Problems

Age
Difficulty
Found: 18

With a non-zero number, the following operations are allowed: \(x \rightarrow \frac{1+x}{x}\), \(x \rightarrow \frac{1-x}{x}\). Is it true that from every non-zero rational number one can obtain each rational number with the help of a finite number of such operations?

There is a group of 5 people: Alex, Beatrice, Victor, Gregory and Deborah. Each of them has one of the following codenames: V, W, X, Y, Z. We know that:

Alex is 1 year older than V,

Beatrice is 2 years older than W,

Victor is 3 years older than X,

Gregory is 4 years older than Y.

Who is older and by how much: Deborah or Z?

The order of books on a shelf is called wrong if no three adjacent books are arranged in order of height (either increasing or decreasing). How many wrong orders is it possible to construct from \(n\) books of different heights, if: a) \(n = 4\); b) \(n = 5\)?

Author: A.K. Tolpygo

An irrational number \(\alpha\), where \(0 <\alpha <\frac 12\), is given. It defines a new number \(\alpha_1\) as the smaller of the two numbers \(2\alpha\) and \(1 - 2\alpha\). For this number, \(\alpha_2\) is determined similarly, and so on.

a) Prove that for some \(n\) the inequality \(\alpha_n <3/16\) holds.

b) Can it be that \(\alpha_n> 7/40\) for all positive integers \(n\)?

Prove that for every natural number \(n > 1\) the equality: \[\lfloor n^{1 / 2}\rfloor + \lfloor n^{1/ 3}\rfloor + \dots + \lfloor n^{1 / n}\rfloor = \lfloor \log_{2}n\rfloor + \lfloor \log_{3}n\rfloor + \dots + \lfloor \log_{n}n\rfloor\] is satisfied.

We are given 51 two-digit numbers – we will count one-digit numbers as two-digit numbers with a leading 0. Prove that it is possible to choose 6 of these so that no two of them have the same digit in the same column.