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Sunday Afternoon Maths LIX

 Posted on 2017-04-23 

Turning squares

Each square on a chessboard contains an arrow point up, down, left or right. You start in the bottom left square. Every second you move one square in the direction shown by the arrow in your square. Just after you move, the arrow on the square you moved from rotates 90° clockwise. If an arrow would take you off the edge of the board, you stay in that square (the arrow will still rotate).
You win the game if you reach the top right square of the chessboard. Can I design a starting arrangement of arrows that will prevent you from winning?

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Elastic numbers

Throughout this puzzle, expressions like \(AB\) will represent the digits of a number, not \(A\) multiplied by \(B\).
A two-digit number \(AB\) is called elastic if:
  1. \(A\) and \(B\) are both non-zero.
  2. The numbers \(A0B\), \(A00B\), \(A000B\), ... are all divisible by \(AB\).
There are three elastic numbers. Can you find them?

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Square pairs

Source: Maths Jam
Can you order the integers 1 to 16 so that every pair of adjacent numbers adds to a square number?
For which other numbers \(n\) is it possible to order the integers 1 to \(n\) in such a way?

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If you enjoyed these puzzles, check out Advent calendar 2023,
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