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We consider problems that can be solved by asking certain queries. The deterministic query complexity $D(P,n)$ of a problem $P$ is the smallest number of queries needed to ask in order to find the solution with an input of size $n$ (in the…
Various forms of sorting problems have been studied over the years. Recently, two kinds of sorting puzzle apps are popularized. In these puzzles, we are given a set of bins filled with colored units, balls or water, and some empty bins.…
Winning probabilities of The Hat Game (Ebert's Hat Problem) with three players and three colors are only known in the symmetric case: all probabilities of the colors are equal. This paper solves the asymmetric case: probabilities may be…
Given an $n$-vertex graph $G$ and two positive integers $d,k \in \mathbb{N}$, the ($d,kn$)-differential coloring problem asks for a coloring of the vertices of $G$ (if one exists) with distinct numbers from 1 to $kn$ (treated as…
For a fixed integer $q$, the $q$-Coloring problem asks to decide if a given graph has a vertex coloring with $q$ colors such that no two adjacent vertices receive the same color. In a series of papers, it has been shown that for every $q…
We study a \emph{Plurality-Consensus} process in which each of $n$ anonymous agents of a communication network initially supports an opinion (a color chosen from a finite set $[k]$). Then, in every (synchronous) round, each agent can revise…
An ordered triple $(s,p,n)$ is called admissible if there exist two different multisets $X=\{x_1,x_2,\dotsc,x_n\}$ and $Y=\{y_1,y_2,\dotsc,y_n\}$ such that $X$ and $Y$ share the same sum $s$, the same product $p$, and the same size $n$. We…
A certain sampling process, concerning an urn with balls of two colors, proposed in 1965 by B.E. Oakley and R.L. Perry, and discussed by Peter Winkler and Martin Gardner, that has an extremely simple answer for the probability, namely the…
The kissing number problem asks for the maximal number k(n) of equal size nonoverlapping spheres in n-dimensional space that can touch another sphere of the same size. This problem in dimension three was the subject of a famous discussion…
We consider a variety of Euler's conjecture, i.e., whether the Diophantine system \[\begin{cases} n=a_{1}+a_{2}+\cdots+a_{s-1}, a_{1}a_{2}\cdots a_{s-1}(a_{1}+a_{2}+\cdots+a_{s-1})=b^{s} \end{cases}\] has solutions…
We consider a natural generalization of the Nagell-Ljunggren equation to the case where the qth power of an integer y, for q >= 2, has a base-b representation that consists of a length-l block of digits repeated n times, where n >= 2.…
An edge coloring of the n-vertex complete graph K_n is a Gallai coloring if it does not contain any rainbow triangle, that is, a triangle whose edges are colored with three distinct colors. We prove that the number of Gallai colorings of…
We generalize the Cannonball Problem by introducing integer-valued and non-increasing arithmetic functions $w$. We associate these functions $w$ with certain polygons, which we call cannonball polygons. Through this correspondence, we show…
We investigate a combinatorial puzzle in which $N$ apples and $N$ pears are distributed among baskets subject to two constraints: every basket must contain the same number of apples, and every basket must contain a distinct number of pears.…
Let $n$ be a squarefree positive odd integer. We will show that there exist infinitely many imaginary quadratic number fields with discriminant divisible by $n$ and-at the same time-having an element of order $n$ in the class group. We then…
A theorem of Galvin asserts that if the unordered pairs of reals are partitioned into finitely many Borel classes then there is a perfect set P such that all pairs from P lie in the same class. The generalization to n-tuples for n >= 3 is…
Since the 1960s Mastermind has been studied for the combinatorial and information theoretical interest the game has to offer. Many results have been discovered starting with Erd\H{o}s and R\'enyi determining the optimal number of queries…
Given a planar point set and an integer $k$, we wish to color the points with $k$ colors so that any axis-aligned strip containing enough points contains all colors. The goal is to bound the necessary size of such a strip, as a function of…
This paper studies Ebert's hat problem with four players and two colors, where the probabilities of the colors may be different for each player. Our goal is to maximize the probability of winning the game and to describe winning strategies…
We study the number of monochromatic solution to linear equation in $\{1,\dots,n\}$ when we color the set by at least three colors. We consider the $r$-commonness for $r\geq 3$ of linear equation with odd number of terms, and we also prove…