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Men of Smallvile (Posted on 2002-09-12) Difficulty: 3 of 5
A few facts about the male population of Smallvile:
  • No two male residents of Smallville have the same number of hairs on their heads.
  • No male resident of Smallvile has exactly 1003 hairs on his head.
  • There are more male residents of Smallvile than the number of hairs on the head of any of the residents.
So how many male residents of Smallvile can there be?

  Submitted by levik    
Rating: 3.0000 (7 votes)
Solution: (Hide)
Assume Smallvile has N male residents. Because of the third condition, the maxumum number of hairs on the head of any of them must be N-1. Also, because of the first condition, each man has a different number of hairs on their head. For this to be true, for any number from 0 to N-1, there has to be a male resident with that many hairs on their head.

If even one number from 0 to N-1 is not represented, there are no longer enough numbers for all the male residents to have a different hair count.

Since we know that the number 1003 in not represented, N cannot be such that N-1 >= 1003. Thus, N <= 1003, and 1003 is the maxumum number of men living in Smallvile.

Comments: ( You must be logged in to post comments.)
  Subject Author Date
AnswerK Sengupta2008-07-25 12:27:30
did i read that right?Renee2004-07-01 09:22:22
Oops...levik2002-09-24 20:17:40
could be rightDaniel2002-09-14 16:41:14
SolutionLex Luthor's revengeTomM2002-09-12 17:03:09
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