$n$ is a given positive integer, such that it’s possible to weigh out the mass of any product weighing $1,2,3,\cdots ,ng$ with a counter balance without sliding poise and $k$ counterweights, which weigh $x_ig(i=1,2,\cdots ,k),$ respectively, where $x_i\in \mathbb{N}^*$ for any $i \in \{ 1,2,\cdots ,k\}$ and $x_1\leq x_2\leq\cdots \leq x_k.$ $(1)$Let $f(n)$ be the least possible number of $k$. Find $f(n)$ in terms of $n.$ $(2)$Find all possible number of $n,$ such that sequence $x_1,x_2,\cdots ,x_{f(n)}$ is uniquely determined.

There are $n\geq 2$ people at a party. Each person has at least one friend inside the party. Show that it is possible to choose a group of no more than $\frac{n}{2}$ people at the party, such that any other person outside the group has a friend inside it.

Two players, $A$ and $B,$ alternatively take stones from a pile of $n \geq 2$ stones. $A$ plays first and in his first move he must take at least one stone and at most $n-1$ stones. Then each player must take at least one stone and at most as many stones as his opponent took in the previous move. The player who takes the last stone wins. Which player has a winning strategy?

A $ 6\times 6$ square is dissected in to 9 rectangles by lines parallel to its sides such that all these rectangles have integer sides. Prove that there are always [b]two[/b] congruent rectangles.

Two players $A$ and $B$ take stones one after the other from a heap with $n \ge 2$ stones. $A$ begins the game and takes at least one stone, but no more than $n -1$ stones. Thereafter, a player on turn takes at least one, but no more than the other player has taken before him. The player who takes the last stone wins. Who of the players has a winning strategy?

Two positive integers are written on the blackboard. Mary records in her notebook the square of the smaller number and replaces the larger number on the blackboard by the difference of the two numbers. With the new pair of numbers, she repeats the process, and continues until one of the numbers on the blackboard becomes zero. What will be the sum of the numbers in Mary's notebook at that point? (4)

For which positive integers $n$ can be covered a ladder like that of the figure (but with $n$ steps instead of $4$) with $n$ squares of integer sides, not necessarily the same size, without these squares overlapping and without standing out from the edge of the figure ?

A game is played on an ${n \times n}$ chessboard. At the beginning there are ${99}$ stones on each square. Two players ${A}$ and ${B}$ take turns, where in each turn the player chooses either a row or a column and removes one stone from each square in the chosen row or column. They are only allowed to choose a row or a column, if it has least one stone on each square. The first player who cannot move, looses the game. Player ${A}$ takes the first turn. Determine all n for which player ${A}$ has a winning strategy.

Consider the following array: \[ 3, 5\\3, 8, 5\\3, 11, 13, 5\\3, 14, 24, 18, 5\\3, 17, 38, 42, 23, 5\\ \ldots \] Find the 5-th number on the $ n$-th row with $ n>5$.

Three numbers were written with a chalk on the blackboard. The following operation was repeated several times: One of the numbers was cleared and the sum of two other numbers, decreased by $1$, was written instead of it. The final set of numbers is $\{17, 1967, 1983\}$.Is it possible to admit that the initial numbers were a) $\{2, 2, 2\}$? b) $\{3, 3, 3\}$?

We are given $2001$ balloons and a positive integer $k$. Each balloon has been blown up to a certain size (not necessarily the same for each balloon). In each step it is allowed to choose at most $k$ balloons and equalize their sizes to their arithmetic mean. Determine the smallest value of $k$ such that, whatever the initial sizes are, it is possible to make all the balloons have equal size after a finite number of steps.

Let $\mathfrak F$ be the family of all $k$-element subsets of the set $\{1, 2, \ldots, 2k + 1\}$. Prove that there exists a bijective function $f :\mathfrak F \to \mathfrak F$ such that for every $A \in \mathfrak F$, the sets $A$ and $f(A)$ are disjoint.

Consider an $n \times n$ grid consisting of $n^2$ until cells, where $n \geq 3$ is a given odd positive integer. First, Dionysus colours each cell either red or blue. It is known that a frog can hop from one cell to another if and only if these cells have the same colour and share at least one vertex. Then, Xanthias views the colouring and next places $k$ frogs on the cells so that each of the $n^2$ cells can be reached by a frog in a finite number (possible zero) of hops. Find the least value of $k$ for which this is always possible regardless of the colouring chosen by Dionysus. [i]Proposed by Tommy Walker Mackay, United Kingdom[/i]

$64$ people are in a single elimination rock-paper-scissors tournament, which consists of a $6$-round knockout bracket. Each person has a different rock-paper-scissors skill level, and in any game, the person with the higher skill level will always win. For how many players $P$ is it possible that $P$ wins the first four rounds that he plays? (A $6$-round knockout bracket is a tournament which works as follows: (a) In the first round, all 64 competitors are paired into $32$ groups, and the two people in each group play each other. The winners advance to the second round, and the losers are eliminated. (b) In the second round, the remaining $32$ players are paired into $16$ groups. Again, the winner of each group proceeds to the next round, while the loser is eliminated. (c) Each round proceeds in a similar way, eliminating half of the remaining players. After the sixth round, only one player will not have been eliminated. That player is declared the champion.) [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]

On a $999\times 999$ board a [i]limp rook[/i] can move in the following way: From any square it can move to any of its adjacent squares, i.e. a square having a common side with it, and every move must be a turn, i.e. the directions of any two consecutive moves must be perpendicular. A [i]non-intersecting route[/i] of the limp rook consists of a sequence of pairwise different squares that the limp rook can visit in that order by an admissible sequence of moves. Such a non-intersecting route is called [i]cyclic[/i], if the limp rook can, after reaching the last square of the route, move directly to the first square of the route and start over. How many squares does the longest possible cyclic, non-intersecting route of a limp rook visit? [i]Proposed by Nikolay Beluhov, Bulgaria[/i]

Kevin likes drawing. He takes a large piece of paper and draws on it every rectangle with positive integer side lengths and perimeter at most 2017, with no two rectangles overlapping. Compute the total area of the paper that is covered by a rectangle.

Find the number of rectangles who have the following properties: a) Have for vertices, points $(x,y)$ of plane $Oxy$ with $x,y$ non negative integers and $ x \le 8$ , $y\le 8$ b) Have sides parallel to axes c) Have area $E$, with $30<E\le 40$

We are given $2001$ balloons and a positive integer $k$. Each balloon has been blown up to a certain size (not necessarily the same for each balloon). In each step it is allowed to choose at most $k$ balloons and equalize their sizes to their arithmetic mean. Determine the smallest value of $k$ such that, whatever the initial sizes are, it is possible to make all the balloons have equal size after a finite number of steps.

In an $N \times N$ table consisting of small unit squares, some squares are coloured black and the other squares are coloured white. For each pair of columns and each pair of rows, the four squares on the intersections of these rows and columns must not all be of the same colour. What is the largest possible value of $N$?

In a chess tournament , each of two players have only one game played. After 2 rounds 5 players left the tournament. At the final of tournament was found that the number of total games played is 100. How many players were at the start of the tournament?

There are ten coins a line, which are indistinguishable. It is known that two of them are false and have consecutive positions on the line. For each set of positions, you may ask how many false coins it contains. Is it possible to identify the false coins by making only two of those questions, without knowing the answer to the first question before making the second?

We will call a pair of positive integers $(n, k)$ with $k > 1$ a $lovely$ $couple$ if there exists a table $nxn$ consisting of ones and zeros with following properties: • In every row there are exactly $k$ ones. • For each two rows there is exactly one column such that on both intersections of that column with the mentioned rows, number one is written. Solve the following subproblems: a) Let $d \neq 1$ be a divisor of $n$. Determine all remainders that $d$ can give when divided by $6$. b) Prove that there exist infinitely many lovely couples. Proposed by Miroslav Marinov, Daniel Atanasov

How many non-empty subsets of $\{1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,7,8\}$ have exactly $k$ elements and do not contain the element $k$ for some $k = 1, 2,...,8$.

A Haiku is a Japanese poem of seventeen syllables, in three lines of five, seven, and five. Take five good haikus Scramble their lines randomly What are the chances That you end up with Five completely good haikus (With five, seven, five)? Your answer will be m over n where m,n Are numbers such that m,n positive Integers where gcd Of m,n is 1. Take this answer and Add the numerator and Denominator. [i]Proposed by Jeff Lin[/i]

Three hoops are arranged concentrically as in the diagram. Each hoop is threaded with $ 20$ beads, $ 10$ of which are black and $ 10$ are white. On each hoop the positions of the beads are labelled $ 1$ through $ 20$ as shown. We say there is a match at position $ i$ if all three beads at position $ i$ have the same color. We are free to slide beads around a hoop, not breaking the hoop. Show that it is always possible to move them into a configuration involving no less than $ 5$ matches.