100 fare evaders want to take a train, consisting of 12 coaches, from the first to the 76th station. They know that at the first station two ticket inspectors will board two coaches. After the 4th station, in the time between each station, one of the ticket inspectors will cross to a neighbouring coach. The ticket inspectors take turns to do this. A fare evader can see a ticket inspector only if the ticket inspector is in the next coach or the next but one coach. At each station each fare evader has time to run along the platform the length of no more than three coaches – for example at a station a fare evader in the 7th coach can run to any coach between the 4th and 10th inclusive and board it. What is the largest number of fare evaders that can travel their entire journey without ever ending up in the same coach as one of the ticket inspectors, no matter how the ticket inspectors choose to move? The fare evaders have no information about the ticket inspectors beyond that which is given here, and they agree their strategy before boarding.
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.
Prove that the sum of
a) any number of even numbers is even;
b) an even number of odd numbers is even;
c) an odd number of odd numbers is odd.
Prove that the product of
a) two odd numbers is odd;
b) an even number with any integer is even.
A road of length 1 km is lit with streetlights. Each streetlight illuminates a stretch of road of length 1 m. What is the maximum number of streetlights that there could be along the road, if it is known that when any single streetlight is extinguished the street will no longer be fully illuminated?
Several guests are sitting at a round table. Some of them are familiar with each other; mutually acquainted. All the acquaintances of any guest (counting himself) sit around the table at regular intervals. (For another person, these gaps may be different.) It is known that any two have at least one common acquaintance. Prove that all guests are familiar with each other.
15 MPs take part in a debate. During the debate, each one criticises exactly \(k\) of the 14 other contributors. For what minimum value of \(k\) is it possible to definitively state that there will be two MPs who have criticised one another?
In the number \(1234096\dots\) each digit, starting with the 5th digit is equal to the final digit of the sum of the previous 4 digits. Will the digits 8123 ever occur in that order in a row in this number?