Math Puzzle - Juniors (Solution)

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Q1.
A conference had 720 people sitting in a circle. They are all either
truth-tellers or liars. All of them made the characteristic statement, "Both
the ones to my left and right are liars." What is the difference between the
maximum and minimum possible number of liars?

Answer:
120

Solution:
Given the fact that both liars and truth-tellers made this statement, the following must
be true:
1. The truth-tellers must have only liars neighbouring them.
2. The liars must have at least one truth-teller sitting next to them.
Using these two cases, we arrive at the conclusion that the maximum number of liars
occurs when two liars alternate with one truth-teller (this way, liars have exactly one
truth-teller next to them and truth-tellers have both liars next to them). This means
that two-thirds of the members are liars, which means that the total number of liars is
720 x 2/3 = 480.
The minimum number of liars occurs when one liar alternates with one truth-teller
(this way, liars have exactly two truth-tellers next to them and truth-tellers have both
liars next to them). This means that half of the members are liars, which means that the
total number of liars is 720x1/2 = 360.
Thus the difference in the maximum and minimum possible number of liars is 480-360 =
120.
Q2.
In the conclusion of the same conference, a person shakes hands with
every person except their neighbours, i.e., those to the immediate left and
right of them. (They did not like being accused of being liars.) There were n
handshakes in total in the conference. Find the value of (n/10000) where
your answer will be the largest integer less than or equal to the value in
the brackets.

Answer:
25 and 26

Solution:
There are 720 people in the conference. So, any one person can shake hands with 717
others (the three excluded are oneself and one’s neighbours). Now, this would mean a
total of 720x717 handshakes. But we have overcounted - every handshake is being
counted twice (for example, the handshake between persons 271 and 389 would be
counted first and then the handshake between persons 389 and 271 would also be
counted, which is clearly a repetition).
Thus for the overall answer, we can just divide by 2 and we get n = (720x717)/2 =
258120. Calculating n/10000 and rounding to the closest whole number we get 26. 25
was also accepted as an answer.
Q3.
A wedding had a certain number of guests which the hosts (they were
perfectionists) wanted to seat into a number of tables, such that all tables
had the same number of seats. However, they always encountered a
problem - when they tried with the number of seats as 2 through 10, they
discovered that one table always lacked one guest! Then, to their relief,
when they finally tried 11, all tables had the same number of seats
occupied. How many guests were invited to the wedding?

Answer:
2519

Solution:
When seated two per table, one guest was left at one table. Similarly, when seated
3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 people at a table, one table always had 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 seats occupied
only (respectively). Now that means that when the number of guests is divided by the
numbers 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10, it leaves the remainder 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 respectively.
For this to be correct, the number of guests must be any multiple of all the numbers
2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 - i.e. multiples of LCM(2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10) = 2520 - minus 1. The
subtraction of 1 ensures that the appropriate remainder is left. Checking for the
divisibility of 11 (since 11 guests per table leaves no odd table out), we see that 2520-1
= 2519 is divisible by 11. Thus, 2519 is the required answer.
Q4.
A woman once says to a census-taker that her three children have ages
that multiply up to 72 and add up to her house number. The census taker
says that this is insufficient information. However, the woman hastily
departs, saying she needed to “take care of her youngest child”. Hearing
this the census taker walks off, satisfied. What was the age of the youngest
child?

Answer:
2

Solution:
The ages of the children were integers that multiplied up to 72. Thus, the possible
triplets would be

Ages of Children (in ascending order) Sum of Ages

1,1,72 74

1,2,36 39

1,3,24 28

1,4,18 23

1,6,12 19

1,8,9 18

2,2,18 22

2,3,12 17

2,4,9 15

2,6,6 14

3,3,8 14

3,4,6 13
Now remember that we did not know what the sum of ages was, but the census taker
did. In spite of knowing the sum, the census taker said that the information given to her
was insufficient. This means that the only possible sum of ages is 14, since if it was any
other sum then there would only be one triplet that satisfies both conditions.
Later, the woman also mentions she has a “youngest child”, which means that (3,3,8) is
not a possible triplet since there is no “youngest child” in that triplet. Thus, the only
possible triplet is (2,6,6) and thus the age of the youngest child is 2 years old.
Q5.
There is a 100-story building from which, if an egg is dropped from a certain floor (call
this the “critical floor”) or higher, then it breaks. The egg does not break if it is dropped
from a floor strictly lower than the critical floor. You are given 3 eggs only to find out
what this critical floor is. If it is guaranteed that the critical floor lies somewhere in
between 1 and 100 inclusive of both, then what is the minimum number of trials
required in the worst case to find the critical floor?

Answer:
9 (bonus, since that was not included in the options)

Solution:
Actually, 14 happens to be the correct answer when there are only 2 eggs involved
instead of 3. We’ll explain that mechanism.
Consider a situation where you have to find the critical floor, but with using only one
egg. Then, since the egg can only be broken once, it is necessary that the critical floor
must be found before or when the egg breaks. This means that you have to go
floor-by-floor ascending to find the critical floor.
In this case, you have two eggs; this means that when you break your first egg, you
need to start going floor-by-floor. To minimize the number of steps you take to find the
critical floor, we can do something interesting and try reducing the number of steps
your second egg will need to take as we use more tries on the first egg. In this manner,
Let us try and limit ourselves to t tries, and let d2(t) be the function that gives the
number of floors we can check with 2 eggs and t tries, we get
d2(t) = 1 (the floor you just tried) + t-1 (the floors you will have to explore with 1 egg
and t-1 tries) + d2(t-1) (the floors you will have to explore with 2 eggs and t-1 tries)
=> d2(t) = t + d2(t-1)
=> d2(t) = t + t-1 + t-2 + t-3 ... 2 + 1 = t(t+1)/2
Thus, with t tries and 2 eggs, we can check a maximum of t(t+1)/2 floors. We find that
for t=13, we can explore 91 floors and for t=14, we can explore 105 floors. Thus we
require a minimum of 14 tries with 2 eggs.
Using the same argument for 3 eggs, we can get the equation
d3(t) = 1 + d2(t-1) + d3(t-1) = 1 + t(t-1)/2 + d3(t-1) = (t2-t+2)/2 + d3(t-1)
=> d3(t) = t(t2+5)/6
Thus, with t tries and 3 eggs, we can check a maximum of t(t2+5)/6 floors. We find that
for t=8, we can explore 92 floors and for t=9, we can explore 129 floors. Thus, we
require a minimum of 9 tries with 3 eggs.
Q6.
You are in an escape room. There are three doors, one that leads to an exit, and two
that are dead ends. Your goal is to exit. A chaperone stands at the doors. He asks you to
pick a door, after which he will open a door which is a dead end. (He is sensible enough
to only ever show such a door.) He now asks you whether you want to switch to the
door which is neither chosen nor opened. What is the difference in probability of
having picked the right door if you switched, versus if you stuck with your initial
choice?

Answer:
1/3

We were expecting this to be the hardest question, but we’re very impressed that most
of you got it - given that, I don’t think we even require a solution for this!