UOG Math Contest

October 2011 Problems (due October 31)

Show all the steps of the solution to get credit.

1. CAN YOU TRAVEL AROUND THE WORLD?

There are a number of ships on Guam. Each ship has the

same size of fuel tank, and when filled, it contains
enough fuel to take her halfway around the world. It is
possible to transfer fuel from one ship to another during
travel, but each ship can load fuel only up to the size of
the tank (i.e., no hidden tank) and there is no other
source of fuel available. The captains are told that one
ship must travel around the world and that every ship must return to Guam. Each ship is
allowed to refuel and go again once she comes back to Guam. What is the absolute
minimum number of ships needed so that one of them can travel around the world? Explain
your answer.

2. CAN YOU HELP GRACE FIND HER HOUSE?

Grace, a math student at UOG, recently moved onto

a street in which all of the houses looked exactly
alike and whose numbers ran 1, 2, 3, 4,
consecutively. After a hard day at UOG, she forgot
her exact address. However, Grace remembered that
her house number was somewhere in the thirties and
that, curiously, the sum of all the house numbers
less than hers was equal to the sum of all the house
numbers greater than hers. Determine Graces
address and the number of houses on her street.

3. BOXES

UOG Math Department received five boxes of different but unknown weights. Peter was
assigned the job of determining their respective weights. Unfortunately, all of the boxes
weigh less than100 pounds, and the scale available to him reads only weights over 100
pounds. Peter decides to weigh the boxes in pairs so that each
box is weighted with every other box. The weights of all
possible pairs are 110, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 120,
and 121 pounds. Now he can find the weights of five boxes,
how about you?