Found problems: 1385
Suppose you have identical coins distributed in several piles with one or more coins in each pile. An action consists of taking two piles, which have an even total of coins among them, and redistribute their coins in two piles so that they end up with the same number of coins.
A distribution is [i]levelable[/i] if it is possible, by means of 0 or more operations, to end up with all the piles having the same number of coins.
Determine all positive integers $n$ such that, for all positive integers $k$, any distribution of $nk$ coins in $n$ piles is levelable.
On a blackboard are written all the integers from $1$ to $2008$ inclusive. Two numbers are deleted and their difference is written. For example, if you erase $5$ and $241$, you write $236$. This continues, erasing two numbers and writing their difference, until only one number remains. Determine if the number left at the end can be $2008$. What about $2007$? In each case, if the answer is affirmative, indicate a sequence with that final number, and if it is negative, explain why.
Alice and Bob play a game, in which they take turns drawing segments of length $1$ in the Euclidean plane. Alice begins, drawing the first segment, and from then on, each segment must start at the endpoint of the previous segment. It is not permitted to draw the segment lying over the preceding one. If the new segment shares at least one point - except for its starting point - with one of the previously drawn segments, one has lost.
a) Show that both Alice and Bob could force the game to end, if they don’t care who wins.
b) Is there a winning strategy for one of them?
Alice and Bob play the following game. They write some fractions of the form $1/n$, where $n{}$ is positive integer, onto the blackboard. The first move is made by Alice. Alice writes only one fraction in each her turn and Bob writes one fraction in his first turn, two fractions in his second turn, three fractions in his third turn and so on. Bob wants to make the sum of all the fractions on the board to be an integer number after some turn. Can Alice prevent this?
[i]Andrey Arzhantsev[/i]
The numbers $1,\frac12,\frac13,\ldots,\frac1{1999}$ are written on a blackboard. In every step, we choose two of them, say $a$ and $b$, erase them, and write the number $ab+a+b$ instead. This step is repeated until only one number remains. Can the last remaining number be equal to $2000$?
In an $m\times n$ rectangular chessboard,there is a stone in the lower leftmost square. Two persons A,B move the stone alternately. In each step one can move the stone upward or rightward any number of squares. The one who moves it into the upper rightmost square wins. Find all $(m,n)$ such that the first person has a winning strategy.
An economist and a statistician play a game on a calculator which does only one
operation. The calculator displays only positive integers and it is used in the following
way: Denote by $n$ an integer that is shown on the calculator. A person types an integer,
$m$, chosen from the set $\{ 1, 2, . . . , 99 \}$ of the first $99$ positive integers, and if $m\%$ of the
number $n$ is again a positive integer, then the calculator displays $m\%$ of $n$. Otherwise,
the calculator shows an error message and this operation is not allowed. The game consists of doing alternatively these operations and the player that cannot do the operation
looses. How many numbers from $\{1, 2, . . . , 2019\}$ guarantee the winning strategy for the
statistician, who plays second?
For example, if the calculator displays $1200$, the economist can type $50$, giving the number
$600$ on the calculator, then the statistician can type $25$ giving the number $150$. Now, for
instance, the economist cannot type $75$ as $75\%$ of $150$ is not a positive integer, but can
choose $40$ and the game continues until one of them cannot type an allowed number
[i]Proposed by Serbia [/i]
Rosa and Sara play with a triangle $ABC$, right at $B$. Rosa begins by marking two interior points of the hypotenuse $AC$, then Sara marks an interior point of the hypotenuse $AC$ different from those of Rosa. Then, from these three points the perpendiculars to the sides $AB$ and $BC$ are drawn, forming the following figure.
[img]https://cdn.artofproblemsolving.com/attachments/9/9/c964bbacc4a5960bee170865cc43902410e504.png[/img]
Sara wins if the area of the shaded surface is equal to the area of the unshaded surface, in other case wins Rosa. Determine who of the two has a winning strategy.
$2019$ coins are on the table. Two students play the following game making alternating moves. The first player can in one move take the odd number of coins from $ 1$ to $99$, the second player in one move can take an even number of coins from $2$ to $100$. The player who can not make a move is lost. Who has the winning strategy in this game?
Alice and Bob play a game, in which they take turns drawing segments of length $1$ in the Euclidean plane. Alice begins, drawing the first segment, and from then on, each segment must start at the endpoint of the previous segment. It is not permitted to draw the segment lying over the preceding one. If the new segment shares at least one point - except for its starting point - with one of the previously drawn segments, one has lost.
a) Show that both Alice and Bob could force the game to end, if they don’t care who wins.
b) Is there a winning strategy for one of them?
Josie and Ross are playing a game on a $20 \times 20$ chessboard. Initially the chessboard is empty. The two players alternately take turns, with Josie going first. On Josie’s turn, she selects any two different empty cells, and places one white stone in each of them. On Ross’ turn, he chooses any one white stone currently on the board, and replaces it with a black stone. If at any time there are $ 8$ consecutive cells in a line (horizontally or vertically) all of which contain a white stone, Josie wins. Is it possible that Ross can stop Josie winning - regardless of how Josie plays?
[u]Round 6[/u]
[b]p16.[/b] Let $a_1, a_2, ... , a_{2011}$ be a sequence of numbers such that $a_1 = 2011$ and $a_1+a_2+...+a_n = n^2 \cdot a_n$ for $n = 1, 2, ... 2011$. (That is, $a_1 = 1^2\cdot a_1$, $a_1 + a_2 = 2^2 \cdot a_2$, $...$) Compute $a_{2011}$.
[b]p17.[/b] Three rectangles, with dimensions $3 \times 5$, $4 \times 2$, and $6 \times 4$, are each divided into unit squares which are alternately colored black and white like a checkerboard. Each rectangle is cut along one of its diagonals into two triangles. For each triangle, let m be the total black area and n the total white area. Find the maximum value of $|m - n|$ for the $6$ triangles.
[b]p18.[/b] In triangle $ABC$, $\angle BAC = 90^o$, and the length of segment $AB$ is $2011$. Let $M$ be the midpoint of $BC$ and $D$ the midpoint of $AM$. Let $E$ be the point on segment $AB$ such that $EM \parallel CD$. What is the length of segment $BE$?
[u]Round 7[/u]
[b]p19.[/b] How many integers from $1$ to $100$, inclusive, can be expressed as the difference of two perfect squares? (For example, $3 = 2^2 - 1^2$).
[b]p20.[/b] In triangle $ABC$, $\angle ABC = 45$ and $\angle ACB = 60^o$. Let $P$ and $Q$ be points on segment $BC$, $F$ a point on segment $AB$, and $E$ a point on segment $AC$ such that $F Q \parallel AC$ and $EP \parallel AB$. Let $D$ be the foot of the altitude from $A$ to $BC$. The lines $AD$, $F Q$, and $P E$ form a triangle. Find the positive difference, in degrees, between the largest and smallest angles of this triangle.
[b]p21.[/b] For real number $x$, $\lceil x \rceil$ is equal to the smallest integer larger than or equal to $x$. For example, $\lceil 3 \rceil = 3$ and $\lceil 2.5 \rceil = 3$. Let $f(n)$ be a function such that $f(n) = \left\lceil \frac{n}{2}\right\rceil + f\left( \left\lceil \frac{n}{2}\right\rceil\right)$ for every integer $n$ greater than $1$. If $f(1) = 1$, find the maximum value of $f(k) - k$, where $k$ is a positive integer less than or equal to $2011$.
[u]Round 8[/u]
The answer to each of the three questions in this round depends on the answer to one of the other questions. There is only one set of correct answers to these problems; however, each question will be scored independently, regardless of whether the answers to the other questions are correct.
[b]p22.[/b] Let $W$ be the answer to problem 24 in this guts round. Let $f(a) = \frac{1}{1 -\frac{1}{1- \frac{1}{a}}}$. Determine$|f(2) + ... + f(W)|$.
[b]p23.[/b] Let $X$ be the answer to problem $22$ in this guts round. How many odd perfect squares are less than $8X$?
[b]p24.[/b] Let $Y$ be the answer to problem $23$ in this guts round. What is the maximum number of points of intersections of two regular $(Y - 5)$-sided polygons, if no side of the first polygon is parallel to any side of the second polygon?
[u]Round 9[/u]
[b]p25.[/b] Cross country skiers $s_1, s_2, s_3, ..., s_7$ start a race one by one in that order. While each skier skis at a constant pace, the skiers do not all ski at the same rate. In the course of the race, each skier either overtakes another skier or is overtaken by another skier exactly two times. Find all the possible orders in which they can finish. Write each possible finish as an ordered septuplet $(a, b, c, d, e, f, g)$ where $a, b, c, d, e, f, g$ are the numbers $1-7$ in some order. (So a finishes first, b finishes second, etc.)
[b]p26.[/b] Archie the Alchemist is making a list of all the elements in the world, and the proportion of earth, air, fire, and water needed to produce each. He writes the proportions in the form E:A:F:W. If each of the letters represents a whole number from $0$ to $4$, inclusive, how many different elements can Archie list? Note that if Archie lists wood as $2:0:1:2$, then $4:0:2:4$ would also produce wood. In addition, $0:0:0:0$ does not produce an element.
[b]p27.[/b] Let $ABCD$ be a rectangle with $AB = 10$ and $BC = 12$. Let $M$ be the midpoint of $CD$, and $P$ be the point on $BM$ such that $DP = DA$. Find the area of quadrilateral $ABPD$.
[u]Round 10[/u]
[b]p28.[/b] David the farmer has an infinitely large grass-covered field which contains a straight wall. He ties his cow to the wall with a rope of integer length. The point where David ties his rope to the wall divides the wall into two parts of length $a$ and $b$, where $a > b$ and both are integers. The rope is shorter than the wall but is longer than $a$. Suppose that the cow can reach grass covering an area of $\frac{165\pi}{2}$. Find the ratio $\frac{a}{b}$ . You may assume that the wall has $0$ width.
[b]p29.[/b] Let $S$ be the number of ordered quintuples $(a, b, x, y, n)$ of positive integers such that $$\frac{a}{x}+\frac{b}{y}=\frac{1}{n}$$ $$abn = 2011^{2011}$$ Compute the remainder when $S$ is divided by $2012$.
[b]p30.[/b] Let $n$ be a positive integer. An $n \times n$ square grid is formed by $n^2$ unit squares. Each unit square is then colored either red or blue such that each row or column has exactly $10$ blue squares. A move consists of choosing a row or a column, and recolor each unit square in the chosen row or column – if it is red, we recolor it blue, and if it is blue, we recolor it red. Suppose that it is possible to obtain fewer than $10n$ blue squares after a sequence of finite number of moves. Find the maximum possible value of $n$.
PS. You should use hide for answers. First rounds have been posted [url=https://artofproblemsolving.com/community/c4h2786905p24497746]here[/url]. Collected [url=https://artofproblemsolving.com/community/c5h2760506p24143309]here[/url].
$ A$ and $ B$ play the following game with a polynomial of degree at least 4:
\[ x^{2n} \plus{} \_x^{2n \minus{} 1} \plus{} \_x^{2n \minus{} 2} \plus{} \ldots \plus{} \_x \plus{} 1 \equal{} 0
\]
$ A$ and $ B$ take turns to fill in one of the blanks with a real number until all the blanks are filled up. If the resulting polynomial has no real roots, $ A$ wins. Otherwise, $ B$ wins. If $ A$ begins, which player has a winning strategy?
Arthur and Renate play a game on a $7 \times 7$ board. Arthur has two red tiles, initially placed on the cells in the bottom left and the upper right corner. Renate has two black tiles, initially placed on the cells in the bottom right and the upper left corner. In a move, a player can choose one of his two tiles and move them to a horizontally or vertically adjacent cell. The players alternate, with Arthur beginning. Arthur wins when both of his tiles are in horizontally or vertically adjacent cells after some number of moves. Can Renate prevent him from winning?
Let $n$ be a positive integer. Lavi Dopes has two boards $n \times n$. On the first board, he writes an integer in each of his $n^2$ squares (the written numbers are not necessarily distinct). On the second board, he writes, on each square, the sum of the numbers corresponding, on the first board, to that square and to all its adjacent squares (that is, those that share a common vertex). For example, if $n = 3$ and if Lavi Dopes writes the numbers on the first board, as shown below, the second board will look like this.
Next, Davi Lopes receives only the second board, and from it, he tries to discover the numbers written by Lavi Dopes on the first board.
(a) If $n = 4$, is it possible that Davi Lopes always manages to find the numbers written by Lavi Dopes on the first board?
(b) If $n = 5$, is it possible that Davi Lopes always manages to find the numbers written by Lavi Dopes on the first board?
There are two numbers on a board, $1/2009$ and $1/2008$. Alex and Ben play the following game. At each move, Alex names a number $x$ (of his choice), while Ben responds by increasing one of the numbers on the board (of his choice) by $x$. Alex wins if at some moment one of the numbers on the board becomes $1$. Can Alex win (no matter how Ben plays)?
Three players $A,B$ and $C$ take turns removing stones from a pile of $N$ stones. They move in the order $A,B,C,A,B,C,…A$. The game begins, and the one who takes out the last stone loses the game. The players $A$ and $C$ team up against $B$ , they agree on a joint strategy. $B$ can take in each play $1,2,3,4$ or $5$ stones, while $A$ and $C$, they can each get $1,2$ or $3$ stones each turn. Determine for what values of $N$ have winning strategy $A$ and $C$, and for what values the winning strategy is from $B$.
.
5)Players $A$ and $B$ play the following game: a player writes, in a board, a positive integer $n$, after this they delete a number in the board and write a new number where can be:
i)The last number $p$, where the new number will be $p - 2^k$ where $k$ is greatest number such that $p\ge 2^k$
ii) The last number $p$, where the new number will be $\frac{p}{2}$ if $p$ is even.
The players play alternately, a player win(s) if the new number is equal to $0$ and player $A$ starts.
a)Which player has the winning strategy with $n = 40$??
b)Which player has the winning strategy with $n = 2012$??
Given a board $3 \times 2021$, all cells of which are white. Two players in turns colour two white cells, which are either in the same row or column, in black. A player, which can not make a move, loses.
Which of the player can guarantee his win regardless of the moves of his opponent?
Five identical empty buckets of $2$-liter capacity stand at the vertices of a regular pentagon. Cinderella and her wicked Stepmother go through a sequence of rounds: At the beginning of every round, the Stepmother takes one liter of water from the nearby river and distributes it arbitrarily over the five buckets. Then Cinderella chooses a pair of neighbouring buckets, empties them to the river and puts them back. Then the next round begins. The Stepmother goal's is to make one of these buckets overflow. Cinderella's goal is to prevent this. Can the wicked Stepmother enforce a bucket overflow?
[i]Proposed by Gerhard Woeginger, Netherlands[/i]
Let $m$ be a positive integer with $m \leq 2024$. Ana and Banana play a game alternately on a $1\times2024$ board, with squares initially painted white. Ana starts the game. Each move by Ana consists of choosing any $k \leq m$ white squares on the board and painting them all green. Each Banana play consists of choosing any sequence of consecutive green squares and painting them all white. What is the smallest value of $m$ for which Ana can guarantee that, after one of her moves, the entire board will be painted green?
Let \( n \) be a positive integer. A function \( f : \{0, 1, \dots, n\} \to \{0, 1, \dots, n\} \) is called \( n \)-Bolivian if it satisfies the following conditions:
• \( f(0) = 0 \);
• \( f(t) \in \{ t-1, f(t-1), f(f(t-1)), \dots \} \) for all \( t = 1, 2, \dots, n \).
For example, if \( n = 3 \), then the function defined by \( f(0) = f(1) = 0 \), \( f(2) = f(3) = 1 \) is 3-Bolivian, but the function defined by \( f(0) = f(1) = f(2) = 0 \), \( f(3) = 1 \) is not 3-Bolivian.
For a fixed positive integer \( n \), Gollum selects an \( n \)-Bolivian function. Smeagol, knowing that \( f \) is \( n \)-Bolivian, tries to figure out which function was chosen by asking questions of the type:
\[
\text{How many integers } a \text{ are there such that } f(a) = b?
\]
given a \( b \) of his choice. Show that if Gollum always answers correctly, Smeagol can determine \( f \) and find the minimum number of questions he needs to ask, considering all possible choices of \( f \).
Daniel chooses a positive integer $n$ and tells Ana. With this information, Ana chooses a positive integer $k$ and tells Daniel. Daniel draws $n$ circles on a piece of paper and chooses $k$ different points on the condition that each of them belongs to one of the circles he drew. Then he deletes the circles, and only the $k$ points marked are visible. From these points, Ana must reconstruct at least one of the circumferences that Daniel drew. Determine which is the lowest value of $k$ that allows Ana to achieve her goal regardless of how Daniel chose the $n$ circumferences and the $k$ points.
The maze is an $8 \times 8 $square, each cell contains $1 \times 1$ which has one of four arrows drawn (up, down, right, left). The upper side of the upper right cell is the exit from the maze.In the lower left cell there is a chip that, with each move, moves one square in the direction indicated by the arrow. After each move, the shooter in the cell in which there was just a chip rotates $90^o$ clockwise. If a chip must move, taking it outside the $8 \times 8$ square, it remains in place, and the arrow also rotates $90^o$ clockwise. Prove that sooner or later, the chip will come out of the maze.
Three legendary knights are fighting against a multiheaded dragon.
Whenever the first knight attacks, he cuts off half of the current number of heads plus one more. Whenever the second knight attacks, he cuts off one third of the current number of heads plus two more. Whenever the third knight attacks, he cuts off one fourth of the current number of heads plus three more. They repeatedly attack in an arbitrary order so that at each step an integer number of heads is being cut off. If all the knights cannot attack as the number of heads would become non-integer, the dragon eats them. Will the knights be able to cut off all the dragon’s heads if it has $41!$ heads?
Alexey Zaslavsky