For Questions 1 and 2 below, full working to justify your answer is required

1. The numbers 1, 2, 3, … , 620 are filled up in Tables A and B in the following

manner:

In Table A, the numbers 1, 2, … , 31 are filled up in the first row, followed by

the numbers 32, 33, … , 62 in the second row. This continues until the 20th row,
where the numbers 590, 591, … , 620 are filled up.

In Table B, the numbers 1, 2, … , 20 are filled up in the last column, starting

from the first row. The numbers 21, 22, … , 40 are then filled up in the second
last column, starting from the first row. This continues until the 1st column,
where the numbers 601, 602, 603, … , 620 are filled up.

1 2 … 31 601 … 21 1
32 33 … 62 602 … 22 2

590 591 … 620 620 … 40 20

Table A Table B

Determine, with proof, all numbers which are in the same positions in both
Tables A and B.

2. 26 different numbers are randomly arranged into a circle.

Show that it is always possible to find 4 neighbouring numbers such that the
sum of the 2 numbers in the centre is greater than the 2 numbers at the 2 ends
 (Solutions)

1. The entry in the i-th row and j-th column in

Table A is given by 31(i – 1) + j,

Table B is given by 20(31 – j) + i.

Hence for the entries to be equal we must have 31(i – 1) + j = 20(31 – j) + i.

Simplifying, we have 30i + 21j = 21(31).

gcd(7, 30) = 1, we must have i to be a multiple of 7. And since 1  i  20, we

must have i = 7 or 14.

This corresponds to j = 21 and 11, and in those entries we have 207 and 414.

2. Supposed c is the largest among all the 26 numbers.

Consider the 5 neighbouring numbers a, b, c, d, e. Since the numbers are all

different, so either b  d or d  b.

1) If b  d, then in a, b, c, d, we have b  c  a  d since c > a

2) If d  b, then in b, c, d, e, we have c  d  b  e since c > e

So we can always find 4 neighbouring numbers such that the sum of the 2
numbers in the centre is greater than the 2 numbers at the 2 ends.