There is a smallest positive real number $a$ such that there exists a positive real number $b$ such that all the roots of the polynomial $x^3-ax^2+bx-a$ are real. In fact, for this value of $a$ the value of $b$ is unique. What is this value of $b$? $\textbf{(A)}\ 8\qquad\textbf{(B)}\ 9\qquad\textbf{(C)}\ 10\qquad\textbf{(D)}\ 11\qquad\textbf{(E)}\ 12$

The sequence of real numbers $a_0,a_1,a_2,\ldots$ is defined recursively by \[a_0=-1,\qquad\sum_{k=0}^n\dfrac{a_{n-k}}{k+1}=0\quad\text{for}\quad n\geq 1.\]Show that $ a_{n} > 0$ for all $ n\geq 1$. [i]Proposed by Mariusz Skalba, Poland[/i]

Determine all real numbers $a$ such that the equation: $$x^8+ax^4+1=0$$ have four real roots that form an arithmetic progression.

Find all triplets of real numbers $(x,y,z)$ that are solutions to the system of equations $x^2+y^2+25z^2=6xz+8yz$ $ 3x^2+2y^2+z^2=240$

Suppose $\{a(n) \}_{n=1}^{\infty}$ is a sequence that: \[ a(n) =a(a(n-1))+a(n-a(n-1)) \ \ \ \forall \ n \geq 3\] and $a(1)=a(2)=1$. Prove that for each $n \geq 1$ , $a(2n) \leq 2a(n)$.

Find all $f: \mathbb R \to\mathbb R$ such that for all real numbers $x$, $f(x) \geq 0$ and for all real numbers $x$ and $y$, \[ f(x+y)+f(x-y)-2f(x)-2y^2=0. \]

Find all positive integers $n$ for which there exist positive integers $x_1, x_2, \dots, x_n$ such that $$ \frac{1}{x_1^2}+\frac{2}{x_2^2}+\frac{2^2}{x_3^2}+\cdots +\frac{2^{n-1}}{x_n^2}=1.$$

Suppose all of the 200 integers lying in between (and including) 1 and 200 are written on a blackboard. Suppose we choose exactly 100 of these numbers and circle each one of them. By the [i]score[/i] of such a choice, we mean the square of the difference between the sum of the circled numbers and the sum of the non-circled numbers. What is the average scores over all possible choices for 100 numbers?

Let be four real numbers $ x,y,z,t $ satisfying the following system: $$ \left\{ \begin{matrix} \sin x+\sin y+\sin z +\sin t =0 \\ \cos x+\cos y+\cos z+\cos t=0 \end{matrix} \right. $$ Prove that $$ \sin ((1+2k)x) +\sin ((1+2k)y) +\sin ((1+2k)z) +\sin ((1+2k)t) =0, $$ for any integer $ k. $ [i]Aurel Bârsan[/i]

If $0 < p$, $0 < q$ and $p +q < 1$ prove $$(px + qy)^2 \le px^2 + qy^2$$

Consider a function $f$ on nonnegative integers such that $f(0)=1, f(1)=0$ and $f(n)+f(n-1)=nf(n-1)+(n-1)f(n-2)$ for $n \ge 2$. Show that \[\frac{f(n)}{n!}=\sum_{k=0}^n \frac{(-1)^k}{k!}\]

Describe in geometric terms the set of points $(x,y)$ in the plane such that $x$ and $y$ satisfy the condition $t^2+yt+x\ge 0$ for all $t$ with $-1\le t\le 1$.

[center][u]Guts Round[/u] / [u]Set 7[/u][/center] [b]p19.[/b] Let $a$ be the answer to Problem 19, $b$ be the answer to Problem 20, and $c$ be the answer to Problem 21. Compute the real value of $a$ such that $$\sqrt{a(101b + 1)} - 1 = \sqrt{b(c - 1)}+ 10\sqrt{(a - c)b}.$$ [b]p20.[/b] Let $a$ be the answer to Problem 19, $b$ be the answer to Problem 20, and $c$ be the answer to Problem 21. For some triangle $\vartriangle ABC$, let $\omega$ and $\omega_A$ be the incircle and $A$-excircle with centers $I$ and $I_A$, respectively. Suppose $AC$ is tangent to $\omega$ and $\omega_A$ at $E$ and $E'$, respectively, and $AB$ is tangent to $\omega$ and $\omega_A$ at $F$ and $F'$ respectively. Furthermore, let $P$ and $Q$ be the intersections of $BI$ with $EF$ and $CI$ with $EF$, respectively, and let $P'$ and $Q'$ be the intersections of $BI_A$ with $E'F'$ and $CI_A$ with $E'F'$, respectively. Given that the circumradius of $\vartriangle ABC$ is a, compute the maximum integer value of $BC$ such that the area $[P QP'Q']$ is less than or equal to $1$. [b]p21.[/b] Let $a$ be the answer to Problem 19, $b$ be the answer to Problem 20, and $c$ be the answer to Problem 21. Let $c$ be a positive integer such that $gcd(b, c) = 1$. From each ordered pair $(x, y)$ such that $x$ and $y$ are both integers, we draw two lines through that point in the $x-y$ plane, one with slope $\frac{b}{c}$ and one with slope $-\frac{c}{b}$ . Given that the number of intersections of these lines in $[0, 1)^2$ is a square number, what is the smallest possible value of $ c$? Note that $[0, 1)^2$ refers to all points $(x, y)$ such that $0 \le x < 1$ and $ 0 \le y < 1$.

Can we find positive reals $a_1, a_2, \dots, a_{2002}$ such that for any positive integer $k$, with $1 \leq k \leq 2002$, every complex root $z$ of the following polynomial $f(x)$ satisfies the condition $|\text{Im } z| \leq |\text{Re } z|$, \[f(x)=a_{k+2001}x^{2001}+a_{k+2000}x^{2000}+ \cdots + a_{k+1}x+a_k,\] where $a_{2002+i}=a_i$, for $i=1,2, \dots, 2001$.

Find all continuous functions $ f:\mathbb{R}\longrightarrow\mathbb{R} $ that satisfy: $ \text{(i)}\text{id}+f $ is nondecreasing $ \text{(ii)} $ There is a natural number $ m $ such that $ \text{id}+f+f^2\cdots +f^m $ is nonincreasing. Here, $ \text{id} $ represents the identity function, and ^ denotes functional power.

Let $a, b, c$ be positive real numbers. Prove the inequality $(a^2+ac+c^2) \left( \frac{1}{a+b+c}+\frac{1}{a+c} \right)+b^2 \left( \frac{1}{b+c}+\frac{1}{a+b} \right)>a+b+c$. [i]Proposed by Tajikistan[/i]

Prove the inequality: \[\sum_{i < j}{\frac {a_{i}a_{j}}{a_{i} \plus{} a_{j}}}\leq \frac {n}{2(a_{1} \plus{} a_{2} \plus{}\cdots \plus{} a_{n})}\cdot \sum_{i < j}{a_{i}a_{j}}\] for positive reals $ a_{1},a_{2},\ldots,a_{n}$. [i]Proposed by Dusan Dukic, Serbia[/i]

Denote the three real roots of the cubic $ x^3 \minus{} 3x \minus{} 1 \equal{} 0$ by $ x_1$, $ x_2$, $ x_3$ in order of increasing magnitude. (You may assume that the equation in fact has three distinct real roots.) Prove that $ x_3^2 \minus{} x_2^2 \equal{} x_3 \minus{} x_1$.

Let $\mathbb{R}^{+}$ be the set of positive real numbers. Determine all non-negative real number $\alpha$ such that there exist a function $f:\mathbb{R}^{+} \rightarrow \mathbb{R}^{+}$ such that $$f(x^{\alpha}+y)=(f(x+y))^{\alpha}+f(y)$$ for any $x,y$ positive real numbers.

For three sequences $(x_n),(y_n),(z_n)$ with positive starting elements $x_1,y_1,z_1$ we have the following formulae: \[ x_{n+1} = y_n + \frac{1}{z_n} \quad y_{n+1} = z_n + \frac{1}{x_n} \quad z_{n+1} = x_n + \frac{1}{y_n} \quad (n = 1,2,3, \ldots)\] a.) Prove that none of the three sequences is bounded from above. b.) At least one of the numbers $x_{200},y_{200},z_{200}$ is greater than 20.

Consider the function $ f(x) \equal{} \frac {2x^3 \minus{} 3}{3x^2 \minus{} 1}$. $ 1.$ Prove that there is a continuous function $ g(x)$ on $ \mathbb{R}$ satisfying $ f(g(x)) \equal{} x$ and $ g(x) > x$ for all real $ x$. $ 2.$ Show that there exists a real number $ a > 1$ such that the sequence $ \{a_n\}$, $ n \equal{} 1, 2, \ldots$, defined as follows $ a_0 \equal{} a$, $ a_{n \plus{} 1} \equal{} f(a_n)$, $ \forall n\in\mathbb{N}$ is periodic with the smallest period $ 1995$.

Let the numbers x and y satisfy the conditions $\begin{cases} x^2 + y^2 - xy = 2 \\ x^4 + y^4 + x^2y^2 = 8 \end{cases}$ The value of $P = x^8 + y^8 + x^{2014}y^{2014}$ is: (A): $46$, (B): $48$, (C): $50$, (D): $52$, (E) None of the above.

[b]p1.[/b] Suppose $x \ne 1$ or $10$ and logarithms are computed to the base $10$. Define $y= 10^{\frac{1}{1-\log x}}$ and $z = ^{\frac{1}{1-\log y}}$ . Prove that $x= 10^{\frac{1}{1-\log z}}$ [b]p2.[/b] If $n$ is an odd number and $x_1, x_2, x_3,..., x_n$ is an arbitrary arrangement of the integers $1, 2,3,..., n$, prove that the product $$(x_1 -1)(x_2-2)(x_3- 3)... (x_n-n)$$ is an even number (possibly negative or zero). [b]p3.[/b] Prove that $\frac{1 \cdot 3 \cdot 5 \cdot \cdot \cdot (2n-1)}{2 \cdot 4 \cdot 6 \cdot \cdot \cdot(2n} < \sqrt{\frac{1}{2n + 1}}$ for all integers $n = 1,2,3,...$ [b]p4.[/b] Prove that if three angles of a convex polygon are each $60^o$, then the polygon must be an equilateral triangle. [b]p5.[/b] Find all solutions, real and complex, of $$4 \left(x^2+\frac{1}{x^2} \right)-4 \left( x+\frac{1}{x} \right)-7=0$$ [b]p6.[/b] A man is $\frac38$ of the way across a narrow railroad bridge when he hears a train approaching at $60$ miles per hour. No matter which way he runs he can [u]just [/u] escape being hit by the train. How fast can he run? Prove your assertion. PS. You should use hide for answers. Collected [url=https://artofproblemsolving.com/community/c5h2760506p24143309]here[/url].

Let $W,A,B$ be fixed real numbers with $W>0$. Prove that the following statements are equivalent. [list] [*] For all $x, y, z\ge 0$ satisfying $x+y\le z+W, x+z\le y+W, y+z\le x+W$ we have $Axyz+B\ge x^2+y^2+z^2$. [*] $B\ge W^2$ and $AW^3+B\ge 3W^2$. [/list] [i]Proposed by Ákos Somogyi, London[/i]

Let $P_n(x)=a_0 + a_1x + \cdots + a_nx^n$, with $n \geq 2$, be a real-coefficient polynomial. Prove that if there exists $a > 0$ such that \begin{align*} P_n(x) = (x + a)^2 \left( \sum_{i=0}^{n-2} b_i x^i \right), \end{align*} where $b_i$ are positive real numbers, then there exists some $i$, with $1 \leq i \leq n-1$, such that \[a_i^2 - 4a_{i-1}a_{i+1} \leq 0.\]