Consider the sequence $\{1,3,13,31,...\}$ that is obtained by following diagonally the following array of numbers in a spiral. Find the number in the $100$th position of that sequence. [img]https://cdn.artofproblemsolving.com/attachments/b/d/3531353472a748e3e0b1497a088472691f67fd.png[/img]

Let $a \diamond b = ab-4(a+b)+20$. Evaluate \[1\diamond(2\diamond(3\diamond(\cdots(99\diamond100)\cdots))).\]

Let $p$, $q$, and $r$ be the distinct roots of the polynomial $x^3 - 22x^2 + 80x - 67$. It is given that there exist real numbers $A$, $B$, and $C$ such that \[\dfrac{1}{s^3 - 22s^2 + 80s - 67} = \dfrac{A}{s-p} + \dfrac{B}{s-q} + \frac{C}{s-r}\] for all $s\not\in\{p,q,r\}$. What is $\tfrac1A+\tfrac1B+\tfrac1C$? $\textbf{(A) }243\qquad\textbf{(B) }244\qquad\textbf{(C) }245\qquad\textbf{(D) }246\qquad\textbf{(E) } 247$

It is known that the general term $\{a_n\}$ of the sequence is $a_n =(\sqrt3 +\sqrt2)^{2n}$ ($n \in N*$), let $b_n= a_n +\frac{1}{a_n}$ . (1) Find the recurrence relation between $b_{n+2}$, $b_{n+1}$, $b_n$. (2) Find the unit digit of the integer part of $a_{2011}$.

Prove that there exists a constant $C>0$ such that $$H(a_1)+H(a_2)+\cdots+H(a_m)\leq C\sqrt{\sum_{i=1}^{m}i a_i}$$ holds for arbitrary positive integer $m$ and any $m$ positive integer $a_1,a_2,\cdots,a_m$, where $$H(n)=\sum_{k=1}^{n}\frac{1}{k}.$$

Let $p = 10009$ be a prime number. Determine the number of ordered pairs of integers $(x,y)$ such that $1\le x,y \le p$ and $x^3-3xy+y^3+1$ is divisible by $p$.

One member of an infinite arithmetic sequence in the set of natural numbers is a perfect square. Show that there are infinitely many members of this sequence having this property.

a) Show that $\forall n \in \mathbb{N}_0, \exists A \in \mathbb{R}^{n\times n}: A^3=A+I$. b) Show that $\det(A)>0, \forall A$ fulfilling the above condition.

Consider the function $f(x, y, z) = (x-y +z,y -z +x, z-x+y)$ and denote by $f^{(n)}(x, y,z)$ the function $f$ applied $n$ times to the tuple $(x,y,z)$. Let $r_1$, $r_2$, $r_3$ be the three roots of the equation $x^3- 4x^2 + 12 = 0$ and let $g(x) = x^3 + a_2x^2 + a_1x + a_0$ be the cubic polynomial with the tuple $f^{(3)}(r_1, r_2, r_3)$ as roots. Find the value of $a_1$.

Find all positive integers $p$ and $q$ such that all the roots of the polynomial $(x^2 - px+q)(x^2 -qx+ p)$ are positive integers.

Find all such functions $f:\mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R}$ that for any real $x,y$ the following equation is true. $$f(f(x)+y)+1=f(x^2+y)+2f(x)+2y$$

Solve the equation $x^4 + 4x^3 - 8x + 4 = 0$.

Find the real root of $x^5+5x^3+5x-1$. Hint: Let $x = u+k/u$.

Find all functions $f:\mathbb{R}\rightarrow \mathbb{R}$ such that for all $x,y\in \mathbb{R}$: $$f\left(f(x)^2-y^2\right)^2+f(2xy)^2=f\left(x^2+y^2\right)^2$$ [i]Proposed by Ali Behrouz - Mojtaba Zare Bidaki[/i]

Let $ k$ be a positive integer, let $ m\equal{}2^k\plus{}1$, and let $ r\neq 1$ be a complex root of $ z^m\minus{}1\equal{}0$. Prove that there exist polynomials $ P(z)$ and $ Q(z)$ with integer coefficients such that $ (P(r))^2\plus{}(Q(r))^2\equal{}\minus{}1$.

Let $n \geqslant 100$ be an integer. Ivan writes the numbers $n, n+1, \ldots, 2 n$ each on different cards. He then shuffles these $n+1$ cards, and divides them into two piles. Prove that at least one of the piles contains two cards such that the sum of their numbers is a perfect square.

Let $P(n)$ be the number of functions $f: \mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R}$, $f(x)=a x^2 + b x + c$, with $a,b,c \in \{1,2,\ldots,n\}$ and that have the property that $f(x)=0$ has only integer solutions. Prove that $n<P(n)<n^2$, for all $n \geq 4$. [i]Laurentiu Panaitopol[/i]

Let $ a > 2$ be given, and starting $ a_0 \equal{} 1, a_1 \equal{} a$ define recursively: \[ a_{n\plus{}1} \equal{} \left(\frac{a^2_n}{a^2_{n\minus{}1}} \minus{} 2 \right) \cdot a_n.\] Show that for all integers $ k > 0,$ we have: $ \sum^k_{i \equal{} 0} \frac{1}{a_i} < \frac12 \cdot (2 \plus{} a \minus{} \sqrt{a^2\minus{}4}).$

The sequence $a_0, a_1, a_2, ...$ is defined by $a_{n+1} = a^2_n + (a_n - 1)^2$ for $n \ge 0$. Find all rational numbers $a_0$ for which there exist four distinct indices $k, m, p, q$ such that $a_q - a_p = a_m - a_k$.

Show that for any positive real numbers $a, b, c$ true is inequality: $\left(\frac{a - b}{c}\right)^2 + \left(\frac{b - c}{a}\right)^2 + \left(\frac{c - a}{b}\right)^2 \ge 2\sqrt{2}\left(\frac{a - b}{c} + \frac{b - c}{a} + \frac{c - a}{b} \right)$.

$P(x)$ and $Q(x)$ are two polynomials with integer coefficients such that $P(x)|Q(x)^2+1$. [b]a)[/b] Prove that there exists polynomials $A(x)$ and $B(x)$ with rational coefficients and a rational number $c$ such that $P(x)=c(A(x)^2+B(x)^2)$. [b]b)[/b] If $P(x)$ is a monic polynomial with integer coefficients, Prove that there exists two polynomials $A(x)$ and $B(x)$ with integer coefficients such that $P(x)$ can be written in the form of $A(x)^2+B(x)^2$. [i]Proposed by Mohammad Gharakhani[/i]

Consider ten concentric circles and ten rays as in the following figure. At the points where the inner circle is intersected by the rays write successively, in direction clockwise, the numbers $1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10$. In the next circle we write the numbers $11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19,20$ successively, and so on successively until the last round were we write the numbers $91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100$ successively. In this orde, the numbers $1, 11, 21, 31, 41, 51, 61, 71, 81, 91$ are in the same ray, and similarly for the other rays. In front of $50$ of those $100$ numbers, we use the sign ''$-$'' such as: a) in each of the ten rays, exist exactly $5$ signs ''$-$'' , and also b) in each of the ten concentric circles, to be exactly $5$ signs ''$-$''. Prove that the sum of the $100$ signed numbers that occur, equals zero. [img]https://cdn.artofproblemsolving.com/attachments/9/d/ffee6518fcd1b996c31cf06d0ce484a821b4ae.gif[/img]

Find all polynomials $P(x)$ with real coefficents such that \[P(P(x))=(x^2+x+1)\cdot P(x)\] where $x \in \mathbb{R}$

Real numbers $a,b,c$ satisfy $\tfrac{1}{ab} = b+2c, \tfrac{1}{bc} = 2c+3a, \tfrac{1}{ca}=3a+b.$ Then, $(a+b+c)^3$ can be written as $\tfrac{m}{n}$ for relatively prime positive integers $m$ and $n.$ Find $m+n.$

For nonnegative integers $m$ and $n$, define the sequence $a(m,n)$ of real numbers as follows. Set $a(0,0)=2$ and for every natural number $n$, set $a(0,n)=1$ and $a(n,0)=2$. Then for $m,n\geq1$, define \[ a(m,n)=a(m-1,n)+a(m,n-1). \] Prove that for every natural number $k$, all the roots of the polynomial $P_{k}(x)=\sum_{i=0}^{k}a(i,2k+1-2i)x^{i}$ are real.