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More chameleons (Posted on 2002-07-30) Difficulty: 3 of 5
Long ago, there existed a species of fighting chameleons. These chameleons were divided into six types of matching color and strength:
  • Black were the strongest, followed by
  • blue,
  • green,
  • orange,
  • yellow and
  • white which were the weakest.

    Whenever two chameleons of the same color met, they would fight to the death and the victor would become stronger and change color (eg white to yellow). Black chameleons would fight eternally.

    The small island of Ula was initially populated by a group of fighting chameleons. For this group

    a) the colors present each had an equal number of chameleons (for example, group = 3 black, 3 green and 3 yellow)

    b) it was not made up entirely of white chameleons

    After all the possible fighting was done, there remained one black and green and no blue or orange chameleons.

    How many white chameleons remained in the island? Prove it.

  • See The Solution Submitted by Cheradenine    
    Rating: 3.5000 (14 votes)

    Comments: ( Back to comment list | You must be logged in to post comments.)
    re: solution | Comment 14 of 27 |
    (In reply to solution by TomM)

    "The first starting condition requires that for some number m, the number of chameleons at each level is either m or 0, so p(n) = m*L(n) or p(n) = 0. Thus P is evenly divisible by m.

    Since 41 and 43 are prime, m in those cases could only be 41 or 43 (all white) which violates the second starting condition."

    what if m = 1?
      Posted by Cheradenine on 2002-07-30 04:49:00

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