chip that she herself drew.
$\bullet$ The game is won by whoever gets the highest number by adding up their three tokens.
$\bullet$ If the game cannot be completed, a tie is declared.
If they play without making mistakes, how should Rodolfo play to be sure he doesn't lose?
The game of rock-scissors is played just like rock-paper-scissors, except that neither player is allowed to play paper. You play against a poorly-designed computer program that plays rock with $50\%$ probability and scissors with $50\%$ probability. If you play optimally against the computer, find the probability that after $8$ games you have won at least $4$.
[i]In the game of rock-paper-scissors, two players each choose one of rock, paper, or scissors to play. Rock beats scissors, scissors beats paper, and paper beats rock. If the players play the same thing, the match is considered a draw.[/i]
Let $n$ be a positive integer and let $t$ be an integer. $n$ distinct integers are written on a table. Bob, sitting in a room nearby, wants to know whether there exist some of these numbers such that their sum is equal to $t$. Alice is standing in front of the table and she wants to help him. At the beginning, she tells him only the initial sum of all numbers on the table. After that, in every move he says one of the $4$ sentences:
$i.$ Is there a number on the table equal to $k$?
$ii.$ If a number $k$ exists on the table, erase him.
$iii.$ If a number $k$ does not exist on the table, add him.
$iv.$ Do the numbers written on the table can be arranged in two sets with equal sum of elements?
On these questions Alice answers yes or no, and the operations he says to her she does (if it is possible) and does not tell him did she do it. Prove that in less than $3n$ moves, Bob can find out whether there exist numbers initially written on the board such that their sum is equal to $t$
A figure on a computer screen shows $n$ points on a sphere, no four coplanar. Some pairs of points are joined by segments. Each segment is colored red or blue. For each point there is a key that switches the colors of all segments with that point as endpoint. For every three points there is a sequence of key presses that makes the three segments between them red. Show that it is possible to make all the segments on the screen red. Find the smallest number of key presses that can turn all the segments red, starting from the worst case.
Suppose there are several juice boxes, one of which is poisoned. You have $n$ guinea pigs to test the boxes. The testing happens in the following way:
[list]
[*] At each round, you can have the guinea pigs taste any number of juice boxes.
[*] Conversely, a juice box can be tasted by any number of guinea pigs.
[*] After the round ends, any guinea pigs who tasted the poisoned juice die.
[/list]
Suppose you have to find the poisoned juice box in at most $k$ rounds. What is the maximum number of juice boxes such that it is possible?
Two persons are playing the following game on a $n\times m$ table, with drawn lines:
Person $\#1$ starts the game. Each person in their move, folds the table on one of its lines. The one that could not fold the table on their turn loses the game.
Who has a winning strategy?
Amber and Brian are playing a game using $2010$ coins. Throughout the game, the coins are divided into a number of piles of at least 1 coin each. A move consists of choosing one or more piles and dividing each of them into two smaller piles. (So piles consisting of only $1$ coin cannot be chosen.)
Initially, there is only one pile containing all $2010$ coins. Amber and Brian alternatingly take turns to make a move, starting with Amber. The winner is the one achieving the situation where all piles have only one coin.
Show that Amber can win the game, no matter which moves Brian makes.
Yuri is looking at the great Mayan table. The table has $200$ columns and $2^{200}$ rows. Yuri knows that each cell of the table depicts the sun or the moon, and any two rows are different (i.e. differ in at least one column). Each cell of the table is covered with a sheet. The wind has blown aways exactly two sheets from each row. Could it happen that now Yuri can find out for at least $10000$ rows what is depicted in each of them (in each of the columns)?
[i]Proposed by I. Bogdanov, K. Knop[/i]
A deck of $52$ cards is given. There are four suites each having cards numbered $1,2,\dots, 13$. The audience chooses some five cards with distinct numbers written on them. The assistant of the magician comes by, looks at the five cards and turns exactly one of them face down and arranges all five cards in some order. Then the magician enters and with an agreement made beforehand with the assistant, he has to determine the face down card (both suite and number). Explain how the trick can be completed.
Alice and Bob play the following game on a $100\times 100$ grid, taking turns, with Alice starting first. Initially the grid is empty. At their turn, they choose an integer from $1$ to $100^2$ that is not written yet in any of the cells and choose an empty cell, and place it in the chosen cell. When there is no empty cell left, Alice computes the sum of the numbers in each row, and her score is the maximum of these $100$ numbers. Bob computes the sum of the numbers in each column, and his score is the maximum of these $100$ numbers. Alice wins if her score is greater than Bob's score, Bob wins if his score is greater than Alice's score, otherwise no one wins.
Find if one of the players has a winning strategy, and if so which player has a winning strategy.
[i]Théo Lenoir, France[/i]
For $n$ an odd positive integer, the unit squares of an $n\times n$ chessboard are coloured alternately black and white, with the four corners coloured black. A [i]tromino[/i] is an $L$-shape formed by three connected unit squares.
$(a)$ For which values of $n$ is it possible to cover all the black squares with non-overlapping trominoes lying entirely on the chessboard?
$(b)$ When it is possible, find the minimum number of trominoes needed.
Humberto and Luciano use the break between classes to have fun with the following game: Humberto writes a list of distinct positive integers on a green sheet of paper and hands it to Luciano. Luciano then writes on a board all the possible sums, without repetitions, of one or more different numbers written on the green sheet. For example, if Humberto writes $1$, $3$ and $4$ on the green sheet, Luciano will write $1$, $3$, $4$, $5$, $7$ and $8$ on the board.
(a) Let $n$ be a positive integer. Determine all positive integers $k$ such that Humberto can write a list of $n$ numbers on the green sheet in order to guarantee that Luciano will write exactly $k$ numbers on the board.
(b) Luciano now decides to write a list of $m$ distinct positive integers on a yellow sheet of paper. Determine the smallest positive integer $m$ such that it is possible for Luciano to write this list so that, for any list that Humberto writes on the green sheet, with a maximum of $2023$ numbers, not all the numbers on the yellow sheet will be written on the board.
Let $n$ be a natural number. At first the cells of a table $2n$ x $2n$ are colored in white. Two players $A$ and $B$ play the following game. First is $A$ who has to color $m$ arbitrary cells in red and after that $B$ chooses $n$ rows and $n$ columns and color their cells in black. Player $A$ wins, if there is at least one red cell on the board. Find the least value of $m$ for which $A$ wins no matter how $B$ plays.
Petro and Vasyl play the following game. They take turns making moves and Petro goes first. In one turn, a player chooses one of the numbers from $1$ to $2023$ that wasn't selected before and writes it on the board. The first player after whose turn the product of the numbers on the board will be divisible by $2023$ loses. Who wins if every player wants to win?
[i]Proposed by Mykhailo Shtandenko[/i]
A student is playing computer. Computer shows randomly 2002 positive numbers. Game's rules let do the following operations
- to take 2 numbers from these, to double first one, to add the second one and to save the sum.
- to take another 2 numbers from the remainder numbers, to double the first one, to add the second one, to multiply this sum with previous and to save the result.
- to repeat this procedure, until all the 2002 numbers won't be used.
Student wins the game if final product is maximum possible.
Find the winning strategy and prove it.
Let $T$ be the set of ordered triples $(x,y,z)$, where $x,y,z$ are integers with $0\leq x,y,z\leq9$. Players $A$ and $B$ play the following guessing game. Player $A$ chooses a triple $(x,y,z)$ in $T$, and Player $B$ has to discover $A$[i]'s[/i] triple in as few moves as possible. A [i]move[/i] consists of the following: $B$ gives $A$ a triple $(a,b,c)$ in $T$, and $A$ replies by giving $B$ the number $\left|x+y-a-b\right |+\left|y+z-b-c\right|+\left|z+x-c-a\right|$. Find the minimum number of moves that $B$ needs to be sure of determining $A$[i]'s[/i] triple.
Let $\mathcal{F}$ be a finite family of subsets of some set $X{}$. It is known that for any two elements $x,y\in X$ there exists a permutation $\pi$ of the set $X$ such that $\pi(x)=y$, and for any $A\in\mathcal{F}$ \[\pi(A):=\{\pi(a):a\in A\}\in\mathcal{F}.\]A bear and crocodile play a game. At a move, a player paints one or more elements of the set $X$ in his own color: brown for the bear, green for the crocodile. The first player to fully paint one of the sets in $\mathcal{F}$ in his own color loses. If this does not happen and all the elements of $X$ have been painted, it is a draw. The bear goes first. Prove that he doesn't have a winning strategy.
Eric and Christina are playing a game with $n$ stones. They alternate taking some number of stones from the pile, with Eric going first. The number of stones Eric takes from the pile must be a power of $3$ (e.g. 1, 3, 9, 27, ...), while the number of stones Christina takes must be a power of $2$ (e.g. 1, 2, 4, 8, ...). Whoever takes the last stone wins. Find the sum of all $1\leq n \leq 100$ for which Eric has a winning strategy.
[i]Proposed by Connor Gordon[/i]
A game is played on a $23\times 23$ board. The first player controls two white chips which start in the bottom left and top right corners. The second player controls two black ones which start in bottom right and top left corners. The players move alternately. In each move, a player moves one of the chips under control to a square which shares a side with the square the chip is currently in. The first player wins if he can bring the white chips to squares which share a side with each other. Can the second player prevent the first player from winning?
Navi and Ozna are playing a game where Ozna starts first and the two take turn making moves. A positive integer is written on the waord. A move is to (i) subtract any positive integer at most 2015 from it or (ii) given that the integer on the board is divisible by $2014$, divide by $2014$. The first person to make the integer $0$ wins. To make Navi's condition worse, Ozna gets to pick integers $a$ and $b$, $a\ge 2015$ such that all numbers of the form $an+b$ will not be the starting integer, where $n$ is any positive integer.
Find the minimum number of starting integer where Navi wins.
Let $n$ be a positive integer. Two players $A$ and $B$ play a game in which they take turns choosing positive integers $k \le n$. The rules of the game are:
(i) A player cannot choose a number that has been chosen by either player on any previous turn.
(ii) A player cannot choose a number consecutive to any of those the player has already chosen on any previous turn.
(iii) The game is a draw if all numbers have been chosen; otherwise the player who cannot choose a number anymore loses the game.
The player $A$ takes the first turn. Determine the outcome of the game, assuming that both players use optimal strategies.
[i]Proposed by Finland[/i]