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IT’S MATHS WEEK, and as is our annual tradition here, we’re setting you a puzzle a day with all answers published on the site on Sunday.
Get puzzling!
TODAY’S Q:
In a knock- out tennis tournament there are 32 contestants.
a. How many matches will the eventual winner play?
b. How many matches will there be in in total?
2. In a round robin competition every contestant plays every other contestant. If there are 5 contestants, how many matches will there be?
All answers will be published on TheJournal.ie on Sunday.
On a roll? Try some more of our Maths Week puzzles here.
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5
31
10
5. 31. 20
5
31
10
@Stephen McManus: 5 contestants each have to play 4 games in the round robin
@Dave O Keeffe: yeah, but they’re playing each other.. 4 + 3 + 2 + 1 =10
@John Doe: correct. My mistake.
@Dave O Keeffe: They do Dave but contestant 1 playing contestant 2 it’s the same match as contestant 2 playing contestant 1 so it’s 4+3+2+1
5/31/10
5
4
5
5 31 10
2^n=32 find n
1 left from 16+8+4+2+1 matches
ab,ac,ad,ae,bc,bd,be,cd,ce,de
have your say