In a $2\times n$ array we have positive reals s.t. the sum of the numbers in each of the $n$ columns is $1$. Show that we can select a number in each column s.t. the sum of the selected numbers in each row is at most $\frac{n+1}4$.

Christian Reiher and Reid Barton want to open a security box, they already managed to discover the algorithm to generate the key codes and they obtained the following information: $i)$ In the screen of the box will appear a sequence of $n+1$ numbers, $C_0 = (a_{0,1},a_{0,2},...,a_{0,n+1})$ $ii)$ If the code $K = (k_1,k_2,...,k_n)$ opens the security box then the following must happen: a) A sequence $C_i = (a_{i,1},a_{i,2},...,a_{i,n+1})$ will be asigned to each $k_i$ defined as follows: $a_{i,1} = 1$ and $a_{i,j} = a_{i-1,j}-k_ia_{i,j-1}$, for $i,j \ge 1$ b) The sequence $(C_n)$ asigned to $k_n$ satisfies that $S_n = \sum_{i=1}^{n+1}|a_i|$ has its least possible value, considering all possible sequences $K$. The sequence $C_0$ that appears in the screen is the following: $a_{0,1} = 1$ and $a_0,i$ is the sum of the products of the elements of each of the subsets with $i-1$ elements of the set $A =$ {$1,2,3,...,n$}, $i\ge 2$, such that $a_{0, n+1} = n!$ Find a sequence $K = (k_1,k_2,...,k_n)$ that satisfies the conditions of the problem and show that there exists at least $n!$ of them.

Let $m,n$ be positive integer numbers. Prove that there exist infinite many couples of positive integer nubmers $(a,b)$ such that \[a+b| am^a+bn^b , \quad\gcd(a,b)=1.\]

There are 100 visually identical coins of three types: golden, silver and copper. There is at least one coin of each type. Each golden coin weighs 3 grams, each silver coins weighs 2 grams and each copper coin weighs 1 gram. How to find the type of each coin performing no more than 101 measurements on a balance scale with no weights.

Let us consider a first-order language $L$ with a ternary predicate $\operatorname{Plus}$. Hence (well-formed) formulas of $L$ are built of symbols for variables, logical connectives, quantifiers, brackets, and the predicate symbol $\operatorname{Plus}$. $$(\exists x_1)(\forall x_2):\operatorname{Plus}(x_2,x_1,x_2)\wedge(\forall x_3):\neg\operatorname{Plus}(x_1,x_3,x_3)$$ is an example of such a formula. Recall that a formula is [i]closed[/i] iff each variable symbol occurs within the scope of a quantifier. Show that there exists an algorithm which decides whether or not a given closed formula of $L$ is true for the set $\mathbb N$ of natural numbers ($\{0,1,2,\ldots\}$) where $\operatorname{Plus}(x,y,z)$ is interpreted as $x+y=z$.

Let $n \geq k$ be positive integers and let $a_1, \dots, a_n$ be a non-increasing list of positive real numbers. Prove that there exists $k$ sets $B_1, \dots, B_k$ which partition the set $\{1, 2, \dots, n\}$ such that $$\min_{1 \le j \le k} \left(\sum_{i \in B_j} a_i \right) \geq \min_{1 \le j \le k} \left(\frac{1}{2k+1-2j} \cdot \sum^n_{i=j} a_i\right).$$ [i]Proposed by Navid Safaei[/i]

A magician should determine the area of a hidden convex $ 2008$-gon $ A_{1}A_{2}\cdots A_{2008}$. In each step he chooses two points on the perimeter, whereas the chosen points can be vertices or points dividing selected sides in selected ratios. Then his helper divides the polygon into two parts by the line through these two points and announces the area of the smaller of the two parts. Show that the magician can find the area of the polygon in $ 2006$ steps.

Sophia writes an algorithm to solve the graph isomorphism problem. Given a graph $G=(V,E)$, her algorithm iterates through all permutations of the set $\{v_1, \dots, v_{|V|}\}$, each time examining all ordered pairs $(v_i,v_j)\in V\times V$ to see if an edge exists. When $|V|=8$, her algorithm makes $N$ such examinations. What is the largest power of two that divides $N$?

Let $n \geq 3$ be a fixed integer. The number $1$ is written $n$ times on a blackboard. Below the blackboard, there are two buckets that are initially empty. A move consists of erasing two of the numbers $a$ and $b$, replacing them with the numbers $1$ and $a+b$, then adding one stone to the first bucket and $\gcd(a, b)$ stones to the second bucket. After some finite number of moves, there are $s$ stones in the first bucket and $t$ stones in the second bucket, where $s$ and $t$ are positive integers. Find all possible values of the ratio $\frac{t}{s}$.

Let $ n \geq 2$ be a positive integer and $ \lambda$ a positive real number. Initially there are $ n$ fleas on a horizontal line, not all at the same point. We define a move as choosing two fleas at some points $ A$ and $ B$, with $ A$ to the left of $ B$, and letting the flea from $ A$ jump over the flea from $ B$ to the point $ C$ so that $ \frac {BC}{AB} \equal{} \lambda$. Determine all values of $ \lambda$ such that, for any point $ M$ on the line and for any initial position of the $ n$ fleas, there exists a sequence of moves that will take them all to the position right of $ M$.

Let $k\ge 1$ be a positive integer. We consider $4k$ chips, $2k$ of which are red and $2k$ of which are blue. A sequence of those $4k$ chips can be transformed into another sequence by a so-called move, consisting of interchanging a number (possibly one) of consecutive red chips with an equal number of consecutive blue chips. For example, we can move from $r\underline{bb}br\underline{rr}b$ to $r\underline{rr}br\underline{bb}b$ where $r$ denotes a red chip and $b$ denotes a blue chip. Determine the smallest number $n$ (as a function of $k$) such that starting from any initial sequence of the $4k$ chips, we need at most $n$ moves to reach the state in which the first $2k$ chips are red.

The Fibonacci sequence is defined by \[ a_{n+1} = a_n + a_{n-1}, n \geq 1, a_0 = 0, a_1 = a_2 = 1. \] Find the greatest common divisor of the 1960-th and 1988-th terms of the Fibonacci sequence.

Prove that any positive integer can be represented as an aggregate of different powers of $3$, the terms in the aggregate being combined by the signs $+$ and $-$ appropriately chosen.

There are a board with $2n \cdot 2n \ (= 4n^2)$ squares and $4n^2-1$ cards numbered with different natural numbers. These cards are put one by one on each of the squares. One square is empty. We can move a card to an empty square from one of the adjacent squares (two squares are adjacent if they have a common edge). Is it possible to exchange two cards on two adjacent squares of a column (or a row) in a finite number of movements?

There is a WORD game with the following rules. There are finite number of relations $U_{i}\longrightarrow V_{i}$($U_{i},V_{i}$ are words). There is are two words $A,B$. We start from $A$, and we want to reach to $B$. At each step we can change one subword $U_{i}$ to $V_{i}$. Prove that there does not exist an algorithm that picks up $A,B$ and $U_{i}$'s,$V_{i}$'s and decides whether we can reach from $A$ to $B$ or not.

An integer $N \ge 2$ is given. A collection of $N(N + 1)$ soccer players, no two of whom are of the same height, stand in a row. Sir Alex wants to remove $N(N - 1)$ players from this row leaving a new row of $2N$ players in which the following $N$ conditions hold: ($1$) no one stands between the two tallest players, ($2$) no one stands between the third and fourth tallest players, $\;\;\vdots$ ($N$) no one stands between the two shortest players. Show that this is always possible. [i]Proposed by Grigory Chelnokov, Russia[/i]

(a) Find all triples $(x,y,z)$ of positive integers such that $xy \equiv 2 (\bmod{z})$ , $yz \equiv 2 (\bmod{x})$ and $zx \equiv 2 (\bmod{y} )$ (b) Let $n \geq 1$ be an integer. Give an algoritm to determine all triples $(x,y,z)$ such that '2' in part (a) is replaced by 'n' in all three congruences.

Determine whether it's possible to cover a $K_{2012}$ with a) 1000 $K_{1006}$'s; b) 1000 $K_{1006,1006}$'s. [i]David Yang.[/i]

Arutyun and Amayak show another effective trick. A spectator writes down on a board a sequence of $N$ (decimal) digits. Amayak closes two adjacent digits by a black disc. Then Arutyun comes and says both closed digits (and their order). For which minimal $N$ they may show such a trick? [i]K. Knop, O. Leontieva[/i]

For any positive integer $n$ consider all representations $n = a_1 + \cdots+ a_k$, where $a_1 > a_2 > \cdots > a_k > 0$ are integers such that for all $i \in \{1, 2, \cdots , k - 1\}$, the number $a_i$ is divisible by $a_{i+1}$. Find the longest such representation of the number $1992.$

A magician intends to perform the following trick. She announces a positive integer $n$, along with $2n$ real numbers $x_1 < \dots < x_{2n}$, to the audience. A member of the audience then secretly chooses a polynomial $P(x)$ of degree $n$ with real coefficients, computes the $2n$ values $P(x_1), \dots , P(x_{2n})$, and writes down these $2n$ values on the blackboard in non-decreasing order. After that the magician announces the secret polynomial to the audience. Can the magician find a strategy to perform such a trick?

Let $n$ be a positive integer. Given $n^2$ points in a unit square, prove that there exists a broken line of length $2n + 1$ that passes through all the points. [i]Allen Yuan[/i]

There are $n$ students in a circle, one behind the other, all facing clockwise. The students have heights $h_1 <h_2 < h_3 < \cdots < h_n$. If a student with height $h_k$ is standing directly behind a student with height $h_{k-2}$ or lesss, the two students are permitted to switch places Prove that it is not possible to make more than $\binom{n}{3}$ such switches before reaching a position in which no further switches are possible.

Let $ A_0 \equal{} (a_1,\dots,a_n)$ be a finite sequence of real numbers. For each $ k\geq 0$, from the sequence $ A_k \equal{} (x_1,\dots,x_k)$ we construct a new sequence $ A_{k \plus{} 1}$ in the following way. 1. We choose a partition $ \{1,\dots,n\} \equal{} I\cup J$, where $ I$ and $ J$ are two disjoint sets, such that the expression \[ \left|\sum_{i\in I}x_i \minus{} \sum_{j\in J}x_j\right| \] attains the smallest value. (We allow $ I$ or $ J$ to be empty; in this case the corresponding sum is 0.) If there are several such partitions, one is chosen arbitrarily. 2. We set $ A_{k \plus{} 1} \equal{} (y_1,\dots,y_n)$ where $ y_i \equal{} x_i \plus{} 1$ if $ i\in I$, and $ y_i \equal{} x_i \minus{} 1$ if $ i\in J$. Prove that for some $ k$, the sequence $ A_k$ contains an element $ x$ such that $ |x|\geq\frac n2$. [i]Author: Omid Hatami, Iran[/i]

Let $n$ be a positive integer. The numbers $\{1, 2, ..., n^2\}$ are placed in an $n \times n$ grid, each exactly once. The grid is said to be [i]Muirhead-able[/i] if the sum of the entries in each column is the same, but for every $1 \le i,k \le n-1$, the sum of the first $k$ entries in column $i$ is at least the sum of the first $k$ entries in column $i+1$. For which $n$ can one construct a Muirhead-able array such that the entries in each column are decreasing? [i]Proposed by Evan Chen[/i]