The following operation is allowed on the positive integers: if a number is even, we can divide it by $2$, otherwise we can multiply it by a power of $3$ (different from $3^0$) and add $1$. Prove that we can reach $1$ from any starting positive integer $n$.

What is the largest two-digit integer for which the product of its digits is $17$ more than their sum?

Every non-negative integer is coloured white or red, so that: • there are at least a white number and a red number; • the sum of a white number and a red number is white; • the product of a white number and a red number is red. Prove that the product of two red numbers is always a red number, and the sum of two red numbers is always a red number.

A real number sequence $a_1, \cdots ,a_{2021}$ satisfies the below conditions. $$a_1=1, a_2=2, a_{n+2}=\frac{2a_{n+1}^2}{a_n+a_{n+1}} (1\leq n \leq 2019)$$ Let the minimum of $a_1, \cdots ,a_{2021}$ be $m$, and the maximum of $a_1, \cdots ,a_{2021}$ be $M$. Let a 2021 degree polynomial $$P(x):=(x-a_1)(x-a_2) \cdots (x-a_{2021})$$ $|P(x)|$ is maximum in $[m, M]$ when $x=\alpha$. Show that $1<\alpha <2$.

The vertices of $\triangle ABC$ are $A = (0,0)$, $B = (0,420)$, and $C = (560,0)$. The six faces of a die are labeled with two $A$'s, two $B$'s, and two $C$'s. Point $P_1 = (k,m)$ is chosen in the interior of $\triangle ABC$, and points $P_2$, $P_3$, $P_4, \dots$ are generated by rolling the die repeatedly and applying the rule: If the die shows label $L$, where $L \in \{A, B, C\}$, and $P_n$ is the most recently obtained point, then $P_{n + 1}$ is the midpoint of $\overline{P_n L}$. Given that $P_7 = (14,92)$, what is $k + m$?

Let $f$ be a continuously differentiable function on $[0, 1]$ and $m \in \mathbb{N}$. Let $A = f(1)$ and let $B=\int \limits_{0}^1 x^{-\frac{1}{m}}f(x)dx$. Calculate $$\lim \limits_{n \to \infty} n\left(\int \limits_{0}^1 f(x)dx-\sum \limits_{k=1}^n \left(\frac{k^m}{n^m}-\frac{(k-1)^m}{n^m}\right)f\left(\frac{(k-1)^m}{n^m}\right)\right)$$in terms of $A$ and $B$.

Find all possible non-negative integer solution ($x,$ $y$) of the following equation- $$x!+2^y=z!$$ Note: $x!=x\cdot(x-1)!$ and $0!=1$. For example, $5!=5\times4\times3\times2\times1=120$.

A square with sides of length $6$ has the same area as a rectangle with a length of $9$. What is the width of the rectangle? $\textbf{(A) } 2\qquad\textbf{(B) } \frac73\qquad\textbf{(C) } 3\qquad\textbf{(D) } \frac{10}{3}\qquad\textbf{(E) } 4$

Compute the value of $$\sin^2 20^{\circ} + \cos^2 50^{\circ} + \sin 20^{\circ} \cos 50^{\circ}.$$ [i](Source: China National High School Mathematics League 2021, Zhejiang Province, Problem 2)[/i]

Determine the largest positive integer $n$ such that the following statement holds: If $a_1,a_2,a_3,a_4,a_5,a_6$ are six distinct positive integers less than or equal to $n$, then there exist $3$ distinct positive integers ,from these six, say $a,b,c$ s.t. $ab>c,bc>a,ca>b$.

Given a $ 1 \times 25$ rectangle divided into $ 25$ "boxes" ($ 1 \times 1$), is it possible to write integers $ 1$ to $ 25$ so that the sum of any two adjacent "boxes" is a perfect square?

Consider a $100\times 100$ square unit lattice $\textbf{L}$ (hence $\textbf{L}$ has $10000$ points). Suppose $\mathcal{F}$ is a set of polygons such that all vertices of polygons in $\mathcal{F}$ lie in $\textbf{L}$ and every point in $\textbf{L}$ is the vertex of exactly one polygon in $\mathcal{F}.$ Find the maximum possible sum of the areas of the polygons in $\mathcal{F}.$ [i]Michael Ren and Ankan Bhattacharya, USA[/i]

Let $ X$ be a set of $ k$ vertexes on a plane such that no three of them are collinear. Let $ P$ be the family of all $ {k \choose 2}$ segments that connect each pair of points. Determine $ \tau(P)$.

The graph of $r=2+\cos2\theta$ and its reflection over the line $y=x$ bound five regions in the plane. Find the area of the region containing the origin.

Find one pair of positive integers $a,b$ such that $ab(a+b)$ is not divisible by $7$, but $(a+b)^7-a^7-b^7$ is divisible by $7^7$.

Let $k$ be a positive integer. Show that exists positive integer $n$, such that sets $A = \{ 1^2, 2^2, 3^2, ...\}$ and $B = \{1^2 + n, 2^2 + n, 3^2 + n, ... \}$ have exactly $k$ common elements.

Let $n>1$ be a positive integer. Each cell of an $n\times n$ table contains an integer. Suppose that the following conditions are satisfied: [list=1] [*] Each number in the table is congruent to $1$ modulo $n$. [*] The sum of numbers in any row, as well as the sum of numbers in any column, is congruent to $n$ modulo $n^2$. [/list] Let $R_i$ be the product of the numbers in the $i^{\text{th}}$ row, and $C_j$ be the product of the number in the $j^{\text{th}}$ column. Prove that the sums $R_1+\hdots R_n$ and $C_1+\hdots C_n$ are congruent modulo $n^4$.

Acute triangle $ABP$, where $AB > BP$, has altitudes $BH$, $PQ$, and $AS$. Let $C$ denote the intersection of lines $QS$ and $AP$, and let $L$ denote the intersection of lines $HS$ and $BC$. If $HS = SL$ and $HL$ is perpendicular to $BC$, find the value of $\frac{SL}{SC}$.

a) Let $ax^3 + bx^2 + cx + d$ be divisible by $5$ for given positive integers $a, b, c, d$ and any integer $x$. Prove that $a, b, c$ and $d$ are all divisible by $5$. b) Let $ax^4 + bx^3 + cx^2 + dx + e$ be divisible by $7$ for given positive integers $a, b, c, d, e$ and all integers $x$. Prove that $a, b, c, d$ and $e$ are all divisible by $7$.

Find all functions $f : \Bbb{Q}_{>0}\to \Bbb{Z}_{>0}$ such that $$f(xy)\cdot \gcd\left( f(x)f(y), f(\frac{1}{x})f(\frac{1}{y})\right) = xyf(\frac{1}{x})f(\frac{1}{y}),$$ for all $x, y \in \Bbb{Q}_{>0,}$ where $\gcd(a, b)$ denotes the greatest common divisor of $a$ and $b.$

Let $D_{1}, D_{2}, . . . , D_{n}$ be rectangular parallelepipeds in space, with edges parallel to the $x, y, z$ axes. For each $D_{i}$, let $x_{i} , y_{i} , z_{i}$ be the lengths of its projections onto the $x, y, z$ axes, respectively. Suppose that for all pairs $D_{i}$ , $D_{j}$, if at least one of $x_{i} < x_{j}$ , $y_{i} < y_{j}$, $z_{i} < z_{j}$ holds, then $x_{i} \leq x_{j}$ , $y_{i} \leq y_{j}$, and $z_{i} < z_{j}$ . If the volume of the region $\bigcup^{n}_{i=1}{D_{i}}$ equals 1997, prove that there is a subset $\{D_{i_{1}}, D_{i_{2}}, . . . , D_{i_{m}}\}$ of the set $\{D_{1}, . . . , D_{n}\}$ such that $(i)$ if $k \not= l $ then $D_{i_{k}} \cap D_{i_{l}} = \emptyset $, and $(ii)$ the volume of $\bigcup^{m}_{k=1}{D_{i_{k}}}$ is at least 73.

The sequence $\{a_n\}$ is defined as follows: $a_1$ is a positive rational number, $a_n= \frac{p_n}{q_n}$, ($n= 1,2,…$) is a positive integer, where $p_n$ and $q_n$ are positive integers that are relatively prime, then $a_{n+1} = \frac{p_n^2+2015}{p_nq_n}$ Is there a$_1>2015$, making the sequence $\{a_n\}$ a bounded sequence? Justify your conclusion.

There are $2006$ points marked on the surface of a sphere. Prove that the surface can be cut into $2006$ congruent pieces so that each piece contains exactly one of these points inside it.

$n(\geq 2)$ is a given integer and $T$ is set of all $n\times n$ matrices whose entries are elements of the set $S=\{1,\cdots,2017\}$. Evaluate the following value. \[\sum_{A\in T} \text{det}(A)\]

Solve the system of equations: \[ x+y+z=a \] \[ x^2+y^2+z^2=b^2 \] \[ xy=z^2 \] where $a$ and $b$ are constants. Give the conditions that $a$ and $b$ must satisfy so that $x,y,z$ are distinct positive numbers.