Problems

Age
Difficulty
Found: 6

a) A square of area 6 contains three polygons, each of area 3. Prove that among them there are two polygons that have an overlap of area no less than 1.

b) A square of area 5 contains nine polygons of area 1. Prove that among them there are two polygons that have an overlap of area no less than \(\frac{1}{9}\).

Every day, James bakes a square cake size \(3\times3\). Jack immediately cuts out for himself four square pieces of size \(1\times1\) with sides parallel to the sides of the cake (not necessarily along the \(3\times3\) grid lines). After that, Sarah cuts out from the rest of the cake a square piece with sides, also parallel to the sides of the cake. What is the largest piece of cake that Sarah can count on, regardless of Jack’s actions?

A square area of size \(100\times 100\) is covered in tiles of size \(1\times 1\) in 4 different colours – white, red, black, and grey. No two tiles of the same colour touch one another, that is share a side or a corner. How many red tiles can there be?

10 magazines lie on a coffee table, completely covering it. Prove that you can remove five of them so that the remaining magazines will cover at least half of the table.