We call a set $A\subset \mathbb{R}$ [i]free of arithmetic progressions[/i] if for all distinct $a,b,c\in A$ we have $a+b\neq 2c.$ Prove that the set $\{0,1,2,\ldots 3^8-1\}$ has a subset $A$ which is free of arithmetic progressions and has at least $256$ elements.

Nuts are placed in boxes. The mean value of the number of nuts in a box is $10$, and the mean value of the squares of the numbers of nuts in the boxes is less than $1000$. Prove that at least $10\%$ of the boxes are not empty. (AY Belov)

A rectangle $\mathcal{R}$ with odd integer side lengths is divided into small rectangles with integer side lengths. Prove that there is at least one among the small rectangles whose distances from the four sides of $\mathcal{R}$ are either all odd or all even. [i]Proposed by Jeck Lim, Singapore[/i]

Several policemen try to catch a thief who has $2m$ accomplices. To that end they place the accomplices under surveillance. In the beginning, the policemen shadow nobody. Every morning each policeman places under his surveillance one of the accomplices. Every evening the thief stops trusting one of his accomplices The thief is caught if by the $m$-th evening some policeman shadows exactly those $m$ accomplices who are still trusted by the thief. Prove that to guarantee the capture of the thief at least $2^m$ policemen are needed.

A $(2^n - 1) \times (2^n +1)$ board is to be divided into rectangles with sides parallel to the sides of the board and integer side lengths such that the area of each rectangle is a power of 2. Find the minimum number of rectangles that the board may be divided into.

If $C^p_n=\frac{n!}{p!(n-p)!} (p \ge 1)$, prove the identity \[C^p_n=C^{p-1}_{n-1} + C^{p-1}_{n-2} + \cdots + C^{p-1}_{p} + C^{p-1}_{p-1}\] and then evaluate the sum \[S = 1\cdot 2 \cdot 3 + 2 \cdot 3 \cdot 4 + \cdots + 97 \cdot 98 \cdot 99.\]

Points $A_1, A_2,\ldots, A_n$ are found on a circle in this order. Each point $A_i$ has exactly $i$ coins. A move consists in taking two coins from two points (may be the same point) and moving them to adjacent points (one move clockwise and another counter-clockwise). Find all possible values of $n$ for which it is possible after a finite number of moves to obtain a configuration with each point $A_i$ having $n+1-i$ coins.

$n$ points are marked on the board points that are vertices of the regular $n$ -gon. One of the points is a chip. Two players take turns moving it to the other marked point and at the same time draw a segment that connects them. If two points already connected by a segment, such a move is prohibited. A player who can't make a move, lose. Which of the players can guarantee victory?

[u]Round 1[/u] [b]p1.[/b] Tom and Jerry stole a chain of $7$ sausages and are now trying to divide the bounty. They take turns biting the sausages at one of the connections. When one of them breaks a connection, he may eat any single sausages that may fall out. Tom takes the first bite. Each of them is trying his best to eat more sausages than his opponent. Who will succeed? [b]p2. [/b]The King of the Mountain Dwarves wants to light his underground throne room by placing several torches so that the whole room is lit. The king, being very miserly, wants to use as few torches as possible. What is the least number of torches he could use? (You should show why he can't do it with a smaller number of torches.) This is the shape of the throne room: [img]https://cdn.artofproblemsolving.com/attachments/b/2/719daafd91fc9a11b8e147bb24cb66b7a684e9.png[/img] Also, the walls in all rooms are lined with velvet and do not reflect the light. For example, the picture on the right shows how another room in the castle is partially lit. [img]https://cdn.artofproblemsolving.com/attachments/5/1/0f6971274e8c2ff3f2d0fa484b567ff3d631fb.png[/img] [b]p3.[/b] In the Hundred Acre Wood, all the animals are either knights or liars. Knights always tell the truth and liars always lie. One day in the Wood, Winnie-the-Pooh, a knight, decides to visit his friend Rabbit, also a noble knight. Upon arrival, Pooh finds his friend sitting at a round table with $5$ other guests. One-by-one, Pooh asks each person at the table how many of his two neighbors are knights. Surprisingly, he gets the same answer from everybody! "Oh bother!" proclaims Pooh. "I still don't have enough information to figure out how many knights are at this table." "But it's my birthday," adds one of the guests. "Yes, it's his birthday!" agrees his neighbor. Now Pooh can tell how many knights are at the table. Can you? [b]p4.[/b] Several girls participate in a tennis tournament in which each player plays each other player exactly once. At the end of the tournament, it turns out that each player has lost at least one of her games. Prove that it is possible to find three players $A$, $B$, and $C$ such that $A$ defeated $B$, $B$ defeated $C$, and $C$ defeated $A$. [b]p5.[/b] There are $40$ piles of stones with an equal number of stones in each. Two players, Ann and Bob, can select any two piles of stones and combine them into one bigger pile, as long as this pile would not contain more than half of all the stones on the table. A player who can’t make a move loses. Ann goes first. Who wins? [u]Round 2[/u] [b]p6.[/b] In a galaxy far, far away, there is a United Galactic Senate with $100$ Senators. Each Senator has no more than three enemies. Tired of their arguments, the Senators want to split into two parties so that each Senator has no more than one enemy in his own party. Prove that they can do this. (Note: If $A$ is an enemy of $B$, then $B$ is an enemy of $A$.) [b]p7.[/b] Harry has a $2012$ by $2012$ chessboard and checkers numbered from $1$ to $2012 \times 2012$. Can he place all the checkers on the chessboard in such a way that whatever row and column Professor Snape picks, Harry will be able to choose three checkers from this row and this column such that the product of the numbers on two of the checkers will be equal to the number on the third? [img]https://cdn.artofproblemsolving.com/attachments/b/3/a87d559b340ceefee485f41c8fe44ae9a59113.png[/img] PS. You should use hide for answers. Collected [url=https://artofproblemsolving.com/community/c5h2760506p24143309]here[/url].

Let $n>1$ be an integer and $S_n$ the set of all permutations $\pi : \{1,2,\cdots,n \} \to \{1,2,\cdots,n \}$ where $\pi$ is bijective function. For every permutation $\pi \in S_n$ we define: \[ F(\pi)= \sum_{k=1}^n |k-\pi(k)| \ \ \text{and} \ \ M_{n}=\frac{1}{n!}\sum_{\pi \in S_n} F(\pi) \] where $M_n$ is taken with all permutations $\pi \in S_n$. Calculate the sum $M_n$.

There are 300 apples, any two of which differ in weight by no more than twice. Prove that they can be arranged in packages of two apples so that any two packages differ in weight by no more than one and a half times.

[b]p1.[/b] $17$ rooks are placed on an $8\times 8$ chess board. Prove that there must be at least one rook that is attacking at least $2$ other rooks. [b]p2.[/b] In New Scotland there are three kinds of coins: $1$ cent, $6$ cent, and $36$ cent coins. Josh has $99$ of the $36$-cent coins (and no other coins). He is allowed to exchange a $36$ cent coin for $6$ coins of $6$ cents, and to exchange a $6$ cent coin for $6$ coins of $1$ cent. Is it possible that after several exchanges Josh will have $500$ coins? [b]p3.[/b] Find all solutions $a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i$ if these letters represent distinct digits and the following multiplication is correct: $\begin{tabular}{ccccc} & & a & b & c \\ x & & & d & e \\ \hline & f & a & c & c \\ + & g & h & i & \\ \hline f & f & f & c & c \\ \end{tabular}$ [b]p4.[/b] Pinocchio rode a bicycle for $3.5$ hours. During every $1$-hour period he went exactly $5$ km. Is it true that his average speed for the trip was $5$ km/h? Explain your reasoning. [b]p5.[/b] Let $a, b, c$ be odd integers. Prove that the equation $ax^2 + bx + c = 0$ cannot have a rational solution. PS. You should use hide for answers. Collected [url=https://artofproblemsolving.com/community/c5h2760506p24143309]here[/url].

Suppose there are $n$ points on the plane, no three of which are collinear. Draw $n-1$ non-intersecting segments (except possibly at endpoints) between pairs of points, such that it is possible to travel between any two points by travelling along the segments. Such a configuration of points and segments is called a [i]network[/i]. Given a network, we may assign labels from $1$ to $n-1$ to each segment such that each segment gets a different label. Define a [i]spin[/i] as the following operation: $\bullet$ Choose a point $v$ and rotate the labels of its adjacent segments clockwise. Formally, let $e_1,e_2,\cdots,e_k$ be the segments which contain $v$ as an endpoint, sorted in clockwise order (it does not matter which segment we choose as $e_1$). Then, the label of $e_{i+1}$ is replaced with the label of $e_{i}$ simultaneously for all $1 \le i \le k$. (where $e_{k+1}=e_{1}$) A network is [i]nontrivial[/i] if there exists at least $2$ points with at least $2$ adjacent segments each. A network is [i]versatile[/i] if any labeling of its segments can be obtained from any initial labeling using a finite amount of spins. Find all integers $n \ge 5$ such that any nontrivial network with $n$ points is versatile. [i]Proposed by Yeoh Zi Song[/i]

In fencing, you win a round if you are the first to reach $15$ points. Suppose that when $A$ plays against $B$, at any point during the round, $A$ scores the next point with probability $p$ and $B$ scores the next point with probability $q=1-p$. (However, they never can both score a point at the same time.) Suppose that in this round, $A$ already has $14-k$ points, and $B$ has $14-\ell$ (where $0\le k,\ell\le 14$). By how much will the probability that $A$ wins the round increase if $A$ scores the next point?

Each of a pair of opposite faces of a unit cube is marked by a dot. Each of another pair of opposite faces is marked by two dots. Each of the remaining two faces is marked by three dots. Eight such cubes are used to construct a $2\times 2 \times 2$ cube. Count the total number of dots on each of its six faces. Can we obtain six consecutive numbers? (A Shapovalov)

The plane is divided into unit cells, and each of the cells is painted in one of two given colors. Find the minimum possible number of cells in a figure consisting of entire cells which contains each of the $16$ possible colored $2\times2$ squares.

$p, q, r$ are natural numbers greater than 1. There are $pq$ balls placed on a circle, and one number among $0, 1, 2, \cdots , pr-1$ is written on each ball, satisfying following conditions. (1) If $i$ and $j$ is written on two adjacent balls, $|i-j|=1$ or $|i-j|=pr-1$. (2) $i$ is written on a ball $A$. If we skip $q-1$ balls clockwise from $A$ and see $q^{th}$ ball, $i+r$ or $i-(p-1)r$ is written on it. (This condition is satisfied for every ball.) If $p$ is even, prove that the number of pairs of two adjacent balls with $1$ and $2$ written on it is odd.

Let $A_1,A_2,\ldots,A_n$ and $B_1,B_2,\ldots,B_n$ be two partitions of a set $M$ such that $|A_j\cup B_k|\ge n$ for any $j,k\in\{1,2,\ldots,n\}$. Prove that $|M|\ge n^2/2$.

Let $n \ge 3$ and $\sigma \in S_n$ a permutation of the first $n$ positive integers. Prove that the numbers $\sigma (1), 2\sigma (2), 3\sigma(3), ... , n\sigma (n)$ cannot form an arithmetic, nor a geometric progression.

You have a large number of congruent equilateral triangular tiles on a table and you want to fit $n$ of them together to make a convex equiangular hexagon (i.e. one whose interior angles are $120^o$) . Obviously, $n$ cannot be any positive integer. The first three feasible $n$ are $6, 10$ and $13$. Show that $12$ is not feasible but $14$ is.

A planar polygon $A_1A_2A_3 . . .A_{n-1}A_n$ ($n > 4$) is made of rigid rods that are connected by hinges. Is it possible to bend the polygon (at hinges only!) into a triangle?

Show that the length of a cycle that contains every edge of a connected graph is at most the sum between the vertices and nodes of the graph, minus $ 1. $

In the Cancun´s league participate $30$ teams. For this tournament we want to divide the $30$ teams in $2$ groups such that: $\textbf{1.}$ Every team plays exactly $82$ games $\textbf{2.}$ The number of gamen between teams of differents groups is equal to the half of games played. Can we do this?

A positive integer $n$ is given. If there exists sets $F_1, F_2, \cdots F_m$ satisfying the following conditions, prove that $m \le n$. (For sets $A, B$, $|A|$ is the number of elements of $A$. $A-B$ is the set of elements that are in $A$ but not $B$. $\text{min}(x,y)$ is the number that is not larger than the other.) (i): For all $1 \le i \le m$, $F_i \subseteq \{1,2,\cdots,n\}$ (ii): For all $1 \le i < j \le m$, $\text{min}(|F_i-F_j|,|F_j-F_i|) = 1$

Find maximal possible number of points lying on or inside a circle with radius $R$ in such a way that the distance between every two points is greater than $R\sqrt2$. [i]H. Lesov[/i]