$(NET 3)$ Let $x_1, x_2, x_3, x_4,$ and $x_5$ be positive integers satisfying \[x_1 +x_2 +x_3 +x_4 +x_5 = 1000,\] \[x_1 -x_2 +x_3 -x_4 +x_5 > 0,\] \[x_1 +x_2 -x_3 +x_4 -x_5 > 0,\] \[-x_1 +x_2 +x_3 -x_4 +x_5 > 0,\] \[x_1 -x_2 +x_3 +x_4 -x_5 > 0,\] \[-x_1 +x_2 -x_3 +x_4 +x_5 > 0\] $(a)$ Find the maximum of $(x_1 + x_3)^{x_2+x_4}$ $(b)$ In how many different ways can we choose $x_1, . . . , x_5$ to obtain the desired maximum?

Let $f(x)$ be a cubic polynomial with roots $x_1 , x_2$ and $x_3.$ Assume that $f(2x)$ is divisible by $f'(x)$ and compute the ratio $x_1 : x_2: x_3 .$

Prove the equality:\\ $\tan (\frac{3\pi}{7})-4\sin (\frac{\pi}{7})= \sqrt{7}$ .

Prove that the equation $x^n - a_1x^{n-1} - a_2x^{n-2} - ... -a_{n-1}x - a_n = 0$, where $a_1 \ge 0, a_2 \ge 0, . . . , a_n \ge 0$, cannot have two positive roots.

Find all functions $f$ from the set of real numbers to itself satisfying \[ f(x(1+y)) = f(x)(1 + f(y)) \] for all real numbers $x, y$.

Determine the set of all polynomials $P(x)$ with real coefficients such that the set $\{P(n) | n \in \mathbb{Z}\}$ contains all integers, except possibly finitely many of them.

We have a set of ${221}$ real numbers whose sum is ${110721}$. It is deemed that the numbers form a rectangular table such that every row as well as the first and last columns are arithmetic progressions of more than one element. Prove that the sum of the elements in the four corners is equal to ${2004}$.

A polynomial $P(x)$ has unity as the coefficient of its highest power, and has the property that with natural number arguments, it can take all values of form $2^M$ , where $M$ is a natural number. Prove that the polynomial is of degree $1$.

Let $a_0,a_1,a_2,...$ be an infinite sequence of real numbers satisfying $\frac{a_{n-1}+a_{n+1}}{2}\geq a_n$ for all positive integers $n$. Show that $$\frac{a_0+a_{n+1}}{2}\geq \frac{a_1+a_2+...+a_n}{n}$$ holds for all positive integers $n$.

Find all pairs of positive integers $ (m,n)$ such that $ mn \minus{} 1$ divides $ (n^2 \minus{} n \plus{} 1)^2$. [i]Aaron Pixton.[/i]

Show that for all non-negative numbers $a,b$, $$ 1 + a^{2017} + b^{2017} \geq a^{10}b^{7} + a^{7}b^{2000} + a^{2000}b^{10} $$When is equality attained?

Solve the inequality $$3-2\left(3-2\left(3-...-2(3-2x)\right)...\right) >x$$. The total number of right parentheses is $100$.

There are $456$ people around a circle, denoted as $X_1, X_2, \dots, X_{456}$, and each one of them thought of a number. Every time Laura says an integer $k$ with $2 \leqslant k \leqslant 100$, the announcer announces all the numbers $p_1, p_2, \dots, p_{456}$, which are the averages of the numbers thought by the people in all the groups of $k$ consecutive people: $p_1$ is the average of the numbers thought by the people from $X_1$ to $X_k$, $p_2$ is the average of the numbers thought by the people from $X_2$ to $X_{k+1}$, and so on until $p_{456}$, the average of the numbers thought by the people from $X_{456}$ to $X_{k-1}$. Determine how many numbers $k$ Laura must say at a minimum so that, with certainty, the announcer can know the number thought by the person $X_{456}$.

For which $ n\in \mathbb{N}$ do there exist rational numbers $ a,b$ which are not integers such that both $ a \plus{} b$ and $ a^n \plus{} b^n$ are integers?

Let $f(x) = x^n$ where $n$ is a fixed positive integer and $x =1, 2, \cdots .$ Is the decimal expansion $a = 0.f (1)f(2)f(3) . . .$ rational for any value of $n$ ? The decimal expansion of a is defined as follows: If $f(x) = d_1(x)d_2(x) \cdots d_{r(x)}(x)$ is the decimal expansion of $f(x)$, then $a = 0.1d_1(2)d_2(2) \cdots d_{r(2)}(2)d_1(3) . . . d_{r(3)}(3)d_1(4) \cdots .$

Let $ n \ge 2$ be a fixed integer and let $ a_{i,j} (1 \le i < j \le n)$ be some positive integers. For a sequence $ x_1, ... , x_n$ of reals, let $ K(x_1, .... , x_n)$ be the product of all expressions $ (x_i \minus{} x_j)^{a_{i,j}}$ where $ 1 \le i < j \le n$. Prove that if the inequality $ K(x_1, .... , x_n) \ge 0$ holds independently of the choice of the sequence $ x_1, ... , x_n$ then all integers $ a_{i,j}$ are even.

Find the maximum value of $ x_{0}$ for which there exists a sequence $ x_{0},x_{1}\cdots ,x_{1995}$ of positive reals with $ x_{0} \equal{} x_{1995}$, such that \[ x_{i \minus{} 1} \plus{} \frac {2}{x_{i \minus{} 1}} \equal{} 2x_{i} \plus{} \frac {1}{x_{i}}, \] for all $ i \equal{} 1,\cdots ,1995$.

Find all sets of four real numbers $x_1, x_2, x_3, x_4$ such that the sum of any one and the product of the other three is equal to 2.

For a given positive integer $n$ and prime number $p$, find the minimum value of positive integer $m$ that satisfies the following property: for any polynomial $$f(x)=(x+a_1)(x+a_2)\ldots(x+a_n)$$ ($a_1,a_2,\ldots,a_n$ are positive integers), and for any non-negative integer $k$, there exists a non-negative integer $k'$ such that $$v_p(f(k))<v_p(f(k'))\leq v_p(f(k))+m.$$ Note: for non-zero integer $N$,$v_p(N)$ is the largest non-zero integer $t$ that satisfies $p^t\mid N$.

Let $x$ and $y$ be positive reals such that \[ x^3 + y^3 + (x + y)^3 + 30xy = 2000. \] Show that $x + y = 10$.

Which of the polynomials, $(1+x^2 -x^3)^{1000}$ or $(1-x^2 +x^3)^{1000}$, has the greater coefficient of $x^{20}$ after expansion and collecting the terms?

Let $a$ be a real number. Let $(f_n(x))_{n\ge 0}$ be a sequence of polynomials such that $f_0(x)=1$ and $f_{n+1}(x)=xf_n(x)+f_n(ax)$ for all non-negative integers $n$. a) Prove that $f_n(x)=x^nf_n\left(x^{-1}\right)$ for all non-negative integers $n$. b) Find an explicit expression for $f_n(x)$.

For some positive integer \( n \), Katya wrote the numbers from \( 1 \) to \( 2^n \) in a row in increasing order. Oleksii rearranged Katya's numbers and wrote the new sequence directly below the first row. Then, they calculated the sum of the two numbers in each column. Katya calculated \( N \), the number of powers of two among the results, while Oleksii calculated \( K \), the number of distinct powers of two among the results. What is the maximum possible value of \( N + K \)? [i]Proposed by Oleksii Masalitin[/i]

Let $S$ be the set of positive real numbers. Find all functions $f\colon S^3 \to S$ such that, for all positive real numbers $x$, $y$, $z$ and $k$, the following three conditions are satisfied: (a) $xf(x,y,z) = zf(z,y,x)$, (b) $f(x, ky, k^2z) = kf(x,y,z)$, (c) $f(1, k, k+1) = k+1$. ([i]United Kingdom[/i])

Let $S$ be a set of real numbers such that: i) $1$ is from $S$; ii) for any $a, b$ from $S$ (not necessarily different), we have that $a-b$ is also from $S$; iii) for any $a$ from $S$ ($a$ is different from $0$), we have that $1/a$ is from $S$. Show that for every $a, b$ from $S$, we have that $ab$ is from $S$.