Find the maximum and minimum of the expression \[ \max(a_1, a_2) + \max(a_2, a_3), + \dots + \max(a_{n-1}, a_n) + \max(a_n, a_1), \] where $(a_1, a_2, \dots, a_n)$ runs over the set of permutations of $(1, 2, \dots, n)$.

[b]p1.[/b] How many ordered triples of integers $(a, b, c)$ where $1 \le a, b, c \le 10$ are such that for every natural number, the equation $(a + n)x^2 + (b + 2n)x + c + n = 0$ has at least one real root? [b]p2.[/b] Find the smallest integer $n$ such that we can cut a $n \times n$ grid into $5$ rectangles with distinct side lengths in $\{1, 2, 3..., 10\}$. Every value is used exactly once. [b]p3.[/b] A plane is flying at constant altitude along a circle of radius $12$ miles with center at a point $A$.The speed of the aircraft is v. At some moment in time, a missile is fired at the aircraft from the point $A$, which has speed v and is guided so that its velocity vector always points towards the aircraft. How far does the missile travel before colliding with the aircraft? PS. You should use hide for answers. Collected [url=https://artofproblemsolving.com/community/c5h2760506p24143309]here[/url].

Nancy shuffles a deck of $52$ cards and spreads the cards out in a circle face up, leaving one spot empty. Andy, who is in another room and does not see the cards, names a card. If this card is adjacent to the empty spot, Nancy moves the card to the empty spot, without telling Andy; otherwise nothing happens. Then Andy names another card and so on, as many times as he likes, until he says "stop." [list][b](a)[/b] Can Andy guarantee that after he says "stop," no card is in its initial spot? [b](b)[/b] Can Andy guarantee that after he says "stop," the Queen of Spades is not adjacent to the empty spot?[/list]

Every two residents of a city have an even number of common friends in the city. One day, some of the people sent postcards to some of their friends. Each resident with odd number of friends sent exactly one postcard, and every other - no more than one. Every resident received no more than one postcard. Prove that the number of ways the cards could be sent is odd.

[hide=B stands for Bernoulli, G stands for Germain]they had two problem sets under those two names[/hide] [b]B1[/b] What is the sum of the first $5$ positive integers? [b]B2[/b] Bread picks a number $n$. He finds out that if he multiplies $n$ by $23$ and then subtracts $20$, he gets $46279$. What is $n$? [b]B3[/b] A [i]Harshad [/i] Number is a number that is divisible by the sum of its digits. For example, $27$ is divisible by $2 + 7 = 9$. Only one two-digit multiple of $9$ is not a [i]Harshad [/i] Number. What is this number? [b]B4 / G1[/b] There are $5$ red balls and 3 blue balls in a bag. Alice randomly picks a ball out of the bag and then puts it back in the bag. Bob then randomly picks a ball out of the bag. What is the probability that Alice gets a red ball and Bob gets a blue ball, assuming each ball is equally likely to be chosen? [b]B5[/b] Let $a$ be a $1$-digit positive integer and $b$ be a $3$-digit positive integer. If the product of $a$ and $b$ is a$ 4$-digit integer, what is the minimum possible value of the sum of $a$ and $b$? [b]B6 / G2[/b] A circle has radius $6$. A smaller circle with the same center has radius $5$. What is the probability that a dart randomly placed inside the outer circle is outside the inner circle? [b]B7[/b] Call a two-digit integer “sus” if its digits sum to $10$. How many two-digit primes are sus? [b]B8 / G3[/b] Alex and Jeff are playing against Max and Alan in a game of tractor with $2$ standard decks of $52$ cards. They take turns taking (and keeping) cards from the combined decks. At the end of the game, the $5$s are worth $5$ points, the $10$s are worth $10$ points, and the kings are worth 10 points. Given that a team needs $50$ percent more points than the other to win, what is the minimal score Alan and Max need to win? [b]B9 / G4[/b] Bob has a sandwich in the shape of a rectangular prism. It has side lengths $10$, $5$, and $5$. He cuts the sandwich along the two diagonals of a face, resulting in four pieces. What is the volume of the largest piece? [b]B10 / G5[/b] Aven makes a rectangular fence of area $96$ with side lengths $x$ and $y$. John makesva larger rectangular fence of area 186 with side lengths $x + 3$ and $y + 3$. What is the value of $x + y$? [b]B11 / G6[/b] A number is prime if it is only divisible by itself and $1$. What is the largest prime number $n$ smaller than $1000$ such that $n + 2$ and $n - 2$ are also prime? Note: $1$ is not prime. [b]B12 / G7[/b] Sally has $3$ red socks, $1$ green sock, $2$ blue socks, and $4$ purple socks. What is the probability she will choose a pair of matching socks when only choosing $2$ socks without replacement? [b]B13 / G8[/b] A triangle with vertices at $(0, 0)$,$ (3, 0)$, $(0, 6)$ is filled with as many $1 \times 1$ lattice squares as possible. How much of the triangle’s area is not filled in by the squares? [b]B14 / G10[/b] A series of concentric circles $w_1, w_2, w_3, ...$ satisfy that the radius of $w_1 = 1$ and the radius of $w_n =\frac34$ times the radius of $w_{n-1}$. The regions enclosed in $w_{2n-1}$ but not in $w_{2n}$ are shaded for all integers $n > 0$. What is the total area of the shaded regions? [b]B15 / G12[/b] $10$ cards labeled 1 through $10$ lie on a table. Kevin randomly takes $3$ cards and Patrick randomly takes 2 of the remaining $7$ cards. What is the probability that Kevin’s largest card is smaller than Patrick’s largest card, and that Kevin’s second-largest card is smaller than Patrick’s smallest card? [b]G9[/b] Let $A$ and $B$ be digits. If $125A^2 + B161^2 = 11566946$. What is $A + B$? [b]G11[/b] How many ordered pairs of integers $(x, y)$ satisfy $y^2 - xy + x = 0$? [b]G13[/b] $N$ consecutive integers add to $27$. How many possible values are there for $N$? [b]G14[/b] A circle with center O and radius $7$ is tangent to a pair of parallel lines $\ell_1$ and $\ell_2$. Let a third line tangent to circle $O$ intersect $\ell_1$ and $\ell_2$ at points $A$ and $B$. If $AB = 18$, find $OA + OB$. [b]G15[/b] Let $$ M =\prod ^{42}_{i=0}(i^2 - 5).$$ Given that $43$ doesn’t divide $M$, what is the remainder when M is divided by $43$? PS. You should use hide for answers. Collected [url=https://artofproblemsolving.com/community/c5h2760506p24143309]here[/url].

A tournament on $2k$ vertices contains no $7$-cycles. Show that its vertices can be partitioned into two sets, each with size $k$, such that the edges between vertices of the same set do not determine any $3$-cycles. [i]Calvin Deng.[/i]

Beto plays the following game with his computer: initially the computer randomly picks $30$ integers from $1$ to $2015$, and Beto writes them on a chalkboard (there may be repeated numbers). On each turn, Beto chooses a positive integer $k$ and some if the numbers written on the chalkboard, and subtracts $k$ from each of the chosen numbers, with the condition that the resulting numbers remain non-negative. The objective of the game is to reduce all $30$ numbers to $0$, in which case the game ends. Find the minimal number $n$ such that, regardless of which numbers the computer chooses, Beto can end the game in at most $n$ turns.

The persons $P_1, P_2, . . . , P_{n-1}, P_n$ sit around a table, in this order, and each one of them has a number of coins. In the start, $P_1$ has one coin more than $P_2, P_2$ has one coin more than $P_3$, etc., up to $P_{n-1}$ who has one coin more than $P_n$. Now $P_1$ gives one coin to $P_2$, who in turn gives two coins to $P_3 $ etc., up to $ Pn$ who gives n coins to $ P_1$. Now the process continues in the same way: $P_1$ gives $n+ 1$ coins to $P_2$, $P_2$ gives $n+2$ coins to $P_3$; in this way the transactions go on until someone has not enough coins, i.e. a person no more can give away one coin more than he just received. At the moment when the process comes to an end in this manner, it turns out that there are two neighbours at the table such that one of them has exactly five times as many coins as the other. Determine the number of persons and the number of coins circulating around the table.

In an election, there are $1395$ candidates and some voters. Each voter, arranges all the candidates by the priority order. We form a directed graph with $1395$ vertices, an arrow is directed from $U$ to $V$ when the candidate $U$ is at a higher level of priority than $V$ in more than half of the votes. (otherwise, there's no edge between $U,V$) Is it possible to generate all complete directed graphs with $1395$ vertices?

Can one cover a cube by three paper triangles (without overlapping)?

The finite sets $A_1$, $A_2$, $\ldots$, $A_n$ are given and we denote by $d(n)$ the number of elements which appear exactly in an odd number of sets chosen from $A_1$, $A_2$, $\ldots$, $A_n$. Prove that for any $k$, $1\leq k\leq n$ the number \[{ d(n) - \sum\limits^n_{i=1} |A_i| + 2\sum\limits_{ i<j} |A_i \cap A_j | - \cdots + (-1)^k2^{k-1} \sum\limits_{i_1 <i_2 <\cdots < i_k} | A_{i_1} \cap A_{i_2} \cap \cdots \cap A_{i_k}}| \] is divisible by $2^k$. [i]Ioan Tomescu, Dragos Popescu[/i]

The king assembled 300 wizards and gave them the following challenge. For this challenge, 25 colors can be used, and they are known to the wizards. Each of the wizards receives a hat of one of those 25 colors. If for each color the number of used hats would be written down then all these number would be different, and the wizards know this. Each wizard sees what hat was given to each other wizard but does not see his own hat. Simultaneously each wizard reports the color of his own hat. Is it possible for the wizards to coordinate their actions beforehand so that at least 150 of them would report correctly?

In the illustration, a regular hexagon and a regular octagon have been tiled with rhombuses. In each case, the sides of the rhombuses are the same length as the sides of the regular polygon. (a) Tile a regular decagon ($10$-gon) into rhombuses in this manner. (b) Tile a regular dodecagon ($12$-gon) into rhombuses in this manner. (c) How many rhombuses are in a tiling by rhombuses of a $2002$-gon? Justify your answer. [img]https://cdn.artofproblemsolving.com/attachments/8/a/8413e4e2712609eba07786e34ba2ce4aa72888.png[/img]

Compute the number of ways there are to completely fill a $3\times 15$ rectangle with non-overlapping $1\times 3$ rectangles

Eight politicians stranded on a desert island on January 1st, 1991, decided to establish a parliament. They decided on the following rules of attendance: (a) There should always be at least one person present on each day. (b) On no two days should the same subset attend. (c) The members present on day $N$ should include for each $K<N$, $(K\ge 1)$ at least one member who was present on day $K$. For how many days can the parliament sit before one of the rules is broken?

$(BEL 6)$ Evaluate $\left(\cos\frac{\pi}{4} + i \sin\frac{\pi}{4}\right)^{10}$ in two different ways and prove that $\dbinom{10}{1}-\dbinom{10}{3}+\frac{1}{2}\dbinom{10}{5}=2^4$

A $100 \times 100$ table is given. At the beginning, every unit square has number $"0"$ written in them. Two players playing a game and the game stops after $200$ steps (each player plays $100$ steps). In every step, one can choose a row or a column and add $1$ to the written number in all of it's squares $\pmod 3.$ First player is the winner if more than half of the squares ($5000$ squares) have the number $"1"$ written in them, Second player is the winner if more than half of the squares ($5000$ squares) have the number $"0"$ written in them. Otherwise, the game is draw. Assume that both players play at their best. What will be the result of the game ? [i]Proposed by Mahyar Sefidgaran[/i]

For each positive integer $\,n,\;S(n)\,$ is defined to be the greatest integer such that, for every positive integer $\,k\leq S(n),\;n^{2}\,$ can be written as the sum of $\,k\,$ positive squares. [b]a.)[/b] Prove that $\,S(n)\leq n^{2}-14\,$ for each $\,n\geq 4$. [b]b.)[/b] Find an integer $\,n\,$ such that $\,S(n)=n^{2}-14$. [b]c.)[/b] Prove that there are infintely many integers $\,n\,$ such that $S(n)=n^{2}-14.$

There are $n$ pieces on the squares of a $5 \times 9$ board, at most one on each square at any time during the game. A move in the game consists of simultaneously moving each piece to a neighboring square by side, under the restriction that a piece having been moved horizontally in the previous move must be moved vertically and vice versa. Find the greatest value of $n$ for which there exists an initial position starting at which the game can be continued until the end of the world.

The entries on an $ n$ × $ n$ board are colored black and white like it is usually done in a chessboard, and the upper left hand corner is black. We color the entries on the chess board black according to the following rule: In each step we choose an arbitrary $ 2$×$ 3$ or $ 3$× $ 2$ rectangle that still contains $ 3$ white entries, and we color these three entries black. For which values of $ n$ can the whole board be colored black in a finite number of steps

Let $A = (a_1, a_2, \ldots, a_{2001})$ be a sequence of positive integers. Let $m$ be the number of 3-element subsequences $(a_i,a_j,a_k)$ with $1 \leq i < j < k \leq 2001$, such that $a_j = a_i + 1$ and $a_k = a_j + 1$. Considering all such sequences $A$, find the greatest value of $m$.

Is it possible to cover an $n \times n$ chessboard which has its center square cut out with tiles shown in the picture (each tile covers exactly $4$ squares, tiles can be rotated and turned around) if a) $n = 5$, b) $n = 2003$? [img]https://cdn.artofproblemsolving.com/attachments/6/5/8fddeefc226ee0c02353a1fc11e48ce42d8436.png[/img]

Let $n$ be a positive integer. Andrés has $n+1$ cards and each of them has a positive integer written, in such a way that the sum of the $n+1$ numbers is $3n$. Show that Andrés can place one or more cards in a red box and one or more cards in a blue box in such a way that the sum of the numbers of the cards in the red box is equal to twice the sum of the numbers of the cards in the blue box. Clarification: Some of Andrés's letters can be left out of the boxes.

Let $k>1$ be a positive integer. A set $S{}$ is called [i]good[/i] if there exists a colouring of the positive integers with $k{}$ colours, such that no element from $S{}$ can be written as the sum of two distinct positive integers having the same colour. Find the greatest positive integer $t{}$ (in terms of $k{}$) for which the set \[S=\{a+1,a+2,\ldots,a+t\}\]is good, for any positive integer $a{}$.

[b]p1.[/b] A light beam shines from the origin into the unit square at an angle of $\theta$ to one of the sides such that $\tan \theta = \frac{13}{17}$ . The light beam is reflected by the sides of the square. How many times does the light beam hit a side of the square before hitting a vertex of the square? [img]https://cdn.artofproblemsolving.com/attachments/5/7/1db0aad33ed9bf82bee3303c7fbbe0b7c2574f.png[/img] [b]p2.[/b] Alex is given points $A_1,A_2,...,A_{150}$ in the plane such that no three are collinear and $A_1$, $A_2$, $...$, $A_{100}$ are the vertices of a convex polygon $P$ containing $A_{101}$, $A_{102}$, $ ...$, $A_{150}$ in its interior. He proceeds to draw edges $A_iA_j$ such that no two edges intersect (except possibly at their endpoints), eventually dividing $P$ up into triangles. How many triangles are there? [img]https://cdn.artofproblemsolving.com/attachments/d/5/12c757077e87809837d16128b018895a8bcc94.png[/img] [b]p3. [/b]The polynomial P(x) has the property that $P(1)$, $P(2)$, $P(3)$, $P(4)$, and $P(5)$ are equal to $1$, $2$, $3$, $4$,$5$ in some order. How many possibilities are there for the polynomial $P$, given that the degree of $P$ is strictly less than $4$? PS. You had better use hide for answers. Collected [url=https://artofproblemsolving.com/community/c5h2760506p24143309]here[/url].