MODULE C.1.
1
(elementary logic)
Example 1.
There are n people sitting in a circle, and each one of them is either a liar or a
truth-teller. The liar always lies, and the truth-teller always tells the truth. Each
person knows exactly who is lying and who is telling the truth. Each person says
that the person sitting two spots to his left (this means beside the person sitting
beside him), is a truth-teller. It is known that in this circle, there is at least one liar
and at least one truth-teller.
(a) Is it possible that n = 2024?
(b) Is it possible that n = 2025?
Example 2.
(a) Find which of the following six statements are true and which are false:
(1) Exactly one of these six statements is false.
(2) Exactly two of these six statements are false.
(3) Exactly three of these six statements are false.
(4) Exactly four of these six statements are false.
(5) Exactly five of these six statements are false.
(6) Exactly six of these six statements are false.
(b) Remove the word ‘Exactly’ from each of the six statements above and then
find out which statements are true and which are false.
(Pigeonhole principle)
Example 3.
Show that there is a number of the form 11…10…0 (some 1’s followed by some
0’s) which is divisible by 2024
Example 4.
The 8 × 8 grid is given, all the cells of which are white. Roberta paints some k
cells black and then Diletta repeatedly choose any sub-square 2 × 2, and if there
are 3 black cells in it, then Diletta may paint the fourth cell black. What is the
smallest k of initial squares that Roberta can paint black so that Diletta can
manage to make all the cells black?
Example 5.
In preparing for a tournament, a chess master wants to play at least one game per
day, but not more than 132 games over 77 days. Prove that there is a sequence of
successive days on which the chess master plays a total of exactly 21 games.
(Parity control)
Example 6.
In a forest live 91 ogres: 46 of them are brown, and 45 are green. When two ogres
meet one of them eats the other, but the color of the surviving one may change: if
both were of the same color the surviving one becomes (or remains to be) brown.
If both had different colors, the surviving becomes (or stays) green.
After a while there is only one ogre left in the forest. Which color has it?
Example 7.
Seven chess-knights stay on a 7 x 7 board so that no two are in the same row or
column. Is it possible to let each knight make one single move and as a result the
knights are again all in different rows and columns?
(Games)
Example 9
a) On the table there are two heaps with 30 and 35 stones respectively. Ann
and Ben play the following game: they alternate in tourns and in each turn
the player may choose a heap and remove any number of stones from this
heap. And the player who takes the last stone wins. Does Ann or Ben have
a winning strategy?
b) Similar question but this time each player is allowed to remove 1, 2 or 3
stones from one of the heaps.
Example 10.
98 points are given on a circle. Maria and John take turns drawing a segment
between two of the points which have not yet been joined by a segment. The
game ends when each point has been used as the endpoint of a segment at least
once. The winner is the player who draws the last segment. If John goes first, who
has a winning strategy?
(Combinatorial arguments)
Example 11.
𝑛+1 𝑛 𝑛
Show that ! &=! & + ! &, for 0 < k < n.
𝑘+1 𝑘+1 𝑘
Example 12.
Let n be an odd integer greater than 1. Prove that the sequence
contains an odd number of odd numbers.
Example 13.
!
Prove that ) 𝑘*!"+ = n2!%&
"#$
