42 Points | Advanced Math Training Program

Pigeonhole Principle. Part 2

1. (Tournament of Towns, 1988) Show that it is possible to choose three numbers from a set of 7 integers,
such that their sum is divisible by 3.

2. (Moscow City, 1970) We number 99 cards 1 through 99. Then we shuffle the cards, lay them out
with the blank sides up and number the blank sides 1 through 99. We sum the two numbers of every
card and multiply the 99 sums. Prove that the product is an even number.

3. (Moscow City, 1967) Is it possible to write the numbers 1, 2, ... , 12 around a circle such that the
difference between any two consecutive numbers is either 3, 4 or 5?

4. (Puerto Rico, 2017) Given n numbers. Show that one of them is a multiple of n or some of them
add upto a multiple of n.

5. There are 25 students in a class. It is known that among any three of them there are at least two
that are friends. Show that there is a student who is friends with at least 12 other students.

6. Given 8 distinct positive integers not greater than 15. Show that among their positive differences
there are at least three that are the same.

7. Given a prime number p, such that p 6= 2 and p 6= 5. Show that there exists a number that consists
entirely of digit 1 and is divisible by p.

8. (Puerto Rico, 2011) Given 11 positive integers less than 21 each. Show that it is possible to choose
two of them, such that one divides another.

9. The decimal number x = 0.abcd... is obtained by the following rule: a and b are arbitrary digits, and
each next digit is the remainder of the sum of the previous two digits modulus 10. Show that x is a
strictly periodic decimal.

10. Each of the 9 lines divides a square into two quadrilaterals with the areas ratio being 2:3. Show that
at least three of them are concurrent.

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Hints and Ideas

1. Consider the remainders mod 3.

2. Show that there is a card with two odd numbers.

3. Start by showing noticing that 1, 2, 3, 10, 11, 12 cannot be consecutive.

4. Let the numbers be a1 , a2 , ... , an . Consider the numbers sk = a1 + ... + ak .

5. Consider two students who are not friends.

6. Use the fact that there are at most 14 positive differences.

7. Consider p + 1 numbers of the form 11...1.

8. Arrange all integers from 2 to 20 into 10 disjoint sets.

9. Consider the set of the pairs of all consecutive digits of this number.

10. Show that there are 4 such points inside a square.

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