Five teams play a round-robin league, a single round.
Rules:
- victory: 3 points,
- tie: 1 point per team,
- defeat: 0 points.
In the end, the five teams end up tied on points, and that common score is odd.
How many games ended in a draw?
Home > Riddles > The tournament of ties
Five teams play a round-robin league, a single round.
Rules:
In the end, the five teams end up tied on points, and that common score is odd.
How many games ended in a draw?
Back to problem
Answer: there were exactly 5 ties.
With 5 teams, the total number of matches is:
$$ \binom{5}{2}=10. $$
If there were no ties, they would be distributed:
$$ 10\times3=30 $$
points.
Each tie distributes 2 points instead of 3, so each tie subtracts 1 from the overall total.
If $e$ is the number of ties:
$$ \text{puntos totales}=30-e. $$
Also, they all end up with the same odd score $p$, so:
$$ 5p=30-e. $$
The total points must be between 20 and 30, and be an odd multiple of 5. The only possible value is 25.
So:
$$ 30-e=25 \Rightarrow e=5. $$
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