:3!

March 18, 2025

1 Bait
Problem 1.1. Given is a 1m × 1m table. You want to drill a 3cm × 3cm hole directly in
the center of the table, but you happen to be very drunk and you drill it 1cm away from
the corner (so that the center of the hole is 4cm away from two of the edges.) To remedy
this, you decide to make one continuous cut, separating the table into two pieces, so that
you can rearrange the pieces into a 1m × 1m square with the hole in the center.
What’s the minimum length of cut you need to do?
Problem 1.2. Let R be a fixed rectangle, and let n be a fixed positive integer. Suppose
R can be tiled by n squares. Prove that a square can be tiled by n rectangles with the
same aspect ratio as R.
Problem 1.3. You can cover a square with 100 circular coins of radius 2. Can you cover
the same square with 400 coins of radius 1?
Problem 1.4. On a square grid, we place some amount of cars, pointed up, down, left,
or right. In a turn we can move a car in the direction its pointed in, provided there is
an empty space in front, or it is pointing the border. A car escapes if it moves past the
border. Can we always have every car escape in a finite number of moves, provided that
no cars can ever collide head on, and all cars can move on the 1st turn?
Problem 1.5. There are three 8-digit positive integers which are equal to the sum of the
eighth powers of their digits. Given that two of the numbers are 24678051 and 88593477,
compute the third number.
Problem 1.6. Dissect a regular hexagon into 15 congruent polygons.
Problem 1.7. You are given matchsticks which arrange the following equation:

51 × 19 = 60.

(For the digits, the matchsticks take their standard 7-segment representation. × and =
take 2 matchsticks. In total, there are 5 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 6 + 2 + 6 + 6 = 31 matchsticks.)
Move exactly one matchstick to make the statement a true equality. (That is, ̸= or <
or > is not allowed.)
Problem 1.8. A heptomino is a shape that consists of 7 unit squares connected edge-to-
edge.

a) Can you tile a 21 × 36 board using all 108 distinct heptominoes?

b) Can you tile a rectangle with area 1 more than the previous with all heptominoes,
where we allow one square to be removed?

c) Previous part, but with area 21 × 36 + 2 and 2 squares removed.

Problem 1.9. Let p and q be odd prime numbers such that there are no prime numbers
between p and q. Prove that p + q is a product of at least 3 (not necessarily distinct)
primes.

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Problem 1.10. We define a diamond as a rhombus with side length 1, with an acute
angle of 60◦ . We have a regular hexagon with side length 10 which is dissected into
diamonds. A move consists of taking any three diamonds which form a regular hexagon
of side length 1 and turning the hexagon 60◦ about its center.
Given two dissections of the hexagon into diamonds, can we always turn one into the
other using a finite number of moves?
Problem 1.11. Can you place 6 points in the plane so that the distance between any two
of them is an integer, and no 3 of them are collinear?
Problem 1.12. In a modified game of chess, each player is allowed to make two consecutive
moves at a time. Does black have a winning strategy?
Problem 1.13. You’re given a triangular cake and a box in the shape of its mirror image.
Show that the cake can be cut into three pieces which fit in the box. (The cake has icing
and thus may not be placed upsidedown.)
Problem 1.14. Make 24 using 2, 5, 5, and 10 exactly once, using only parentheses and
the operations +, −, × and ÷.
Problem 1.15. Evan writes the 899 digit integer 123456789123456 . . . 12345678 on the
board. He then erases every 9th digit until he runs out of numbers to erase, making an
800 digit number. He repeats this process until an 8 digit number is left on the board.
What is this number?
Problem 1.16. Living in the 2-dimensional plane, you place a 360◦ camera outside of a
closed polygonal building with no intersecting walls. Will the camera always be able to
see the entirety of some wall? (Assume the camera has no blind spots in its vision and
nothing blocks the camera’s sightline to the building.)
Problem 1.17. Alice and Bob are playing a game. Alice has a polynomial P (x) =
a0 + a1 x + · · · + an xn , where each ai is a nonnegative integer, and an ̸= 0. P (x) is
unknown to Bob. Then a series of guesses begins. Bob asks Alice for the value of P (k) for
various integers k, trying to determine P (x). What is the minimum number of guesses
Bob needs to always determine P ?
Problem 1.18. On a train, carry-ons must be at most 4 feet in length. How do you bring
a 5 foot sword?
Problem 1.19. Turbo the snail plays a game on a board with 2024 rows and 2023 columns.
There are hidden monsters in 2022 of the cells. Initially, Turbo does not know where
any of the monsters are, but he knows that there is exactly one monster in each row
except the first row and the last row, and that each column contains at most one monster.
Turbo makes a series of attempts to go from the first row to the last row. On each
attempt, he chooses to start on any cell in the first row, then repeatedly moves to an
adjacent cell sharing a common side. (He is allowed to return to a previously visited
cell.) If he reaches a cell with a monster, his attempt ends and he is transported back to
the first row to start a new attempt. The monsters do not move, and Turbo remembers
whether or not each cell he has visited contains a monster. If he reaches any cell in the
last row, his attempt ends and the game is over.
Determine the minimum value of n for which Turbo has a strategy that guarantees
reaching the last row on the nth attempt or earlier, regardless of the locations of the
monsters.

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Problem 1.20. Given the polygons P and Q as shown in the grid below, cut P into two
polygons P1 and P2 such that, when pasted together differently, they form Q.

P Q

Problem 1.21. Let ABCD be a square with side length 2. Draw a quarter circle Ω inside
it centered at A, passing through B and D. Draw another quarter circle ω the same way,
except with half the radius. Now let P be a variable point on Ω, and have segment AP
meet ω at Q. Find the minimum of the sum P C + DQ.
Problem 1.22. What is the largest number of mutually tangent spheres in R3 ? (That is,
3D space?)

2 Fishbait
Problem 2.1. 100 people with differing heights are in a room. Each person will only
shake hands with someone smaller than them. How many handshakes occur?
Problem 2.2. Factor the expanded form of (2a − b)(2b − c)(2c − a).
Problem 2.3. I have two coins totalling 15 cents. One of them is not a nickel. What are
the two coins?
Problem 2.4. Write a program that, given a positive integer n ≥ 2, outputs the last 2
digits of 5n .
Problem 2.5. Does there exist a continuous function f , taking in real numbers 0 < x < 1
as input, so that the range of f is the closed interval [0, 1]?
Problem 2.6. Let x, y, and z be positive real numbers so that
xyz = 100,
⌊x⌋yz = 99,
⌊xy⌋z = 98.
What is ⌊xyz⌋?
Problem 2.7. Let P (x) = x3 +ax2 +bx+c be a cubic polynomial with sin(π/7), sin(2π/7),
sin(3π/7) as roots. Compute P (sin(4π/7)).
Problem 2.8. Do there exist infinitely many positive integer solutions to a3 + b3 + c3 = d3 ?
Problem 2.9. Compute the derivative of 4π 5 .

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3 Malicious
Problem 3.1. A branch is defined as follows: take a unit cube, pick a vertex, and attach
three cubes to the faces touching the vertex. Two of these should fill a 2 × 2 × 2 cube.
Determine, with justification, the most branches one can put in a 6 × 7 × 8 box without
overlap.
Problem 3.2. Let ABC be a triangle with ∠C ≥ 90◦ . Prove that
√ √ √
a ∠A + b ∠B ≤ c ∠C,

where a, b, c represent the sides opposite angles ∠A, ∠B, and ∠C. Show this for both
radians and degrees.
Problem 3.3. Find all integer triples (a, b, c) so that

(a − b)(a2 − b2 )(a3 − c3 ) = 3c3 .

Problem 3.4. Find all integer triples (x, y, z) such that

xy(x2 + y 2 ) = 2z 4 .

Problem 3.5. Determine whether or not there exist positive integers a1 , a2 , a3 , . . . , a100
such that
a1 + a2 + · · · + ak
is 1 more than the number of prime factors of ak .