There are $n$ red sticks and $n$ blue sticks. The sticks of each colour have the same total length, and can be used to construct an $n$-gon. We wish to repaint one stick of each colour in the other colour so that the sticks of each colour can still be used to construct an $n$-gon. Is this always possible if (a) $n = 3$, (b) $n > 3$ ?

Some 46 squares are randomly chosen from a $9 \times 9$ chess board and colored in [color=red]red[/color]. Show that there exists a $2\times 2$ block of 4 squares of which at least three are colored in [color=red]red[/color].

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 $x$. )

Given 12 red points on a circle , find the mininum value of $n$ such that there exists $n$ triangles whose vertex are the red points . Satisfies: every chord whose points are the red points is the edge of one of the $n$ triangles .

Given $19$ red boxes and $200$ blue boxes filled with balls. None of which is empty. Suppose that every red boxes have a maximum of $200$ balls and every blue boxes have a maximum of $19$ balls. Suppose that the sum of all balls in the red boxes is less than the sum of all the balls in the blue boxes. Prove that there exists a subset of the red boxes and a subset of the blue boxes such that their sum is the same.

Let $n \ge 2$ be a fixed integer. The cells of an $n \times n$ table are filled with the integers from $1$ to $n^2$ with each number appearing exactly once. Let $N$ be the number of unordered quadruples of cells on this board which form an axis-aligned rectangle, with the two smaller integers being on opposite vertices of this rectangle. Find the largest possible value of $N$. [i]Anonymous[/i]

We call a tiling of an $m \times n$ rectangle with corners (see figure below) "regular" if there is no sub-rectangle which is tiled with corners. Prove that if for some $m$ and $n$ there exists a "regular" tiling of the $m \times n$ rectangular then there exists a "regular" tiling also for the $2m \times 2n $ rectangle.

Prove that in every polygon there is a diagonal that cuts off a triangle and lies within the polygon.

We consider the division of a chess board $8 \times 8$ in p disjoint rectangles which satisfy the conditions: [b]a)[/b] every rectangle is formed from a number of full squares (not partial) from the 64 and the number of white squares is equal to the number of black squares. [b]b)[/b] the numbers $\ a_{1}, \ldots, a_{p}$ of white squares from $p$ rectangles satisfy $a_1, , \ldots, a_p.$ Find the greatest value of $p$ for which there exists such a division and then for that value of $p,$ all the sequences $a_{1}, \ldots, a_{p}$ for which we can have such a division. [color=#008000]Moderator says: see [url]https://artofproblemsolving.com/community/c6h58591[/url][/color]

We number the columns of an $n\times n$-board from $1$ to $n$. In each cell, we place a number. This is done in such a way that each row precisely contains the numbers $1$ to $n$ (in some order), and also each column contains the numbers $1$ to $n$ (in some order). Next, each cell that contains a number greater than the cell's column number, is coloured grey. In the figure below you can see an example for the case $n = 3$. [asy] unitsize(0.6 cm); int i; fill((0,0)--(1,0)--(1,1)--(0,1)--cycle, gray(0.8)); fill(shift((1,0))*((0,0)--(1,0)--(1,1)--(0,1)--cycle), gray(0.8)); fill(shift((0,2))*((0,0)--(1,0)--(1,1)--(0,1)--cycle), gray(0.8)); for (i = 0; i <= 3; ++i) { draw((0,i)--(3,i)); draw((i,0)--(i,3)); } label("$1$", (0.5,3.5)); label("$2$", (1.5,3.5)); label("$3$", (2.5,3.5)); label("$3$", (0.5,2.5)); label("$1$", (1.5,2.5)); label("$2$", (2.5,2.5)); label("$1$", (0.5,1.5)); label("$2$", (1.5,1.5)); label("$3$", (2.5,1.5)); label("$2$", (0.5,0.5)); label("$3$", (1.5,0.5)); label("$1$", (2.5,0.5)); [/asy] (a) Suppose that $n = 5$. Can the numbers be placed in such a way that each row contains the same number of grey cells? (b) Suppose that $n = 10$. Can the numbers be placed in such a way that each row contains the same number of grey cells?

Suppose there are 18 lighthouses on the Persian Gulf. Each of the lighthouses lightens an angle with size 20 degrees. Prove that we can choose the directions of the lighthouses such that whole of the blue Persian (always Persian) Gulf is lightened.

Seventeen cities are served by four airlines. It is noted that there is direct service (without stops) between any two cities and that all airline schedules offer round-trip flights. Prove that at least one of the airlines can offer a round trip with an odd number of landings.

Alice wrote a sequence of $n > 2$ nonzero nonequal numbers such that each is greater than the previous one by the same amount. Bob wrote the inverses of those n numbers in some order. It so happened that each number in his row also is greater than the previous one by the same amount, possibly not the same as in Alice’s sequence. What are the possible values of $n{}$? [i]Alexey Zaslavsky[/i]

For a permutation $\pi$ of the set $A = \{1, 2, \ldots, 2025\}$, define its [i]colorfulness [/i]as the greatest natural number $k$ such that: - For all $1 \le i, j \le 2025$, $i \ne j$, if $|i - j| < k$, then $|\pi(i) - \pi(j)| \ge k$. What is the maximum possible colorfulness of a permutation of the set $A$? Determine how many such permutations have maximal colorfulness. [i]Proposed by Pavle Martinović[/i]

Find the maximum number of Permutation of set {$1,2,3,...,2014$} such that for every 2 different number $a$ and $b$ in this set at last in one of the permutation $b$ comes exactly after $a$

In the following figure, it is desired to go from point \( A \) to point \( B \) by walking only along the lines of the figure up and to the right. How many different paths can we take? [img]https://cdn.artofproblemsolving.com/attachments/7/c/dce2e0bcb69c9e2014474ab3699b4ef0470497.png[/img]

We have garland with $n$ lights. Some lights are on, some are off. In one move we can take some turned on light (only turned on) and turn off it and also change state of neigbour lights. We want to turn off all lights after some moves.. For what $n$ is it always possible?

For an integer $n \geq 5,$ two players play the following game on a regular $n$-gon. Initially, three consecutive vertices are chosen, and one counter is placed on each. A move consists of one player sliding one counter along any number of edges to another vertex of the $n$-gon without jumping over another counter. A move is legal if the area of the triangle formed by the counters is strictly greater after the move than before. The players take turns to make legal moves, and if a player cannot make a legal move, that player loses. For which values of $n$ does the player making the first move have a winning strategy?

Let $S$ be a finite set of positive integers. Assume that there are precisely 2023 ordered pairs $(x,y)$ in $S\times S$ so that the product $xy$ is a perfect square. Prove that one can find at least four distinct elements in $S$ so that none of their pairwise products is a perfect square. [i]Note:[/i] As an example, if $S=\{1,2,4\}$, there are exactly five such ordered pairs: $(1,1)$, $(1,4)$, $(2,2)$, $(4,1)$, and $(4,4)$. [i]Proposed by Sutanay Bhattacharya[/i]

Let $n$ be a positive integer and consider an arrangement of $2n$ blocks in a straight line, where $n$ of them are red and the rest blue. A swap refers to choosing two consecutive blocks and then swapping their positions. Let $A$ be the minimum number of swaps needed to make the first $n$ blocks all red and $B$ be the minimum number of swaps needed to make the first $n$ blocks all blue. Show that $A+B$ is independent of the starting arrangement and determine its value.

A regular octagon $P$ is given whose incircle $k$ has diameter $1$. About $k$ is circumscribed a regular $16$-gon, which is also inscribed in $P$, cutting from $P$ eight isosceles triangles. To the octagon $P$, three of these triangles are added so that exactly two of them are adjacent and no two of them are opposite to each other. Every $11$-gon so obtained is said to be $P'$. Prove the following statement: Given a finite set $M$ of points lying in $P$ such that every two points of this set have a distance not exceeding $1$, one of the $11$-gons $P'$ contains all of $M$.

Every cell of table $4 \times 4$ is colored into white. It is permitted to place the cross (pictured below) on the table such that its center lies on the table (the whole figure does not need to lie on the table) and change colors of every cell which is covered into opposite (white and black). Find all $n$ such that after $n$ steps it is possible to get the table with every cell colored black.

Two courier companies offer services in the country of Old Aland. For any two towns, at least one of the companies offers a direct link in both directions between them. Additionally, each company is willing to chain together deliveries (so if they offer a direct link from $A$ to $B$, and $B$ to $C$, and $C$ to $D$ for instance, they will deliver from $A$ to $D$.) Show that at least one of the two companies must be able to deliver packages between any two towns in Old Aland.

Find the number of three-element subsets of $\{1, 2, 3,...,13\}$ that contain at least one element that is a multiple of $2$, at least one element that is a multiple of $3$, and at least one element that is a multiple of $5$ such as $\{2,3, 5\}$ or $\{6, 10,13\}$.

Given a sequence of $19$ positive (not necessarily distinct) integers not greater than $93$, and a set of $93$ positive (not necessarily distinct) integers not greater than $19$. Show that we can find non-empty subsequences of the two sequences with equal sum.