In a one-on-one tournament 10 chess players participate. What is the least number of rounds after which the single winner could have already been determined? (In each round, the participants are broken up into pairs. Win – 1 point, draw – 0.5 points, defeat – 0).
A castle is surrounded by a circular wall with nine towers, at which there are knights on duty. At the end of each hour, they all move to the neighbouring towers, each knight moving either clockwise or counter-clockwise. During the night, each knight stands for some time at each tower. It is known that there was an hour when at least two knights were on duty at each tower, and there was an hour when there was precisely one knight on duty on each of exactly five towers. Prove that there was an hour when there were no knights on duty on one of the towers.
We are given 111 different natural numbers that do not exceed 500. Could it be that for each of these numbers, its last digit coincides with the last digit of the sum of all of the remaining numbers?
The number \(x\) is such a number that exactly one of the four numbers \(a = x - \sqrt{2}\), \(b = x-1/x\), \(c = x + 1/x\), \(d = x^2 + 2\sqrt{2}\) is not an integer. Find all such \(x\).
The numbers \(x\), \(y\) and \(z\) are such that all three numbers \(x + yz\), \(y + zx\) and \(z + xy\) are rational, and \(x^2 + y^2 = 1\). Prove that the number \(xyz^2\) is also rational.
Three players are playing knockout table tennis – that is, the player who loses a game swaps places with the player who did not take part in that game and the winner stays on. In total Andrew played 10 games, Ben played 15, and Charlotte played 17. Which player lost the second game played?
On a ring road at regular intervals there are 25 posts, each with a policeman. The police are numbered in some order from 1 to 25. It is required that they cross the road so that there is a policeman on each post, but so that number 2 was clockwise behind number 1, number 3 was clockwise behind number 2, and so on. Prove that if you organised the transition so that the total distance travelled was the smallest, then one of the policemen will remain at his original post.
The numerical function \(f\) is such that for any \(x\) and \(y\) the equality \(f (x + y) = f (x) + f (y) + 80xy\) holds. Find \(f(1)\) if \(f(0.25) = 2\).
Each day, from Monday to Friday, an old man went to the sea and threw in a net to catch fish. On each day the man caught no more fish than on the previous day. In total over the 5 days the man caught exactly 100 fish. What is the minimum total number of fish the man could have caught on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
A carpet has a square shape with side 275 cm. A moth has eaten 4 holes through it. Will it always be possible to cut a square section of side 1 m out of the carpet, so that the section does not contain any holes? Treat the holes as points.