Let $P(x)$ be a polynomial of degree $n$ with real coefficients and let $a\geq 3$. Prove that \[\max_{0\leq j \leq n+1}\left | a^j-P(j) \right |\geq 1\]

Suppose there are $997$ points given in a plane. If every two points are joined by a line segment with its midpoint coloured in red, show that there are at least $1991$ red points in the plane. Can you find a special case with exactly $1991$ red points?

An $n\times n$ chessboard is given, where $n$ is an even positive integer. On every line, the unit squares are to be permuted, subject to the condition that the resulting table has to be symmetric with respect to its main diagonal (the diagonal from the top-left corner to the bottom-right corner). We say that a board is [i]alternative[/i] if it has at least one pair of complementary lines (two lines are complementary if the unit squares on them which lie on the same column have distinct colours). Otherwise, we call the board [i]nonalternative[/i]. For what values of $n$ do we always get from the $n\times n$ chessboard an alternative board?\\ \\ [i](Alexandru Petrescu and Andra Elena Mircea)[/i]

Let $A_1$, $A_2$, $\ldots$, $A_n$, $n\geq 2$ be $n$ finite sets with the properties i) $|A_i| \geq 2$, for all $1\leq i \leq n$; ii) $|A_i\cap A_j| \neq 1$, for all $1\leq i<j\leq n$. Prove that the elements of the set $\displaystyle \bigcup_{i=1}^n A_i$ can be colored with 2 colors, such that all the sets $A_i$ are bi-color, for all $1\leq i \leq n$.

In every $1\times1$ cell of a rectangle board a natural number is written. In one step it is allowed the numbers written in every cell of arbitrary chosen row, to be doubled, or the numbers written in the cells of the arbitrary chosen column to be decreased by 1. Will after final number of steps all the numbers on the board be $0$?

Prove that $\sum \frac{1}{i_1i_2 \ldots i_k} = n$ is taken over all non-empty subsets $\left\{i_1,i_2, \ldots, i_k\right\}$ of $\left\{1,2,\ldots,n\right\}$. (The $k$ is not fixed, so we are summing over all the $2^n-1$ possible nonempty subsets.)

Let $(a_n)$ be a sequence of non-negative real numbers satisfying $a_{n+m}\le a_n+a_m$ for all non-negative integers $m,n$. Prove that if $n\ge m$ then $a_n\le ma_1+\left(\dfrac{n}{m}-1\right)a_m$ holds.

The sequence $ \{x_{n}\}$ is defined by $ x_{1} \equal{} 2,x_{2} \equal{} 12$, and $ x_{n \plus{} 2} \equal{} 6x_{n \plus{} 1} \minus{} x_{n}$, $ (n \equal{} 1,2,\ldots)$. Let $ p$ be an odd prime number, let $ q$ be a prime divisor of $ x_{p}$. Prove that if $ q\neq2,3,$ then $ q\geq 2p \minus{} 1$.

For $n\in\mathbb{N}$ prove that \[\frac{1}{2}\cdot\frac{3}{4}\cdot\frac{5}{6}\cdots\frac{2n-1}{2n}\leq\frac{1}{\sqrt{2n+1}}.\]

Find all functions $f: \mathbb{Z} \mapsto \mathbb{Z}$ satisfying the condition: $f(x^3 +y^3 +z^3 )=f(x)^3+f(y)^3+f(z)^3.$

Let $S$ be a finite set of points in the plane. A linear partition of $S$ is an unordered pair $\{A,B\}$ of subsets of $S$ such that $A\cup B=S,\ A\cap B=\emptyset,$ and $A$ and $B$ lie on opposite sides of some straight line disjoint from $S$ ($A$ or $B$ may be empty). Let $L_{S}$ be the number of linear partitions of $S.$ For each positive integer $n,$ find the maximum of $L_{S}$ over all sets $S$ of $n$ points.

Prove that the elements of any natural power of a $ 2\times 2 $ special linear integer matrix are pairwise coprime, with the possible exception of the pairs that form the diagonals. [i]Vasile Pop[/i]

Let $ m,n$ be two natural nonzero numbers and sets $ A \equal{} \{ 1,2,...,n\}, B \equal{} \{1,2,...,m\}$. We say that subset $ S$ of Cartesian product $ A \times B$ has property $ (j)$ if $ (a \minus{} x)(b \minus{} y)\le 0$ for each pairs $ (a,b),(x,y) \in S$. Prove that every set $ S$ with propery $ (j)$ has at most $ m \plus{} n \minus{} 1$ elements. [color=#FF0000]The statement was edited, in order to reflect the actual problem asked. The sign of the inequality was inadvertently reversed into $ (a \minus{} x)(b \minus{} y)\ge 0$, and that accounts for the following two posts.[/color]

Let $m$ be equal to $1$ or $2$ and $n<10799$ be a positive integer. Determine all such $n$ for which $\sum_{k=1}^{n}\frac{1}{\sin{k}\sin{(k+1)}}=m\frac{\sin{n}}{\sin^{2}{1}}$.

Find all bounded sequences $(a_n)_{n=1}^\infty$ of natural numbers such that for all $n \ge 3$, \[ a_n = \frac{a_{n-1} + a_{n-2}}{\gcd(a_{n-1}, a_{n-2})}. \]

Prove for all natural $n$ that $\left. {{{40}^n} \cdot n!} \right|(5n)!$

$f: \mathbb R^{n}\longrightarrow\mathbb R^{n}$ is a bijective map, that Image of every $n-1$-dimensional affine space is a $n-1$-dimensional affine space. 1) Prove that Image of every line is a line. 2) Prove that $f$ is an affine map. (i.e. $f=goh$ that $g$ is a translation and $h$ is a linear map.)

Find all positive integers $n$ such that $n$ is equal to $100$ times the number of positive divisors of $n$.

Determine all $n$ for which the system with of equations can be solved in $\mathbb{R}$: \[\sum^{n}_{k=1} x_k = 27\] and \[\prod^{n}_{k=1} x_k = \left( \frac{3}{2} \right)^{24}.\]

Let $x_1,\cdots, x_n$ be nonzero vectors of a vector space $V$ and $\varphi:V\to V$ be a linear transformation such that $\varphi x_1 = x_1$, $\varphi x_k = x_k - x_{k-1}$ for $k = 2, 3,\ldots,n$. Prove that the vectors $x_1,\ldots,x_n$ are linearly independent.

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At a certain mathematical conference, every pair of mathematicians are either friends or strangers. At mealtime, every participant eats in one of two large dining rooms. Each mathematician insists upon eating in a room which contains an even number of his or her friends. Prove that the number of ways that the mathematicians may be split between the two rooms is a power of two (i.e., is of the form $ 2^k$ for some positive integer $ k$).

Let $n\geq 3$ be an integer. Find the number of functions $f:\{1,2,\ldots,n\}\to\{1,2,\ldots,n\}$ such that \[ f(f(k)) = f^3(k) - 6f^2(k) + 12f(k) - 6 , \ \textrm{ for all } k \geq 1 . \]

Let $f(n)$ be the number of ways to write $n$ as a sum of powers of $2$, where we keep track of the order of the summation. For example, $f(4)=6$ because $4$ can be written as $4$, $2+2$, $2+1+1$, $1+2+1$, $1+1+2$, and $1+1+1+1$. Find the smallest $n$ greater than $2013$ for which $f(n)$ is odd.

Find all positive integers $(x, n)$ such that $x^{n}+2^{n}+1$ divides $x^{n+1}+2^{n+1}+1$.