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Problem Set On Problem Solving Techniques (Problem Set)

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12 views4 pages

Problem Set On Problem Solving Techniques (Problem Set)

Uploaded by

co240097
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Problem Set on Problem Solving Techniques

Pigeonhole Principle
1. New York City has 7,500,000 residents. The maximal number of hairs that can grow on a
human head is 500,000. Prove that there are at least 15 residents in New York City with
the same number of hairs.
2. Consider any five points
P1 , P2 , P3 , P4 ,P5 in the interior of a square S of side length 1.
d P P.
Denote by ij the distance between the points i and j Prove that at least one of the
√2 .
d
distances ij is less than 2

3. Among any N positive integers, there exist two positive integers whose difference is
divisible by N-1.
4. Given any set of 10 natural numbers between 1and 99 inclusive, prove that there are two
disjoint nonempty subsets of the set with equal sums of their elements.

Pursue Parity
1. Place a knight on each square of a 7-by-7 chessboard. Is it possible for each knight to
simultaneously make a legal move?
2. Place a knight on a 4-by-n chessboard. Is it possible, in 4n consecutive knight moves, to
visit each square of the board and return to the original square?
3. In chess, is it possible for the knight to go (by allowable moves) from the lower left-hand
corner of the board to the upper right-hand corner of the board and in the process to light
exactly once on each square?
4. The array shown is 7-by-7. You want to start at A, pass exactly once though every square
except X, and end at B. You can not move diagonally- only left or right, up or down, one
square at a time. Can you succeed?

A B
Working Backwards
1. In a certain game, two players take turns adding two, three, or four points to a pile.
Suppose that the pile starts with no coins and that the player who adds the sixtieth coin
wins the entire pile, which player should win and what strategy should be used?

2. I am thinking of a number. I divided my number by 6, added 9, tripled the result and


subtracted 3. I then added on 50% of what I had and subtracted 9. Then I divided by 5.
After all that, I was left with 9. What number did I start with?
3. Mr. Phil T. Rich left half of his estate to his wife, $30,000 to his daughter, half of what
was left to his butler, half of what remained for the care of his goldfish, and the
remaining S8,000 to charity. What was the value of his estate?

4. Chris is training Hoppity, her pet rabbit, to climb stairs. It will hop up one or two stairs at
a time. If a flight of stairs has ten steps, in how many ways can Hoppity hop up this flight
of stairs?

Look for a Pattern


1. Imagine you are in a school that has student lockers. There are 1000 lockers, all shut and
unlocked, and 1000 students.
a. Suppose the first student goes along the row and opens every locker.
b. The second student then goes along and shuts every other locker beginning with
number 2.
c. The third student changes the state of every third locker beginning with number 3. (if
the locker is open the students shuts it, and if the locker is closed the student opens it)
d. The fourth student changes the state of every third locker beginning with number 4.
Imagine that this continues until the thousand students have followed the pattern with
the thousand lockers. At the end, which lockers will be open and which will be
closed?

2. N rings have different outer diameters are slipped onto an upright peg, the largest ring on
the bottom, to form a pyramid (figure 1). We wish to transfer all the rings, one at a time,
to a second peg, but we have a third (auxiliary) peg at our disposal. During the transfers it
is not permitted to place a larger ring on a smaller one. What is the smallest number, k, of
moves necessary to complete the transfer to peg number 2?

3. How many squares of any size would there be on an 8-by-8 chessboard?

4. If you build a four-sided pyramid using basketballs and don't count the bottom as a side,
how many balls will there be in a pyramid that has six layers?

5. Jose used 6 blocks to build this staircase with 3 steps. How many blocks will Jose need to
make a 6-step staircase?
Make a Diagram/ Organize and Use Logic
1. Several soldiers must cross a deep river at a point where there is no bridge. The soldiers
spot two children playing in a small rowboat. The rowboat can hold two children or one
soldier. All soldiers get across the river. How?

2. Out of six boys, exactly two were known to have been stealing apples. But Who?

Harry said “Charlie and George.”


James said “Donald and Tom.”
Donald said “Tom and Charlie.”
George said “Harry and Charlie.”
Charlie said “Donald and James”
Tom couldn’t be found.
Four of the five boys interrogated had named one of the miscreants correctly and
lied about the other one.
The fifth boy had lied outright!
Who stole the apples?

3. Mr. and Mrs. Adams recently attended a party at which there were three other couples.
Various handshakes took place. No one shook hands with his/her own spouse, no one
shook hands with the same person twice, and of course no one shook his/her own hand.
After all the handshaking was finished, Mr. Adams asked each person, including his
wife, how many hands he or she had shaken. To his surprise, each gave a different
answer. How many hands did Mrs. Adams shake?
Solutions: Although a diagram is not essential to the solution, it is helpful to view the
data graphically in the following fashion. Represent the eight individuals by the eight
dots represented in figure 2.

4. A new basketball league was formed in which each of the teams will play three games
against each of the other teams. There are seven teams: the Antelopes, the Bears, the
Cubs, the Dusters, the Eagles, the Foxes, and the Goats. How many games will be played
in all?

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