Let $a,b$ be positive reals such that $\frac{1}{a}+\frac{1}{b}\leq2\sqrt2$ and $(a-b)^2=4(ab)^3$. Find $\log_a b$.

Suppose that a sequence $a_1,a_2,\ldots$ of positive real numbers satisfies \[a_{k+1}\geq\frac{ka_k}{a_k^2+(k-1)}\] for every positive integer $k$. Prove that $a_1+a_2+\ldots+a_n\geq n$ for every $n\geq2$.

The first term of a sequence is $2014$. Each succeeding term is the sum of the cubes of the digits of the previous term. What is the $2014$ th term of the sequence?

Let $a$ be positive real number such that $a^{3}=6(a+1)$. Prove that the equation $x^{2}+ax+a^{2}-6=0$ has no real solution.

For the real number $a$ find the number of solutions $(x, y, z)$ of a system of the equations: $\left\{\begin{array}{lll} x+y^2+z^2=a \\ x^2+y+z^2=a \\ x^2+y^2+z=a\end{array}\right.$

Let $a,b,c > 0$ be real numbers with the sum equal to $3$. Show that: $$\frac{a+3}{3a+bc}+\frac{b+3}{3b+ca}+\frac{c+3}{3c+ab} \ge 3$$

Let $f(x) = 3(|x|+|x-1|-|x+1|)$ and let $x_{n+1}=f(x_n)$ $\forall n \ge 0$. How many real number $x_0$ are there, that satisfy $x_0=x_{2007}$ and $x_0,x_1,x_2,...,x_{2006}$ are distinct?

$A$ graph $G$ arises from $G_{1}$ and $G_{2}$ by pasting them along $S$ if $G$ has induced subgraphs $G_{1}$, $G_{2}$ with $G=G_{1}\cup G_{2}$ and $S$ is such that $S=G_{1}\cap G_{2}.$ A is graph is called [i]chordal[/i] if it can be constructed recursively by pasting along complete subgraphs, starting from complete subgraphs. For a graph $G(V,E)$ define its Hilbert polynomial $H_{G}(x)$ to be $H_{G}(x)=1+Vx+Ex^2+c(K_{3})x^3+c(K_{4})x^4+\ldots+c(K_{w(G)})x^{w(G)},$ where $c(K_{i})$ is the number of $i$-cliques in $G$ and $w(G)$ is the clique number of $G$. Prove that $H_{G}(-1)=0$ if and only if $G$ is chordal or a tree.

The polynomial $x^k + a_1x^{k-1} + a_2x^{k-2} +... + a_k$ has $k$ distinct real roots. Show that $a_1^2 > \frac{2ka_2}{k-1}$.

[b]p1.[/b] A large square is cut into four smaller, congruent squares. If each of the smaller squares has perimeter $4$, what was the perimeter of the original square? [b]p2.[/b] Pie loves to bake apples so much that he spends $24$ hours a day baking them. If Pie bakes a dozen apples in one day, how many minutes does it take Pie to bake one apple, on average? [b]p3.[/b] Bames Jond is sent to spy on James Pond. One day, Bames sees James type in his $4$-digit phone password. Bames remembers that James used the digits $0$, $5$, and $9$, and no other digits, but he does not remember the order. How many possible phone passwords satisfy this condition? [b]p4.[/b] What do you get if you square the answer to this question, add $256$ to it, and then divide by $32$? [b]p5.[/b] Chloe the Horse and Flower the Chicken are best friends. When Chloe gets sad for any reason, she calls Flower, so Chloe must remember Flower's $3$ digit phone number, which can consist of any digits $0-5$. Given that the phone number's digits are unique and add to $5$, the number does not start with $0$, and the $3$ digit number is prime, what is the sum of all possible phone numbers? [b]p6.[/b] Anuj has a circular pizza with diameter $A$ inches, which is cut into $B$ congruent slices, where $A$,$B$ are positive integers. If one of Anuj's pizza slices has a perimeter of $3\pi + 30$ inches, find $A + B$. [b]p7.[/b] Bob really likes to study math. Unfortunately, he gets easily distracted by messages sent by friends. At the beginning of every minute, there is an $\frac{6}{10}$ chance that he will get a message from a friend. If Bob does get a message from a friend, there is a $\frac{9}{10}$ chance that he will look at the message, causing him to waste $30$ seconds before resuming his studying. If Bob doesn't get a message from a friend, there is a $\frac{3}{10}$ chance Bob will still check his messages hoping for a message from his friends, wasting $10$ seconds before he resumes his studying. What is the expected number of minutes in $100$ minutes for which Bob will be studying math? [b]p8.[/b] Suppose there is a positive integer $n$ with $225$ distinct positive integer divisors. What is the minimum possible number of divisors of n that are perfect squares? [b]p9.[/b] Let $a, b, c$ be positive integers. $a$ has $12$ divisors, $b$ has $8$ divisors, $c$ has $6$ divisors, and $lcm(a, b, c) = abc$. Let $d$ be the number of divisors of $a^2bc$. Find the sum of all possible values of $d$. [b]p10.[/b] Let $\vartriangle ABC$ be a triangle with side lengths $AB = 17$, $BC = 28$, $AC = 25$. Let the altitude from $A$ to $BC$ and the angle bisector of angle $B$ meet at $P$. Given the length of $BP$ can be expressed as $\frac{a\sqrt{b}}{c}$ for positive integers $a$, $b$, $c$ where $gcd(a, c) = 1$ and $b$ is not divisible by the square of any prime, find $a + b + c$. [b]p11.[/b] Let $a$, $b$, and $c$ be the roots of the cubic equation $x^3-5x+3 = 0$. Let $S = a^4b+ab^4+a^4c+ac^4+b^4c+bc^4$. Find $|S|$. [b]p12.[/b] Call a number palindromeish if changing a single digit of the number into a different digit results in a new six-digit palindrome. For example, the number $110012$ is a palindromeish number since you can change the last digit into a $1$, which results in the palindrome $110011$. Find the number of $6$ digit palindromeish numbers. [b]p13.[/b] Let $P(x)$ be a polynomial of degree $3$ with real coecients and leading coecient $1$. Let the roots of $P(x)$ be $a$, $b$, $c$. Given that $\frac{1}{a}+\frac{1}{b}+\frac{1}{c}= 4$ and $a^2 + b^2 + c^2 = 36$, the coefficient of $x^2$ is negative, and $P(1) = 2$, let the $S$ be the sum of possible values of $P(0)$. Then $|S|$ can be expressed as $\frac{a + b\sqrt{c}}{d}$ for positive integers $a$, $b$, $c$, $d$ such that $gcd(a, b, d) = 1$ and $c$ is not divisible by the square of any prime. Find $a + b + c + d$. [b]p14.[/b] Let $ABC$ be a triangle with side lengths $AB = 7$, $BC = 8$, $AC = 9$. Draw a circle tangent to $AB$ at $B$ and passing through $C$. Let the center of the circle be $O$. The length of $AO$ can be expressed as $\frac{a\sqrt{b}}{c\sqrt{d}}$ for positive integers $a$, $b$, $c$, $d$ where $gcd(a, c) = gcd(b, d) = 1$ and $b$,$ d$ are not divisible by the square of any prime. Find $a + b + c + d$. [b]p15.[/b] Many students in Mr. Noeth's BC Calculus class missed their first test, and to avoid taking a makeup, have decided to never leave their houses again. As a result, Mr. Noeth decides that he will have to visit their houses to deliver the makeup tests. Conveniently, the $17$ absent students in his class live in consecutive houses on the same street. Mr. Noeth chooses at least three of every four people in consecutive houses to take a makeup. How many ways can Mr. Noeth select students to take makeups? PS. You should use hide for answers. Collected [url=https://artofproblemsolving.com/community/c5h2760506p24143309]here[/url].

What is the largest possible length of an arithmetic progression of positive integers $ a_{1}, a_{2},\cdots , a_{n}$ with difference $ 2$, such that $ {a_{k}}^{2}\plus{}1$ is prime for $ k \equal{} 1, 2, . . . , n$?

For fixed positive integers $s, t$, define $a_n$ as the following. $a_1 = s, a_2 = t$, and $\forall n \ge 1$, $a_{n+2} = \lfloor \sqrt{a_n+(n+2)a_{n+1}+2008} \rfloor$. Prove that the solution set of $a_n \not= n$, $n \in \mathbb{N}$ is finite.

Find all surjective functions $f\colon (0,+\infty) \to (0,+\infty)$ such that $2x f(f(x)) = f(x)(x+f(f(x)))$ for all $x>0$.

Find all functions $ f: \mathbb{Q}^{\plus{}} \mapsto \mathbb{Q}^{\plus{}}$ such that: \[ f(x) \plus{} f(y) \plus{} 2xy f(xy) \equal{} \frac {f(xy)}{f(x\plus{}y)}.\]

The sum of distinct real roots of the polynomial $x^5+x^4-4x^3-7x^2-7x-2$ is $\textbf{(A)}\ 0 \qquad\textbf{(B)}\ 1 \qquad\textbf{(C)}\ 2 \qquad\textbf{(D)}\ -2 \qquad\textbf{(E)}\ 7$

Find all functions $f : R \to R$ such that $$f(x + zf(y)) = f(x) + zf(y), $$ for all $x, y, z \in R$.

For positive $x, y$, and $z$ that satisfy the condition $xyz = 1$, prove the inequality $$\sqrt[3]{\frac{x+y}{2z}}+\sqrt[3]{\frac{y+z}{2x}}+\sqrt[3]{\frac{z+x}{2y}}\le \frac{5(x+y+z)+9}{8}$$

For each pair of integers \( j, k \geq 2 \), define the function \( f_{jk} : \mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R} \) given by \[ f_{jk}(x) = 1 - (1 - x^j)^k. \] (a) Prove that for any integers \( j, k \geq 2 \), there exists a unique real number \( p_{jk} \in (0, 1) \) such that \( f_{jk}(p_{jk}) = p_{jk} \). Furthermore, defining \( \lambda_{jk} := f'_{jk}(p_{jk}) \), prove that \( \lambda_{jk} > 1 \). (b) Prove that \( p^j_{jk} = 1 - p_{kj} \) for any integers \( j, k \geq 2 \). (c) Prove that \( \lambda_{jk} = \lambda_{kj} \) for any integers \( j, k \geq 2 \).

Let $n \ne 0$ be a natural number. A sequence of numbers is briefly called a sequence “$F_n$” if $n$ different numbers $z_1$, $z_2$, $...$, $z_n$ exist so that the following conditions are fulfilled: (1) Each term of the sequence is one of the numbers $z_1$, $z_2$, $...$, $z_n$. (2) Each of the numbers $z_1$, $z_2$, $...$, $z_n$ occurs at least once in the sequence. (3) Any two immediately consecutive members of the sequence are different numbers. (4) No subsequence of the sequence has the form $\{a, b, a, b\}$ with $a \ne b$. Note: A subsequence of a given sequence $\{x_1, x_2, x_3, ...\}$ or $\{x_1, x_2, x_3, ..., x_s\}$ is called any sequence of the form $\{x_{m1}, x_{m2}, x_{m3}, ...\}$ or $\{x_{m1}, x_{m2}, x_{m3}, ..., x_{mt}\}$ with natural numbers $m_1 < m_2 < m_3 < ...$ Answer the following questions: a) Given $n$, are there sequences $F_n$ of arbitrarily long length? b) If question (a) is answered in the negative for an $n$: What is the largest possible number of terms that a sequence $F_n$ can have (given $n$)?

Let $n \ge 2$ be a fixed even integer. We consider polynomials of the form \[P(x) = x^n + a_{n-1}x^{n-1} + \cdots + a_1x + 1\] with real coefficients, having at least one real roots. Find the least possible value of $a^2_1 + a^2_2 + \cdots + a^2_{n-1}$.

Given $a$, $b$, and $c$ are complex numbers satisfying \[ a^2+ab+b^2=1+i \] \[ b^2+bc+c^2=-2 \] \[ c^2+ca+a^2=1, \] compute $(ab+bc+ca)^2$. (Here, $i=\sqrt{-1}$)

Let be a natural number $ n\ge 3. $ Find $$ \inf_{\stackrel{ x_1,x_2,\ldots ,x_n\in\mathbb{R}_{>0}}{1=P\left( x_1,x_2,\ldots ,x_n\right)}}\sum_{i=1}^n\left( \frac{1}{x_i} -x_i \right) , $$ where $ P\left( x_1,x_2,\ldots ,x_n\right) :=\sum_{i=1}^n \frac{1}{x_i+n-1} , $ and find in which circumstances this infimum is attained.

Let $n$ be a fixed positive integer. Find the maximum possible value of \[ \sum_{1 \le r < s \le 2n} (s-r-n)x_rx_s, \] where $-1 \le x_i \le 1$ for all $i = 1, \cdots , 2n$.

The sequence $c_{0}, c_{1}, . . . , c_{n}, . . .$ is defined by $c_{0}= 1, c_{1}= 0$, and $c_{n+2}= c_{n+1}+c_{n}$ for $n \geq 0$. Consider the set $S$ of ordered pairs $(x, y)$ for which there is a finite set $J$ of positive integers such that $x=\textstyle\sum_{j \in J}{c_{j}}$, $y=\textstyle\sum_{j \in J}{c_{j-1}}$. Prove that there exist real numbers $\alpha$, $\beta$, and $M$ with the following property: An ordered pair of nonnegative integers $(x, y)$ satisfies the inequality \[m < \alpha x+\beta y < M\] if and only if $(x, y) \in S$. [i]Remark:[/i] A sum over the elements of the empty set is assumed to be $0$.

Find the smallest possible value of the nonnegative number $\lambda$ such that the inequality $$\frac{a+b}{2}\geq\lambda \sqrt{ab}+(1-\lambda )\sqrt{\frac{a^2+b^2}{2}}$$ holds for all positive real numbers $a, b$.