Train Your Brain!

Registration for the International Math Challenge (IMC) has begun. How should you prepare in the month
leading up to the competition?

--Should I immediately start going over all of the rules?

--Wait a second! Math is not about rules and memorization. Rather, math is about the understanding of the
concepts. Simply reviewing the rules won’t be of much help to you here.

--Should I go back and re-do the problems from previous years?

--Not a bad idea, but perhaps it sounds exhausting and no fun at all! Moreover, remember that there will be a
new set of problems this year.
--Maybe I should do nothing at all? But I need a warm-up! I feel rusty! How do I prepare my brain for the
challenge?

The answer is simple! It does not matter what type of mental exercise challenges your mind. In physical
sports, exercise makes you stronger, faster, and more flexible. Same goes for your mind. Put your mind to
work and make it think, try out different ideas, and look for a solution without help. Doing this will promote
your mental strength, speed, and flexibility.

Logic problems are a simple and pleasant way to “warm up” your brain. We have selected a group of problems
that take place in a magical world and have an elegant solution. We are certain that these problems will tease
your brain no matter how old you are or how prepared you are for the challenge. Bullseye! Solving these
problems will improve your logic skills and critical thinking. And this will take you one step further in becoming
a creative out-of-the box thinker.

Problem 1.

The octopi servants to the ocean king each have either six, seven, or eight tentacles. Those who have 7
tentacles always lie. Those who have either 6 or 8 tentacles always tell the truth. Four octopi are talking to
each other. The blue one says, “Altogether we have 28 tentacles.” The green one says, “Altogether we have
27 tentacles.” The yellow one says, “Altogether we have 26 tentacles.” The red one says, “Altogether we have
25 tentacles.” How many tentacles does each octopus have?
Problem 2.

100 parakeets are sitting in a tree. Some are green, some are yellow, and the rest are speckled. A crow was
flying by and ventured a question, “Are there more of you who are green than who are speckled?” To this, 50
parakeets replied “Yes!”, and the rest replied “No!” Happy to make conversation, the crow came up with a new
question. “Are there more speckled ones than there are yellow?” Once again, half of the parakeets replied
“Yes!” and the rest said “No!” We know that the green parakeets were truthful both times, yellow parakeets
lied both times, while each speckled parakeet told the truth one time and lied the other time. Could there have
been more yellow parakeets than green ones?
Problem 3.

200 people live in a town. Some of them are Honorable Knights who always tell the truth. The rest are Phonies
who always lie. Every person lives in one of the four parts of the town (A, B, C, and D). Every person was
asked four questions:

“Do you live in area A?”

“Do you live in area B?”
“Do you live in area C?”
“Do you live in area D?”

105 people replied to the first question in the affirmative, 45 to the second question, 85 to the third question,
and 65 to the fourth question.

How many Phonies live in town?

Problem 4.

A hippo, a crocodile, and a giraffe counted marbles of four colors – red, orange, yellow, and green. Each
animal correctly discriminated between two of these colors and confused the other two colors. One animal
confused red with orange, the second animal confused orange with yellow, and the third animal confused
yellow with green. The results of the count are shown in the Table. How should the table be filled correctly?
Problem 5 (to be solved on your own)

Fill in the circles with numbers 1, 2, 3, … 8 in such a way that no adjacent numbers (with the difference of 1)
appear in circles that are directly connected to each other with a line.

These problems have appeared in past mathematics competitions and other sources open to the public.
Solutions.
Problem 1.

If all of the octopi were lying, then they would all have had 7 tentacles for a total of 28 tentacles. However,
this contradicts the fact that the blue octopus calls the number 28 thus telling the truth. It follows that not all
four octopi are lying.

At the same time, all of the octopi contradict one another. Therefore, only one octopus is telling the truth, and
it has either 6 or 8 tentacles, while the remaining three octopi each have 7 tentacles. The total number of
tentacles is either 7 x 3 + 6 = 27 or 7 x 3 + 8 = 29 and this number should be the one called by the truthful
octopus. In this manner, the truthful octopus is green and has 6 tentacles, while the remaining octopi have 7
tentacles.

Problem 2.

Solution.

Both times, 50 parakeets told the truth – these were all the green birds and some speckled ones. For this
reason, the first time there were the same number of truthful speckled birds as the second time. The first
time, there were as many truthful speckled birds as the liars. And since an equal number of birds told the truth
and lied, then there was an equal number of green and yellow parakeets.

Answer.

There could not have been.

Note. Interestingly, the solution to the problem does not depend on the content of the question asked by the
crow. She might as well have asked whether the sky is blue or the sun is yellow. The only thing that matters is
that, both times, the “yes” and “no” responses were given by exactly half of the birds.

Problem 3.

Solution.

Let us count the total number of affirmative responses: 105 + 45 + 85 + 65 = 300.

In normal circumstances (if each person in town replied in the affirmative only once) there would have been
200 affirmative responses.
In the present case, however, each Knight provides only one affirmative while each Phony gives three
affirmative replies – this is two more than normal. That is why there are 100 more affirmative responses than
expected. It follows that there are 100 ÷ 2 = 50 Phonies living in town.

Answer.

50 Phonies.

Problem 4.

Only one animal could have made a mistake in counting red marbles, while the other two counted them
correctly. Therefore, there were 2 marbles. The giraffe was the one who confused red with orange, while
counting yellow and green marbles correctly. It follows that there are 8 yellow marbles and 9 green ones. The
rest are orange. All three animals correctly counted the total number of marbles at 23. This means that there
were 23 – 2 – 8 – 9 = 4 orange marbles.

Answer.

There were 2 red, 4 orange, 8 yellow, and 9 green marbles.

Problem 5.

Hint.

It is probably not worth your while to guess the answer by trying different variations. Only one number
variation will allow you to obtain an exact answer and address the symmetry of the diagram. If you are lucky,
and you quickly arrive at the variation (which is highly unlikely), the problem and its solution will still remain
uninteresting and fairly nonsensical. It makes much more sense to arrive at the solution in a logical manner.

Turn your attention to the circles in the center of the diagram. Will number 5 fit in one of these? Find all
possible numbers that can fit into the circle at the center of the diagram.