a) A piece of wire that is 120 cm long is given. Is it possible, without breaking the wire, to make a cube frame with sides of 10 cm?
b) What is the smallest number of times it will be necessary to break the wire in order to still produce the required frame?
Will the entire population of the Earth, all buildings and structures on it, fit into a cube with a side length of 3 kilometres?
a) What is the minimum number of pieces of wire needed in order to weld a cube’s frame?
b) What is the maximum length of a piece of wire that can be cut from this frame? (The length of the edge of the cube is 1 cm).
A scone contains raisins and sultanas. Prove that inside the scone there will always be two points 1cm apart such that either both lie inside raisins, both inside sultanas, or both lie outside of either raisins or sultanas.
Does the number of 1999 occur in the Pascal triangle?
How many times greater is the sum of the numbers in the hundred and first line of the Pascal triangle than the sum of the numbers in the hundredth line?
Let’s put plus and minus signs in the 99th line of Pascal’s triangle. Between the first and second number there is a minus sign, between the second and the third there is a plus sign, between the third and the fourth there is a minus sign, then again a plus sign, and so on. Find the value of the resulting expression.
a) Can 4 points be placed on a plane so that each of them is connected by segments with three points (without intersections)?
b) Can 6 points be placed on a plane and connected by non-intersecting segments so that exactly 4 segments emerge from each point?
A spherical planet is surrounded by 25 point asteroids. Prove, that at any given moment there will be a point on the surface of the planet from which an astronomer will not be able to see more than 11 asteroids.
On the planet Tau Ceti, the landmass takes up more than half the surface area. Prove that the Tau Cetians can drill a hole through the centre of their planet that connects land to land.