Found problems: 304
Two students $ A$ and $ B$ are playing the following game: Each of them writes down on a sheet of paper a positive integer and gives the sheet to the referee. The referee writes down on a blackboard two integers, one of which is the sum of the integers written by the players. After that, the referee asks student $ A:$ “Can you tell the integer written by the other student?” If A answers “no,” the referee puts the same question to student $ B.$ If $ B$ answers “no,” the referee puts the question back to $ A,$ and so on. Assume that both students are intelligent and truthful. Prove that after a finite number of questions, one of the students will answer “yes.”
Nikolai and Peter are dividing a cake in the shape of a triangle. Firstly, Nikolai chooses one point $P$ inside the triangle and after that Peter cuts the cake by any line he chooses through $P$, then takes one of the pieces and leaves the other one for Nikolai. What’s the greatest portion of the cake Nikolai can be sure he could take, if he chooses $P$ in the best way possible?
A row of $1000$ numbers is written on the blackboard. We write a new row, below the first according to the rule:
We write under every number $a$ the natural number, indicating how many times the number $a$ is encountered in the first line. Then we write down the third line: under every number $b$ -- the natural number, indicating how many times the number $b$ is encountered in the second line, and so on.
a) Prove that there is a line that coincides with the preceding one.
b) Prove that the eleventh line coincides with the twelfth.
c) Give an example of the initial line such, that the tenth row differs from the eleventh.
Consider 2009 cards which are lying in sequence on a table. Initially, all cards have their top face white and bottom face black. The cards are enumerated from 1 to 2009. Two players, Amir and Ercole, make alternating moves, with Amir starting. Each move consists of a player choosing a card with the number $k$ such that $k < 1969$ whose top face is white, and then this player turns all cards at positions $k,k+1,\ldots,k+40.$ The last player who can make a legal move wins.
(a) Does the game necessarily end?
(b) Does there exist a winning strategy for the starting player?
[i]Also compare shortlist 2009, combinatorics problem C1.[/i]