Let $f$ be a function $f: \mathbb{N} \cup \{0\} \mapsto \mathbb{N},$ and satisfies the following conditions: (1) $f(0) = 0, f(1) = 1,$ (2) $f(n+2) = 23 \cdot f(n+1) + f(n), n = 0,1, \ldots.$ Prove that for any $m \in \mathbb{N}$, there exist a $d \in \mathbb{N}$ such that $m | f(f(n)) \Leftrightarrow d | n.$

Mongolia TST 2011 Test 1 #2 Let $p$ be a prime number. Prove that: $\sum_{k=0}^p (-1)^k \dbinom{p}{k} \dbinom{p+k}{k} \equiv -1 (\mod p^3)$ (proposed by B. Batbayasgalan, inspired by Putnam olympiad problem) Note: I believe they meant to say $p>2$ as well.

A cat is trying to catch a mouse in the non-negative quadrant \[N=\{(x_1,x_2)\in \mathbb{R}^2: x_1,x_2\geq 0\}.\] At time $t=0$ the cat is at $(1,1)$ and the mouse is at $(0,0)$. The cat moves with speed $\sqrt{2}$ such that the position $c(t)=(c_1(t),c_2(t))$ is continuous, and differentiable except at finitely many points; while the mouse moves with speed $1$ such that its position $m(t)=(m_1(t),m_2(t))$ is also continuous, and differentiable except at finitely many points. Thus $c(0)=(1,1)$ and $m(0)=(0,0)$; $c(t)$ and $m(t)$ are continuous functions of $t$ such that $c(t),m(t)\in N$ for all $t\geq 0$; the derivatives $c'(t)=(c'_1(t),c'_2(t))$ and $m'(t)=(m'_1(t),m'_2(t))$ each exist for all but finitely many $t$ and \[(c'_1(t)^2+(c'_2(t))^2=2 \qquad (m'_1(t)^2+(m'_2(t))^2=1,\] whenever the respective derivative exists. At each time $t$ the cat knows both the mouse's position $m(t)$ and velocity $m'(t)$. Show that, no matter how the mouse moves, the cat can catch it by time $t=1$; that is, show that the cat can move such that $c(\tau)=m(\tau)$ for some $\tau\in[0,1]$.

Find all functions $f:\mathbb{R}\rightarrow\mathbb{R}$ such that for all real numbers $x$ and $y$, $$f(f(x-y)-yf(x))=xf(y).$$

Let $\mathbb{N}$ denote the natural numbers. Compute the number of functions $f:\mathbb{N}\rightarrow \{0, 1, \dots, 16\}$ such that $$f(x+17)=f(x)\qquad \text{and} \qquad f(x^2)\equiv f(x)^2+15 \pmod {17}$$ for all integers $x\ge 1$.

Find all functions $f : \mathbb{Q} \rightarrow \mathbb{R}$ such that: $a)$ $f(1)+2>0$ $b)$ $f(x+y)-xf(y)-yf(x)=f(x)f(y)+f(x)+f(y)+xy$, $\forall x,y \in \mathbb{Q}$ $c)$ $f(x)=3f(x+1)+2x+5$, $\forall x \in \mathbb{Q}$

Given a real number $\alpha$, find all pairs $(f,g)$ of functions $f,g :\mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R}$ such that $$xf(x+y)+\alpha \cdot yf(x-y)=g(x)+g(y) \;\;\;\;\;\;\;\;\;\;\; ,\forall x,y \in \mathbb{R}.$$

In the accompanying figure , $y=f(x)$ is the graph of a one-to-one continuous function $f$ . At each point $P$ on the graph of $y=2x^2$ , assume that the areas $OAP$ and $OBP$ are equal . Here $PA,PB$ are the horizontal and vertical segments . Determine the function $f$. [asy] Label f; xaxis(0,60,blue); yaxis(0,60,blue); real f(real x) { return (x^2)/60; } draw(graph(f,0,53),red); label("$y=x^2$",(30,15),E); real f(real x) { return (x^2)/25; } draw(graph(f,0,38),red); label("$y=2x^2$",(37,37^2/25),E); real f(real x) { return (x^2)/10; } draw(graph(f,0,25),red); label("$y=f(x)$",(24,576/10),W); label("$O(0,0)$",(0,0),S); dot((20,400/25)); dot((20,400/60)); label("$P$",(20,400/25),E); label("$B$",(20,400/60),SE); dot(((4000/25)^(0.5),400/25)); label("$A$",((4000/25)^(0.5),400/25),W); draw((20,400/25)..((4000/25)^(0.5),400/25)); draw((20,400/25)..(20,400/60)); [/asy]

Determine all functions $f : \mathbb{R} - [0,1] \to \mathbb{R}$ such that \[ f(x) + f \left( \dfrac{1}{1-x} \right) = \dfrac{2(1-2x)}{x(1-x)} . \]

Let $a_1<a_2<\cdots<a_n$ be positive integers. Some colouring of $\mathbb{Z}$ is periodic with period $t$ such that for each $x\in \mathbb{Z}$ exactly one of $x+a_1,x+a_2,\dots,x+a_n$ is coloured. Prove that $n\mid t$. [i]Andrei Radulescu-Banu[/i]

Find all functions $f:\mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R}$ such that $f(x)\geq 0\ \forall \ x\in \mathbb{R}$, $f'(x)$ exists $\forall \ x\in \mathbb{R}$ and $f'(x)\geq 0\ \forall \ x\in \mathbb{R}$ and $f(n)=0\ \forall \ n\in \mathbb{Z}$

For a particular peculiar pair of dice, the probabilities of rolling 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 on each die are in the ratio $ 1: 2: 3: 4: 5: 6$. What is the probability of rolling a total of 7 on the two dice? $ \textbf{(A) } \frac 4{63} \qquad \textbf{(B) } \frac 18 \qquad \textbf{(C) } \frac 8{63} \qquad \textbf{(D) } \frac 16 \qquad \textbf{(E) } \frac 27$

How many polynomial functions $f$ of degree $\ge 1$ satisfy \[ f(x^2)=[f(x)]^2=f(f(x)) \ ? \] $ \textbf{(A)}\ 0 \qquad\textbf{(B)}\ 1 \qquad\textbf{(C)}\ 2 \qquad\textbf{(D)}\ \text{finitely many but more than 2} \\ \qquad\textbf{(E)}\ \text{infinitely many} $

Define the function $f:(0,1)\to (0,1)$ by \[\displaystyle f(x) = \left\{ \begin{array}{lr} x+\frac 12 & \text{if}\ \ x < \frac 12\\ x^2 & \text{if}\ \ x \ge \frac 12 \end{array} \right.\] Let $a$ and $b$ be two real numbers such that $0 < a < b < 1$. We define the sequences $a_n$ and $b_n$ by $a_0 = a, b_0 = b$, and $a_n = f( a_{n -1})$, $b_n = f (b_{n -1} )$ for $n > 0$. Show that there exists a positive integer $n$ such that \[(a_n - a_{n-1})(b_n-b_{n-1})<0.\] [i]Proposed by Denmark[/i]

Consider the function $f$ defined by \[f(n)=\frac{1}{n}\left (\left \lfloor\frac{n}{1}\right \rfloor+\left \lfloor\frac{n}{2}\right \rfloor+\cdots+\left \lfloor\frac{n}{n}\right \rfloor \right )\] for all positive integers $n$. (Here $\lfloor x\rfloor$ denotes the greatest integer less than or equal to $x$.) Prove that (a) $f(n+1)>f(n)$ for infinitely many $n$. (b) $f(n+1)<f(n)$ for infinitely many $n$.

Let $ f(x) \equal{} x^3 \plus{} x \plus{} 1$. Suppose $ g$ is a cubic polynomial such that $ g(0) \equal{} \minus{} 1$, and the roots of $ g$ are the squares of the roots of $ f$. Find $ g(9)$.

Polynomial $P$ with non-negative real coefficients and function $f:\mathbb{R}^+\to \mathbb{R}^+$ are given such that for all $x, y\in \mathbb{R}^+$ we have $$f(x+P(x)f(y)) = (y+1)f(x)$$ (a) Prove that $P$ has degree at most 1. (b) Find all function $f$ and non-constant polynomials $P$ satisfying the equality.

Let $k,n$ and $r$ be positive integers. (a) Let $Q(x)=x^k+a_1x^{k+1}+\cdots+a_nx^{k+n}$ be a polynomial with real coefficients. Show that the function $\frac{Q(x)}{x^k}$ is strictly positive for all real $x$ satisfying $$0<|x|<\frac1{1+\sum\limits_{i=1}^n |a_i|}$$ (b) Let $P(x)=b_0+b_1x+\cdots+b_rx^r$ be a non zero polynomial with real coefficients. Let $m$ be the smallest number such that $b_m \neq 0$. Prove that the graph of $y=P(x)$ cuts the $x$-axis at the origin (i.e., $P$ changes signs at $x=0$) if and only if $m$ is an odd integer.

Let $S$ be the set of interior points of a sphere and $C$ be the set of interior points of a circle. Find, with proof, whether there exists a function $f:S\rightarrow C$ such that $d(A,B)\le d(f(A),f(B))$ for any two points $A,B\in S$ where $d(X,Y)$ denotes the distance between the points $X$ and $Y$. [i]Marius Cavachi[/i]

Find the area of the domain expressed by the following system inequalities. \[x\geq 0,\ y\geq 0,\ x^{\frac{1}{p}}+y^{\frac{1}{p}} \leq 1\ (p=1,2,\cdots)\]

Let be an open interval $ I $ and a convex function $ f:I\longrightarrow\mathbb{R} . $ Prove that the lateral derivatives of $ f $ are left-continuous on $ \mathbb{R} $ and also right-continuous on $ \mathbb{R} . $ [i]Marin Tolosi[/i]

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.

Let $\phi = \frac{1+\sqrt5}{2}$. Prove that a positive integer appears in the list $$\lfloor \phi \rfloor , \lfloor 2 \phi \rfloor, \lfloor 3\phi \rfloor ,... , \lfloor n\phi \rfloor , ... $$ if and only if it appears exactly twice in the list $$\lfloor 1/ \phi \rfloor , \lfloor 2/ \phi \rfloor, \lfloor 3/\phi \rfloor , ... ,\lfloor n/\phi \rfloor , ... $$

On the plane, a Cartesian coordinate system is chosen. Given points $ A_1,A_2,A_3,A_4$ on the parabola $ y \equal{} x^2$, and points $ B_1,B_2,B_3,B_4$ on the parabola $ y \equal{} 2009x^2$. Points $ A_1,A_2,A_3,A_4$ are concyclic, and points $ A_i$ and $ B_i$ have equal abscissas for each $ i \equal{} 1,2,3,4$. Prove that points $ B_1,B_2,B_3,B_4$ are also concyclic.

For positive integers $ n,$ the numbers $ f(n)$ are defined inductively as follows: $ f(1) \equal{} 1,$ and for every positive integer $ n,$ $ f(n\plus{}1)$ is the greatest integer $ m$ such that there is an arithmetic progression of positive integers $ a_1 < a_2 < \ldots < a_m \equal{} n$ for which \[ f(a_1) \equal{} f(a_2) \equal{} \ldots \equal{} f(a_m).\] Prove that there are positive integers $ a$ and $ b$ such that $ f(an\plus{}b) \equal{} n\plus{}2$ for every positive integer $ n.$