A palindrome in base $b$ is a positive integer whose base-$b$ digits read the same backwards and forwards; for example, $2002$ is a $4$-digit palindrome in base $10$. Note that $200$ is not a palindrome in base $10$, but it is a $3$-digit palindrome: $242$ in base $9$, and $404$ in base $7$. Prove that there is an integer which is a $3$-digit palindrome in base $b$ for at least $2002$ different values of $b$.

In quadrilateral $ABCD$, $AB \parallel CD$ and $BC \perp AB$. Lines $AC$ and $BD$ intersect at $E$. If $AB = 20$, $BC = 2016$, and $CD = 16$, find the area of $\triangle BCE$. [i]Proposed by Harrison Wang[/i]

As shown in the figure, given $\vartriangle ABC$ with $\angle B$, $\angle C$ acute angles, $AD \perp BC$, $DE \perp AC$, $M$ midpoint of $DE$, $AM \perp BE$. Prove that $\vartriangle ABC$ is isosceles. [img]https://cdn.artofproblemsolving.com/attachments/a/8/f553c33557979f6f7b799935c3bde743edcc3c.png[/img]

Consider a triangle $\vartriangle ABC$ with $AB = 5$ and $BC = 4$. Let $G$ be the centroid of the triangle, and let $P$ lie on line $AG$ such that $AG = GP$ and $P\ne A$. Suppose that $P$ lies on the circumcircle of $\vartriangle ABC$. Compute $CA$.

Find all functions $f: \mathbb{Z}\rightarrow\mathbb{Z}$ such that for all $x,y \in \mathbb{Z}$: \[f(x-y+f(y))=f(x)+f(y).\]

There is a lamp on each cell of a $2017 \times 2017$ board. Each lamp is either on or off. A lamp is called [i]bad[/i] if it has an even number of neighbours that are on. What is the smallest possible number of bad lamps on such a board? (Two lamps are neighbours if their respective cells share a side.)

Find the sum of all possible $n$ such that $n$ is a positive integer and there exist $a, b, c$ real numbers such that for every integer $m$, the quantity $\frac{2013m^3 + am^2 + bm + c}{n}$ is an integer.

Solve the system of equations $$\begin{cases} \sin^3 x+\sin^4 y=1 \\ \cos^4 x+\cos^5 y =1\end{cases}$$

Let a board game has $10$ cards: $3$ [b]skull[/b] cards, $5$ [b]coin[/b] cards and $2$ [b]blank[/b] cards. We put these $10$ cards downward and shuffle them and take cards one by one from the top. Once $3$ [b]skull[/b] cards or [b]coin[/b] cards appears we stop. What is the possibility of it stops because there appears $3$ [b]skull[/b] cards?

$M$ is any point on the side $AB$ of the triangle $ABC$. $r,r_1,r_2$ are the radii of the circles inscribed in $ABC,AMC,BMC$. $q$ is the radius of the circle on the opposite side of $AB$ to $C$, touching the three sides of $AB$ and the extensions of $CA$ and $CB$. Similarly, $q_1$ and $q_2$. Prove that $r_1r_2q=rq_1q_2$.

Find all solutions of the following system of $n$ equations in $n$ variables: \[\begin{array}{c}\ x_1|x_1| - (x_1 - a)|x_1 - a| = x_2|x_2|,x_2|x_2| - (x_2 - a)|x_2 - a| = x_3|x_3|,\ \vdots \ x_n|x_n| - (x_n - a)|x_n - a| = x_1|x_1|\end{array}\] where $a$ is a given number.

A sequence $\{a_n\}_{n\geq 1}$ of positive reals is defined by the rule $a_{n+1}a_{n-1}^5=a_n^4a_{n-2}^2$ for integers $n>2$ together with the initial values $a_1=8$ and $a_2=64$ and $a_3=1024$. Compute \[\sqrt{a_1+\sqrt{a_2+\sqrt{a_3+\cdots}}}\]

The altitudes through the vertices $A,B,C$ of an acute-angled triangle $ABC$ meet the opposite sides at $D,E,F,$ respectively. The line through $D$ parallel to $EF$ meets the lines $AC$ and $AB$ at $Q$ and $R$, respectively. The line $EF$ meets $BC$ at $P$. Prove that the circumcircle of the triangle $PQR$ passes through the midpoint of $BC$.

Let $a,b,c $be positive real numbers.Prove that $\frac{8}{(a+b)^2 + 4abc} + \frac{8}{(b+c)^2 + 4abc} + \frac{8}{(a+c)^2 + 4abc} + a^2 + b^2 + c ^2 \ge \frac{8}{a+3} + \frac{8}{b+3} + \frac{8}{c+3}$.

At a party there are $n$ women and $n$ men. Each woman likes $r$ of the men, and each man likes $s$ of then women. For which $r$ and $s$ must there be a man and a woman who like each other?

Let $ m, n $ natural numbers with $ m\ge 2,n\ge 3. $ Prove that there exist $ m $ distinct multiples of $ n-1, $ namely, $ a_1,a_2,a_3,...,a_m, $ such that: $$ \frac{1}{n} =\sum_{i=1}^m \frac{(-1)^{i-1}}{a_i} . $$

What is the largest positive integer that cannot be expressed as a sum of non-negative integer multiple of $13$, $17$, and $23$?

Let $ P(x)$ be a polynomial with real coefficients such that $ P(x) > 0$ for all $ x \geq 0.$ Prove that there exists a positive integer n such that $ (1 \plus{} x)^n \cdot P(x)$ is a polynomial with nonnegative coefficients.

$\omega_1,\omega_2$ are orthogonal circles, and their intersections are $P,P'$. Another circle $\omega_3$ meets $\omega_1$ at $Q,Q'$, and $\omega_2$ at $R,R'$. (The points $Q,R,Q',R'$ are in clockwise order.) Suppose $P'R$ and $PR'$ meet at $S$, and let $T$ be the circumcenter of $\triangle PQR$. Prove that $T,Q,S$ are collinear if and only if $O_1,S,O_3$ are collinear. ($O_i$ is the center of $\omega_i$ for $i=1,2,3$.)

Last year, Master Cheung is famous for multi-rotation. This year, he comes to DAMO to make noodles for sweeping monk. One day, software engineer Xiao Li talks with Master Cheung about his job. Xiao Li mainly researches and designs the algorithm to adjust the paramter of different kinds of products. These paramters can normally be obtainly by minimising loss function $f$ on $\mathbb{R}^n$. In the recent project of Xiao Li, this loss function is obtained by other topics. For safety consideration and technique reasons, this topic makes Xiao Li difficult to find the interal details of the function. They only provide a port to calculate the value of $f(\text x)$ for any $\text x\in\mathbb{R}^n$. Therefore, Xiao Li must only use the value of the function to minimise $f$. Also, every times calculating the value of $f$ will use a lot of calculating resources. It is good to know that the dimension $n$ is not very high (around $10$). Also, colleague who provides the function tells Xiao Li to assume $f$ is smooth first. This problem reminds Master Cheung of his antique radio. If you want to hear a programme from the radio, you need to turn the knob of the radio carefully. At the same time, you need to pay attention to the quality of the radio received, until the quality is the best. In this process, no one knows the relationship between the angle of turning the knob and the quality of the radio received. Master Cheung and Xiao Li realizes that minimising $f$ is same as adjusting the machine with multiple knobs: Assume every weight of $\text x$ is controlled by a knob. $f(\text x)$ is a certain performance of the machine. We only need to adjust every knobs again and again and observes the value of $f$ in the same time. Maybe there is hope to find the best $\text x$. As a result, two people suggest an iteration algorithm (named Automated Forward/Backward Tuning, $\text{AFBT}$, to minimise $f$. In $k$-th iteration, the algorithm adjusts the individual weight of $\text{x}_k$ to $2n$ points $\{\text x_k\pm t_k\text e^i:i=1,...,n\}$, where $t_k$ is the step size; then, make $y_k$ be the smallest one among the value of the function of thosse points. Then check if $\text y_k$ sufficiently makes $f$ decrease; then, take $\text x_{k+1}=\text y_k$, then make the step size doubled. Otherwise, make $\text x_{k+1}=\text x_k$ and makes the step size decrease in half. In the algorithm, $\text e^i$ is the $i$-th coordinate vector in $\mathbb{R}^n$. The weight of $i$-th is $1$. Others are $0$; $\mathbf{1}(\cdot)$ is indicator function. If $f(\text x_k)-f(\text y_k)$ is at least the square of $t_k$, then take the value of $\mathbf{1}(f(\text k)-f(y_k)\ge t^2_k)$ as $1$. Otherwise, take it as $0$. $\text{AFBT}$ algorithm Input $\text{x}_0\in \mathbb{R}^n$, $t_0>0$. For $k=0, 1, 2, ...$, perform the following loop: 1: #Calculate loss function. 2: $s_k:=\mathbb{1}[f(\text{x}_k)-f(\text{y}_k)\ge t^2_k]$ #Is it sufficiently decreasing? Yes: $s_k=1$; No: $s_k=0$. 3: $\text{x}_{k+1}:=(1-s_k)\text{x}_k+s_k\text{y}_k$ #Update the point of iteration. 4: $t_{k+1}:=2^{2S_k-1}t_k$ #Update step size. $s_k=1$: Step size doubles; $s_k=0$: Step size decreases by half. Now, we made assumption to the loss function $f:\mathbb{R}^n\to \mathbb{R}$. Assumption 1. Let $f$ be a convex function. For any $\text{x}, \text{y}\in \mathbb{R}^n$ and $\alpha \in [0, 1]$, we have $f((1-\alpha)\text{x}+\text{y})\le (1-\alpha)f(\text{x})+\alpha f(\text{y})$. Assumption 2. $f$ is differentiable on $\mathbb{R}^n$ and $\nabla f$ is L-Lipschitz continuous on $\mathbb{R}^n$. Assumption 3. The level set of $f$ is bounded. For any $\lambda\in\mathbb{R}$, set $\{\text x\in \mathbb{R}^n:f(\text x)\le \lambda\}$ is all bounded. Based on assumption 1 and 2, we can prove that $\left\langle \nabla f(\text x),\text y-\text x \right\rangle \le f(\text y)-f(\text x)\le \left\langle \nabla f(\text x),\text y-\text x\right\rangle+\frac{L}{2}||\text x-\text y||^2$ You can refer to any convex analysis textbook for more properties of convex function. Prove that under the assumption 1-3, for $AFBT$, $\lim_{k \to \infty}f(\text{x}_k)=f^*$

Prove that there are infinitely many positive integers $n$ such that $2^{2^n+1}+1$ is divisible by $n$ but $2^n+1$ is not. [i](Russia) Valery Senderov[/i]

Can number $2012^n-3^n$ be perfect square, while $n$ is positive integer

Let $m$ and $n$ be fixed distinct positive integers. A wren is on an infinite board indexed by $\mathbb Z^2$, and from a square $(x,y)$ may move to any of the eight squares $(x\pm m, y\pm n)$ or $(x\pm n, y \pm m)$. For each $\{m,n\}$, determine the smallest number $k$ of moves required to travel from $(0,0)$ to $(1,0)$, or prove that no such $k$ exists. [i]Proposed by Michael Ren

Find the number of ordered pairs $(A,B)$ such that the following conditions hold: $\bullet$ $A$ and $B$ are disjoint subsets of $\{1, 2, . . . , 50\}$. $\bullet$ $|A| = |B| = 25$ $\bullet$ The median of $B$ is $1$ more than the median of $A$.

Let $k$ be a positive integer. The organising commitee of a tennis tournament is to schedule the matches for $2k$ players so that every two players play once, each day exactly one match is played, and each player arrives to the tournament site the day of his first match, and departs the day of his last match. For every day a player is present on the tournament, the committee has to pay $1$ coin to the hotel. The organisers want to design the schedule so as to minimise the total cost of all players' stays. Determine this minimum cost.