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43. Can you place ten lumps of sugar in three empty cups so that

there is an odd number of lumps in each cup?

User Iodnas
by
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1 Answer

5 votes

Answer: No.

Explanation:

We have 10 lumps of sugar, and we want to divide them into 3 cups, in such a way that there is an odd number of lumps in each cup.

This only can happen if we have 3 odd numbers such that the addition is equal to 10.

Now 10 is an even number, remember that even numbers can be written as:

2*k

where k is an integer number.

And odd numbers can be written as:

2*n + 1

where n is an integer.

Then we have 3 odd numbers, let's call them:

(2*n + 1), (2*k + 1) and (2*p + 1).

Now let's add them:

(2*n + 1) + (2*k + 1) + (2*p + 1).

2*(n + k + p) + 1 + 1+ 1

2*(n + k + p) + 2 + 1 =

2*(n + k + p + 1) + 1.

Now, the number n + k + p + 1 is an integer number, let's call it X, then we have that the addition of the 3 odd numbers is:

2*X + 1

This is an odd number

So for any 3 odd numbers that we add together, the result will always be an odd number.

Then is impossible to add 3 odd numbers and get 10 as the result (Again, 10 is an even number).

Then is not possible to have an odd number of lumps in each cup.

User JBildstein
by
4.6k points
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