Difficulty: Hard

Almost everyone knows what a soccer ball looks like – there are several black regular pentagons on it and around each of them – five white regular hexagons. Around each hexagon there are three pentagons and three more hexagons. However, can you figure out how many pentagons and hexagons are there in total on the surface of the ball?

Let the number of pentagons is equal to P and the number of hexagons is equal to H. Then the number of edges is equal to (5P + 6H)/2 – that’s because every pentagon has five edges, every hexagon has 6 edges and every edge belongs to 2 sides. Also, the number of vertices is equal to (5P + 6H)/3 – that’s because every pentagon has five vertices, every hexagon has 6 vertices and every vertex belongs to 3 sides. Now using Euler’s Theorem we get P + H + (5P + 6H)/3 – (5P + 6H)/2 = 2, or equivalently P/6=2 and therefore P = 12. Since around every pentagon there are exactly 5 hexagons and around every hexagon there are exactly 3 pentagons, we get H = 5P/3 = 20. Therefore, there are 12 pentagons and 20 hexagons on a soccer ball.

How many numbers between 1 and 100 can you pick at most, so that none of them divide another?

You can choose fifty numbers at most: 51, 52, 53, … , 100.

In order to see that you cannot choose more than fifty, express each number in the form 2ⁿ×m, where m is an odd number. Since no two numbers can have the same m in their expressions, and there are only fifty odd numbers between 1 and 100, the statement of the problem follows.

Kuku and Pipi decide to play a game. They arrange 50 coins in a line on the table, with various nominations. Then, alternating, each player takes on their turn one of the two coins at the ends of the line and keeps it. Kuku and Pipi continue doing this, until after the 50th move all coins are taken. Prove that whoever starts first can always collect coins with at least as much value as their opponent.

Remark: On the first turn, Kuku can pick either coin #1 or coin #50. If Kuku picks coin #1, then Pipi can pick on her turn either coin #2 or coin #50. If Kuku picks coin #50, then Pipi can pick on her turn either coin #1 or coin #49.

Let’s assume Kuku starts first. In the beginning, he calculates the total value of the coins placed on odd positions in the line and compares it with the total value of the coins placed on even positions in the line. If the former has a bigger total value, then on every turn he takes the end coin which was placed on odd position initially. If the latter has bigger value, then on every turn he takes the end coin which was placed on even position initially. It is easy to see that he can always do this because after each of Pipi’s turns there will be one “odd” coin and one “even” coin at the ends of the line.