Second round

Dutch Mathematical Olympiad

Friday 15 March 2024

• Time available: 2.5 hours.

• The competition consists of five B-problems and two C-problems.
• You are not allowed to use a calculators or other electronic device, nor a formula sheet. You can only
use a pen, compass, ruler, set square, and of course your mental skills.
• Good luck!

B-problems
In B-problems, you only have to give the answer (e.g. a number). An explanation is not required. You will get 4
points for a correct answer and 0 points for a wrong or incomplete answer. So work calmly and accurately, as a small
miscalculation may result in your answer being wrong.
√
REMEMBER: give your answers in exact and simplified form such as 11
81
or 2 + 1
2
5 or 1
4
π + 1 or 3100 .

B1. Milou has 100 long envelopes of different sizes. Each envelope has a width equal to one of the
integers 21, . . . , 30 and a height equal to one of the integers 11, . . . , 20 and each combination
occurs exactly once. Milou wants to organise the envelopes into piles. An envelope may only
be placed on top of another envelope if both its width and height are smaller than that of the
envelope she is placing it on. So the size 26×15 envelope is allowed on top of the 29×17 envelope,
but not on the 29×15 envelope or the 26×17 envelope.
What is the smallest number of piles into which Milou can organise the envelopes?

B2. Charlie has a thick book of n pages in which, after opening, the first page on the right shows the
page number 1. Then all the pages are numbered continuously so that if you open the book just
anywhere, you see an even page number on the left and an odd page number on the right. The
very last page before the back cover has an even number. Unfortunately, someone tore a whole
sheet of paper out of the book. Charlie counts the total number of digits of the page numbers on
the n − 2 remaining pages and arrives at a total of 2024 digits. (Note that this is not the sum of
the page numbers.)
What is n?

B3. At Pythagoras Lyceum, all classes have a maximum of 25 students. A survey is held in one of
the classes about all sorts of things and everyone fills in all the questions. In this class, it turns
out that 31% of the students have a black bicycle and 94% live more than 1 km away from the
school. These percentages have been rounded to the closest integer.
How many students are in that class?

PLEASE CONTINUE ON THE OTHER SIDE

B4. We define the number A as the digit 4 followed by 2024 times the digit combination 84, and the
number B by 2024 times the digit combination 84 followed by a 7. So, to illustrate, we have

A = 4 84
| .{z
. . 84} and B = |84 .{z
. . 84} 7.
4048 digits 4048 digits

A
Simplify the fraction B as much as possible.

B5. Of a regular decagon ABCDEF GHIJ with sides of length 12, M is the centre. Let S be the
intersection of M C and AD.
Calculate the difference between the perimeter of quadrilateral ABCD and the perimeter of
triangle DM S.

C-problems
For the C-problems not only the answer is important; you also have to write down a clear reasoning that shows the
correctness of your answer. A correct and well-explained answer is awarded 10 points. Partial solutions may also be
worth some points. Therefore, write everything down clearly and hand in your drafts.
ATTENTION: Use separate sheets of paper for each C-problem and also hand in the drafts for each problem separately.

C1. Let n be a positive integer. A grasshopper stands on the number line at the number 1 and may
make either a jump of length 2 or of length 3 each time. Each time, the grasshopper must land
on an integer from 1 through n where the grasshopper has not been before. The grasshopper
would like to visit all integers from 1 through n exactly once and land on the number n.
Prove that this can be done for all n ⩾ 9.

C2. Eva looks at “words” consisting of n characters, each equal to ‘L’ or ‘R’. In one turn, Eva may
replace ‘RL’ anywhere in the word with ‘LR’. For example, in two turns, she takes the word
‘LRRLRRLR’ to the word ‘LRLRRLRR’. If there is no ‘L’ immediately to the right of an ‘R’,
Eve cannot make a turn.

(a) Eva has such a word of length n. Prove that Eva can only make a finite number of turns.
(b) Given n > 1 and ℓ with 0 < ℓ < n. For every word of length n with exactly ℓ times an ‘L’
Eva writes down how many turns she can take at most. What is the biggest number she
wrote down? (Give your answer in terms of n and ℓ.)
Prove that your answer is correct. This means: give a word of length n with exactly ℓ times
the character ‘L’ for which the maximum number of turns is achieved and prove that the
maximum number of turns for all other words of length n with exactly ℓ times the character
‘L’ cannot be greater.
(c) Let n ⩾ 2. For every word of length n (with 1 or more times an ‘L’ and 1 or more times
an ‘R’) Eva writes down how many turns she can take at most. How many characters ‘L’
contains the word (or words) for which she has written down the biggest number? (Give
your answer in terms of n.)

© 2024 Stichting Nederlandse Wiskunde Olympiade