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TCS Ignite Open Lab: The Craft of Problem Solving - 1
TCS Ignite Open Lab: The Craft of Problem Solving - 1
Cover Page:
Lifting of Govardhan Hill
The hand drawn image on the cover depicts the lifting of Govardhan hill by Krishna as
found in Krishna Mandapa in Mammalapuram near Chennai. Trainees here at Ignite are
called to a life of humility, patience and calmness to bring out their fuller self and
overcome obstacles.
Krishna and the Govardhan Hill by J.P. Ignite, TCS
The Artist
J Prabhakar, known as J.P., is a Chennai based artist who specializes in pen-and-ink
line drawings. With no formal education in art, J.P. is entirely self-schooled. Although
his work is focused exclusively on the sacred arts and his themes tend to be temples,
monuments and sculptures, he innovates constantly in terms of technique, technology,
materials, form and content. His pursuit of excellence is a constant source of
inspiration.
The Challenge
In the following problems, = 20 + units digit of your day of birth. For example, if you
were born on April 1st, then = 20 + 1 = 21. If you were born on March 30th, then = 20
+ 0 = 20. You can solve any three of the seven given problems.
1. Alok and Bhanu play the following game on arithmetic expressions. Given the
expression
N = ( + A)/B + ( + C + D)/E
where A, B, C, D and E are variables representing digits (0 to 9), Alok would like to
maximize N while Bhanu would like to minimize it. Towards this end, they take turns in
instantiating the variables. Alok starts and, at each move, proposes a value (digit 0-9)
and Bhanu substitutes the value for a variable of her choice. Assuming both play to their
optimal strategies, what is the value of N at the end of the game? Also find a sequence
of moves (digits by Alok and variables by Bhanu) that would yield this value.
Note: Moves that lead to a divide-by-zero condition are disallowed. A non-optimal
sequence of moves is (5 B, 6 C , 3 D, 2 E, 0 A) and the expression
evaluates to /5 + (+9)/2.
2. The mean, unique mode, median and range of 21 positive integers is 21. What is the
largest value that can be in this sequence? Also find such a sequence.
Note: Given a sequence of numbers a(1) a(2) ... a(n),
The range is the difference between the largest and the smallest values, i.e.
a(n) - a(1).
What is the smallest number of articles in the bag satisfying these conditions? How
many of these are of each kind?
6. Given a 9 x chessboard, a rook is placed at the lower left corner. Players A and B
7. A spaceship on an inter-galactic tour has to transfer some cargo from a base camp to
a station 100 light sec away through an asteroid belt. The ship can carry a maximum of
100 kgs of cargo and, as a result of colliding against the asteroids, every 2 light sec of
travel causes it to lose 1 kg of cargo. There are 300 kgs of cargo available at the base
camp. Find the maximum amount of cargo (in kg) that the ship can transfer to the
station? Assume that the spaceship can store the cargo at any intermediate point along
the way and that stored cargo is not depleted by the asteroids.
Prerequisites
Prerequisites
Any science graduate registered in Open Ignite can attempt this challenge. The
challenge only requires knowledge of basic mathematics and a general mathematical
thinking ability.
Submission Process
You will need to submit a document containing the solution to the problems as well as
the steps you have followed to arrive at the solution. The submissions can be in txt, .doc
or .pdf format
Evaluation
You will be evaluated based on the following parameters.
S.No.
1.
Parameter
Problem comprehension
2.
Correctness of solution
3.