SIMON-MARAIS 2024 B1
- Paper B
Alice has six boxes labelled 1 through 6. She secretly chooses exactly two of the boxes and places a coin inside each. Bob is trying to guess which two boxes contain the coins. Each time Bob guesses, he does so by tapping exactly two of the boxes. Alice then responds by telling him the total number of coins inside the two boxes that he tapped. Bob successfully finds the two coins when Alice responds with the number 2.
What is the smallest positive integer such that Bob can always find the two coins in at most guesses?
Official text Simon Marais Mathematics Competition 2024 official paper, page 2. Quoted with source.
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