In the five-sided star shown, the letters $A,B,C,D,$ and $E$ are replaced by the numbers $3,5,6,7,$ and $9$, although not necessarily in this order. The sums of the numbers at the ends of the line segments $\overline{AB}$,$\overline{BC}$,$\overline{CD}$,$\overline{DE}$, and $\overline{EA}$ form an arithmetic sequence, although not necessarily in this order. What is the middle term of the arithmetic sequence? [asy] size(150); defaultpen(linewidth(0.8)); string[] strng = {'A','D','B','E','C'}; pair A=dir(90),B=dir(306),C=dir(162),D=dir(18),E=dir(234); draw(A--B--C--D--E--cycle); for(int i=0;i<=4;i=i+1) { path circ=circle(dir(90-72*i),0.125); unfill(circ); draw(circ); label("$"+strng[i]+"$",dir(90-72*i)); } [/asy] $ \textbf{(A)}\ 9\qquad \textbf{(B)}\ 10\qquad \textbf{(C)}\ 11\qquad \textbf{(D)}\ 12\qquad \textbf{(E)}\ 13$

Let $p\neq 3$ be a prime number. Show that there is a non-constant arithmetic sequence of positive integers $x_1,x_2,\ldots ,x_p$ such that the product of the terms of the sequence is a cube.

Let $a,b,c>0.$ If $\frac 1a,\frac 1b,\frac 1c$ are in arithmetic progression, and if $a^2+b^2,b^2+c^2,c^2+a^2$ are in geometric progression, show that $a=b=c.$

In an arithmetic sequence, the difference of consecutive terms in constant. We consider sequences of integers in which the difference of consecutive terms equals the sum of the differences of all preceding consecutive terms. Which of these sequences with $a_0 = 2012$ and $1\leqslant d = a_1-a_0 \leqslant 43$ contain square numbers?

Let $f:\mathbb N\rightarrow\mathbb N$ be a non-decreasing function and let $n$ be an arbitrary natural number. Suppose that there are prime numbers $p_1,p_2,\dots,p_n$ and natural numbers $s_1,s_2,\dots,s_n$ such that for each $1\leq i\leq n$ the set $\{f(p_ir+s_i)|r=1,2,\dots\}$ is an infinite arithmetic progression. Prove that there is a natural number $a$ such that \[f(a+1), f(a+2), \dots, f(a+n)\] form an arithmetic progression.

Show that if an infinite arithmetic progression of positive integers contains a square and a cube, it must contain a sixth power.

Determine the values that \(n\) can take so that the equation in \( x \) $$ x^4-(3n+2)x^2+n^2=0$$ has four different real roots \( x_1\), \(x_2\), \(x_3\) and \(x_4\) in arithmetic progression. That is, they satisfy that $$x_4-x_3=x_3-x_2=x_2-x_1$$

Let $a_1, a_2,...$ a sequence of real numbers. For each positive integer $n$, we denote $m_n =\frac{a_1 + a_2 +... + a_n}{n}$. It is known that there exists a real number $c$ such that for any different positive integers $i, j, k$: $(i - j) m_k + (j - k) m_i + (k - i) m_j = c$. Prove that the sequence $a_1, a_2,..$ is arithmetic

The real positive numbers $a_1, a_2,a_3$ are three consecutive terms of an arithmetic progression, and similarly, $b_1, b_2, b_3$ are distinct real positive numbers and consecutive terms of an arithmetic progression. Is it possible to use three segments of lengths $a_1, a_2, a_3$ as bases, and other three segments of lengths $b_1, b_2, b_3$ as altitudes, to construct three rectangles of equal area ?

Suppose that $ s_1,s_2,s_3, \ldots$ is a strictly increasing sequence of positive integers such that the sub-sequences \[s_{s_1},\, s_{s_2},\, s_{s_3},\, \ldots\qquad\text{and}\qquad s_{s_1+1},\, s_{s_2+1},\, s_{s_3+1},\, \ldots\] are both arithmetic progressions. Prove that the sequence $ s_1, s_2, s_3, \ldots$ is itself an arithmetic progression. [i]Proposed by Gabriel Carroll, USA[/i]

The internal angles of quadrilateral $ABCD$ form an arithmetic progression. Triangles $ABD$ and $DCB$ are similar with $\angle DBA=\angle DCB$ and $\angle ADB=\angle CBD$. Moreover, the angles in each of these two triangles also form an arithmetic progression. In degrees, what is the largest possible sum of the two largest angles of $ABCD$? ${\textbf{(A)}\ 210\qquad\textbf{(B)}\ 220\qquad\textbf{(C)}\ 230\qquad\textbf{(D}}\ 240\qquad\textbf{(E)}\ 250$

Prove that there exists a four-coloring of the set $M = \{1, 2, \cdots, 1987\}$ such that any arithmetic progression with $10$ terms in the set $M$ is not monochromatic. [b][i]Alternative formulation[/i][/b] Let $M = \{1, 2, \cdots, 1987\}$. Prove that there is a function $f : M \to \{1, 2, 3, 4\}$ that is not constant on every set of $10$ terms from $M$ that form an arithmetic progression. [i]Proposed by Romania[/i]

Let $a_1=0$, $a_2=1$, and $a_{n+2}=a_{n+1}+a_n$ for all positive integers $n$. Show that there exists an increasing infinite arithmetic progression of integers, which has no number in common in the sequence $\{a_n\}_{n \ge 0}$.

Let $n\ge3$ be a natural number. For a set $S$ of $n$ real numbers, $A(S)$ denotes the set of all strictly increasing arithmetic sequences of three terms in $S$. At most, how many elements can the set $A(S)$ have?

Prove that there are infinitely many positive integers $n$ with the following property: For any $n$ integers $a_{1},a_{2},...,a_{n}$ which form in arithmetic progression, both the mean and the standard deviation of the set $\{a_{1},a_{2},...,a_{n}\}$ are integers. [i]Remark[/i]. The mean and standard deviation of the set $\{x_{1},x_{2},...,x_{n}\}$ are defined by $\overline{x}=\frac{x_{1}+x_{2}+...+x_{n}}{n}$ and $\sqrt{\frac{\sum (x_{i}-\overline{x})^{2}}{n}}$, respectively.

A rug is made with three different colors as shown. The areas of the three differently colored regions form an arithmetic progression. The inner rectangle is one foot wide, and each of the two shaded regions is $1$ foot wide on all four sides. What is the length in feet of the inner rectangle? [asy] size(6cm); defaultpen(fontsize(9pt)); path rectangle(pair X, pair Y){ return X--(X.x,Y.y)--Y--(Y.x,X.y)--cycle; } filldraw(rectangle((0,0),(7,5)),gray(0.5)); filldraw(rectangle((1,1),(6,4)),gray(0.75)); filldraw(rectangle((2,2),(5,3)),white); label("$1$",(0.5,2.5)); draw((0.3,2.5)--(0,2.5),EndArrow(TeXHead)); draw((0.7,2.5)--(1,2.5),EndArrow(TeXHead)); label("$1$",(1.5,2.5)); draw((1.3,2.5)--(1,2.5),EndArrow(TeXHead)); draw((1.7,2.5)--(2,2.5),EndArrow(TeXHead)); label("$1$",(4.5,2.5)); draw((4.5,2.7)--(4.5,3),EndArrow(TeXHead)); draw((4.5,2.3)--(4.5,2),EndArrow(TeXHead)); label("$1$",(4.1,1.5)); draw((4.1,1.7)--(4.1,2),EndArrow(TeXHead)); draw((4.1,1.3)--(4.1,1),EndArrow(TeXHead)); label("$1$",(3.7,0.5)); draw((3.7,0.7)--(3.7,1),EndArrow(TeXHead)); draw((3.7,0.3)--(3.7,0),EndArrow(TeXHead)); [/asy] $\textbf{(A) } 1 \qquad \textbf{(B) } 2 \qquad \textbf{(C) } 4 \qquad \textbf{(D) } 6 \qquad \textbf{(E) }8$

Given three infinite arithmetic progressions of natural numbers such that each of the numbers 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 and 8 belongs to at least one of them, prove that the number 1980 also belongs to at least one of them.

Suppose that $S$ is a finite set of real numbers with the property that any two distinct elements of $S$ form an arithmetic progression with another element in $S$. Give an example of such a set with 5 elements and show that no such set exists with more than $5$ elements.

A five-digit palindrome is a positive integer with respective digits $abcba$, where $a$ is non-zero. Let $S$ be the sum of all five-digit palindromes. What is the sum of the digits of $S$? $\textbf{(A) }9\qquad \textbf{(B) }18\qquad \textbf{(C) }27\qquad \textbf{(D) }36\qquad \textbf{(E) }45\qquad$

Show that there exists a real $C > 1$ that satisfy the following property: if $n > 1$ and $a_0 < a_1 < \cdots < a_n$ are positive integers such that $\frac{1}{a_0},\frac{1}{a_1},\dots,\frac{1}{a_n}$ are in arithmetic progression, then $a_0 > C^n.$

Fix a positive integer $n\geq 3$. Does there exist infinitely many sets $S$ of positive integers $\lbrace a_1,a_2,\ldots, a_n$, $b_1,b_2,\ldots,b_n\rbrace$, such that $\gcd (a_1,a_2,\ldots, a_n$, $b_1,b_2,\ldots,b_n)=1$, $\lbrace a_i\rbrace _{i=1}^n$, $\lbrace b_i\rbrace _{i=1}^n$ are arithmetic progressions, and $\prod_{i=1}^n a_i = \prod_{i=1}^n b_i$?

How many four-digit integers $abcd$, with $a \neq 0$, have the property that the three two-digit integers $ab<bc<cd$ form an increasing arithmetic sequence? One such number is $4692$, where $a=4$, $b=6$, $c=9$, and $d=2$. $\textbf{(A)}\ 9\qquad\textbf{(B)}\ 15\qquad\textbf{(C)}\ 16\qquad\textbf{(D)}\ 17\qquad\textbf{(E)}\ 20$

Let $d$ be a positive integer. Define the sequence $a_1, a_2, a_3, \dots$ such that \[\begin{cases} a_1 = 1 \\ a_{n+1} = n\left\lfloor\frac{a_n}{n}\right\rfloor + d, \quad n \ge 1.\end{cases}\] Prove that there exists a positive integer $M$ such that $a_M, a_{M+1}, a_{M+2}, \dots$ is an arithmetic sequence.

Decide whether there is a member in the arithmetic sequence $\{a_n\}_{n=1}^\infty$ whose first member is $a_1=1998$ and the common difference $d=131$ which is a palindrome (palindrome is a number such that its decimal expansion is symmetric, e.g., $7$, $33$, $433334$, $2135312$ and so on).

Let $n > 1$ be an integer. Find, with proof, all sequences $x_1 , x_2 , \ldots , x_{n-1}$ of positive integers with the following three properties: (a). $x_1 < x_2 < \cdots < x_{n-1}$ ; (b). $x_i + x_{n-i} = 2n$ for all $i = 1, 2, \ldots , n - 1$; (c). given any two indices $i$ and $j$ (not necessarily distinct) for which $x_i + x_j < 2n$, there is an index $k$ such that $x_i + x_j = x_k$.