Maths Olympiad Prep

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Combinatorics Difficulty 6.3 National olympiad Find the answer

Misha came to country with nn cities, and every 22 cities are connected by the road. Misha want visit some cities, but he doesn`t visit one city two time. Every time, when Misha goes from city AA to city BB, president of country destroy kk roads from city BB(president can`t destroy road, where Misha goes). What maximal number of cities Misha can visit, no matter how president does?

A number or a short expression. Spacing and $ signs are ignored.

Solution

1. Model the Problem as a Graph:
Let Kn K_n be a complete graph representing the n n cities. In a complete graph, every pair of distinct vertices is connected by a unique edge. This means that every city is connected to every other city by a road.

2. Constraints on Misha's Travel:
Misha cannot visit a city more than once. Each time Misha travels from city A A to city B B , the president destroys k k roads from city B B , except the road Misha used to enter city B B .

3. Determine the Maximum Number of Cities Misha Can Visit:
Assume Misha has visited t t cities. After visiting t t cities, Misha cannot continue if there are no more roads available to travel to a new city.

4. Calculate the Number of Destroyed Roads:
- Misha has traveled t1 t-1 times (since she starts at the first city and travels t1 t-1 times to visit t t cities).
- Each time Misha travels to a new city, the president destroys k k roads from that city.
- Therefore, the total number of destroyed roads is (t1)+k (t-1) + k .

5. Formulate the Inequality:
For Misha to be unable to continue her journey, the number of destroyed roads must be at least the total number of roads minus the roads she has used:
(t1)+kn1 (t-1) + k \geq n-1
Simplifying this inequality:
t1+kn1 t - 1 + k \geq n - 1
t+k1n1 t + k - 1 \geq n - 1
t+kn t + k \geq n
tnk t \geq n - k

6. Conclusion:
The maximum number of cities Misha can visit, regardless of how the president destroys the roads, is nk n - k .

The final answer is nk\boxed{n - k}.

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Source: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.