To each vertex of a regular pentagon an integer is assigned, so that the sum of all five numbers is positive. If three consecutive vertices are assigned the numbers $x,y,z$ respectively, and $y<0$, then the following operation is allowed: $x,y,z$ are replaced by $x+y,-y,z+y$ respectively. Such an operation is performed repeatedly as long as at least one of the five numbers is negative. Determine whether this procedure necessarily comes to an end after a finite number of steps.

Let $G$ be a finite group, and let $H_1, H_2 \subset G$ be two subgroups. Suppose that for any representation of $G$ on a finite-dimensional complex vector space $V$, one has that \[\text{dim} V^{H_1}=\text{dim} V^{H_2},\] where $V^{H_i}$ is the subspace of $H_i$-invariant vectors in $V$ ($i=1,2$). Prove that \[Z(G) \cap H_1=Z(G) \cap H_2.\] Here $Z(G)$ denotes the center of $G$.

Five identical empty buckets of $2$-liter capacity stand at the vertices of a regular pentagon. Cinderella and her wicked Stepmother go through a sequence of rounds: At the beginning of every round, the Stepmother takes one liter of water from the nearby river and distributes it arbitrarily over the five buckets. Then Cinderella chooses a pair of neighbouring buckets, empties them to the river and puts them back. Then the next round begins. The Stepmother goal's is to make one of these buckets overflow. Cinderella's goal is to prevent this. Can the wicked Stepmother enforce a bucket overflow? [i]Proposed by Gerhard Woeginger, Netherlands[/i]

Let $ p,q,n$ be three positive integers with $ p \plus{} q < n$. Let $ (x_{0},x_{1},\cdots ,x_{n})$ be an $ (n \plus{} 1)$-tuple of integers satisfying the following conditions : (a) $ x_{0} \equal{} x_{n} \equal{} 0$, and (b) For each $ i$ with $ 1\leq i\leq n$, either $ x_{i} \minus{} x_{i \minus{} 1} \equal{} p$ or $ x_{i} \minus{} x_{i \minus{} 1} \equal{} \minus{} q$. Show that there exist indices $ i < j$ with $ (i,j)\neq (0,n)$, such that $ x_{i} \equal{} x_{j}$.

Players $A$ and $B$ play a "paintful" game on the real line. Player $A$ has a pot of paint with four units of black ink. A quantity $p$ of this ink suffices to blacken a (closed) real interval of length $p$. In every round, player $A$ picks some positive integer $m$ and provides $1/2^m $ units of ink from the pot. Player $B$ then picks an integer $k$ and blackens the interval from $k/2^m$ to $(k+1)/2^m$ (some parts of this interval may have been blackened before). The goal of player $A$ is to reach a situation where the pot is empty and the interval $[0,1]$ is not completely blackened. Decide whether there exists a strategy for player $A$ to win in a finite number of moves.

[i]George the grasshopper[/i] lives of the real line, starting at $0$ . He is given the following sequence of numbers: $2, 3, 4, 8, 9, ... ,$ which are all the numbers of the form $2^k$ or $3^l$, $k, l \in \mathbb{N}$, arranged in increasing order. Starting from $2$, for each number $x$ in the sequence in order, he (currently at $a$) must choose to jump to either $a+x$ or $a-x$. Show that [i]George the grasshopper[/i] can jump in a way that he reaches every integer on the real line.

A number of signal lights are equally spaced along a one-way railroad track, labeled in oder $ 1,2, \ldots, N, N \geq 2.$ As a safety rule, a train is not allowed to pass a signal if any other train is in motion on the length of track between it and the following signal. However, there is no limit to the number of trains that can be parked motionless at a signal, one behind the other. (Assume the trains have zero length.) A series of $ K$ freight trains must be driven from Signal 1 to Signal $ N.$ Each train travels at a distinct but constant spped at all times when it is not blocked by the safety rule. Show that, regardless of the order in which the trains are arranged, the same time will elapse between the first train's departure from Signal 1 and the last train's arrival at Signal $ N.$

Five identical empty buckets of $2$-liter capacity stand at the vertices of a regular pentagon. Cinderella and her wicked Stepmother go through a sequence of rounds: At the beginning of every round, the Stepmother takes one liter of water from the nearby river and distributes it arbitrarily over the five buckets. Then Cinderella chooses a pair of neighbouring buckets, empties them to the river and puts them back. Then the next round begins. The Stepmother goal's is to make one of these buckets overflow. Cinderella's goal is to prevent this. Can the wicked Stepmother enforce a bucket overflow? [i]Proposed by Gerhard Woeginger, Netherlands[/i]

On an infinite chessboard, a solitaire game is played as follows: at the start, we have $n^2$ pieces occupying a square of side $n.$ The only allowed move is to jump over an occupied square to an unoccupied one, and the piece which has been jumped over is removed. For which $n$ can the game end with only one piece remaining on the board?

Let $a,b$ be two positive integers, such that $ab\neq 1$. Find all the integer values that $f(a,b)$ can take, where \[ f(a,b) = \frac { a^2+ab+b^2} { ab- 1} . \]

The numbers $1,2,...,1970$ are written on a board. One is allowed to remove $2$ numbers and to write down their difference instead. When repeated often enough, only one number remains. Show that this number is odd.

The numbers $ 1, 2,\ldots, 50 $ are written on a blackboard. Each minute any two numbers are erased and their positive difference is written instead. At the end one number remains. Which values can take this number?

A needle (a segment) lies on a plane. One can rotate it $45^{\circ}$ round any of its endpoints. Is it possible that after several rotations the needle returns to initial position with the endpoints interchanged?

$(NET 4)$ A boy has a set of trains and pieces of railroad track. Each piece is a quarter of circle, and by concatenating these pieces, the boy obtained a closed railway. The railway does not intersect itself. In passing through this railway, the train sometimes goes in the clockwise direction, and sometimes in the opposite direction. Prove that the train passes an even number of times through the pieces in the clockwise direction and an even number of times in the counterclockwise direction. Also, prove that the number of pieces is divisible by $4.$

Let $ p,q,n$ be three positive integers with $ p \plus{} q < n$. Let $ (x_{0},x_{1},\cdots ,x_{n})$ be an $ (n \plus{} 1)$-tuple of integers satisfying the following conditions : (a) $ x_{0} \equal{} x_{n} \equal{} 0$, and (b) For each $ i$ with $ 1\leq i\leq n$, either $ x_{i} \minus{} x_{i \minus{} 1} \equal{} p$ or $ x_{i} \minus{} x_{i \minus{} 1} \equal{} \minus{} q$. Show that there exist indices $ i < j$ with $ (i,j)\neq (0,n)$, such that $ x_{i} \equal{} x_{j}$.

For any integer $n\geq 2$, we compute the integer $h(n)$ by applying the following procedure to its decimal representation. Let $r$ be the rightmost digit of $n$. [list][*]If $r=0$, then the decimal representation of $h(n)$ results from the decimal representation of $n$ by removing this rightmost digit $0$. [*]If $1\leq r \leq 9$ we split the decimal representation of $n$ into a maximal right part $R$ that solely consists of digits not less than $r$ and into a left part $L$ that either is empty or ends with a digit strictly smaller than $r$. Then the decimal representation of $h(n)$ consists of the decimal representation of $L$, followed by two copies of the decimal representation of $R-1$. For instance, for the number $17,151,345,543$, we will have $L=17,151$, $R=345,543$ and $h(n)=17,151,345,542,345,542$.[/list] Prove that, starting with an arbitrary integer $n\geq 2$, iterated application of $h$ produces the integer $1$ after finitely many steps. [i]Proposed by Gerhard Woeginger, Austria[/i]

A finite set $S$ of unit squares is chosen out of a large grid of unit squares. The squares of $S$ are tiled with isosceles right triangles of hypotenuse $2$ so that the triangles do not overlap each other, do not extend past $S$, and all of $S$ is fully covered by the triangles. Additionally, the hypotenuse of each triangle lies along a grid line, and the vertices of the triangles lie at the corners of the squares. Show that the number of triangles must be a multiple of $4$.

Suppose that $V$ is a finite dimensional vector space over the real numbers equipped with an inner product and $S:V\times V \longrightarrow \mathbb R$ is a skew symmetric function that is linear for each variable when others are kept fixed. Prove there exists a linear transformation $T:V \longrightarrow V$ such that $\forall u,v \in V: S(u,v)=<u,T(v)>$. We know that there always exists $v\in V$ such that $W=<v,T(v)>$ is invariant under $T$. (it means $T(W)\subseteq W$). Prove that if $W$ is invariant under $T$ then the following subspace is also invariant under $T$: $W^{\perp}=\{v\in V:\forall u\in W <v,u>=0\}$. Prove that if dimension of $V$ is more than $3$, then there exist a two dimensional subspace $W$ of $V$ such that the volume defined on it by function $S$ is zero!!!! (This is the way that we can define a two dimensional volume for each subspace $V$. This can be done for volumes of higher dimensions.)

A multi-digit number is written on the blackboard. Susan puts in a number of plus signs between some pairs of adjacent digits. The addition is performed and the process is repeated with the sum. Prove that regardless of what number was initially on the blackboard, Susan can always obtain a single-digit number in at most ten steps.

A crazy physicist discovered a new kind of particle wich he called an imon, after some of them mysteriously appeared in his lab. Some pairs of imons in the lab can be entangled, and each imon can participate in many entanglement relations. The physicist has found a way to perform the following two kinds of operations with these particles, one operation at a time. (i) If some imon is entangled with an odd number of other imons in the lab, then the physicist can destroy it. (ii) At any moment, he may double the whole family of imons in the lab by creating a copy $I'$ of each imon $I$. During this procedure, the two copies $I'$ and $J'$ become entangled if and only if the original imons $I$ and $J$ are entangled, and each copy $I'$ becomes entangled with its original imon $I$; no other entanglements occur or disappear at this moment. Prove that the physicist may apply a sequence of such operations resulting in a family of imons, no two of which are entangled.

We have $2^m$ sheets of paper, with the number $1$ written on each of them. We perform the following operation. In every step we choose two distinct sheets; if the numbers on the two sheets are $a$ and $b$, then we erase these numbers and write the number $a + b$ on both sheets. Prove that after $m2^{m -1}$ steps, the sum of the numbers on all the sheets is at least $4^m$ . [i]Proposed by Abbas Mehrabian, Iran[/i]

The circles $ C_{1}$ and $ C_{2}$ touch externally at $ M$ and the radius of $ C_{2}$ is larger than that of $ C_{1}$. $ A$ is any point on $ C_{2}$ which does not lie on the line joining the centers of the circles. $ B$ and $ C$ are points on $ C_{1}$ such that $ AB$ and $ AC$ are tangent to $ C_{1}$. The lines $ BM$, $ CM$ intersect $ C_{2}$ again at $ E$, $ F$ respectively. $ D$ is the intersection of the tangent at $ A$ and the line $ EF$. Show that the locus of $ D$ as $ A$ varies is a straight line.

The numbers $\frac{1}{1}, \frac{1}{2}, \cdots , \frac{1}{2012}$ are written on the blackboard. Aïcha chooses any two numbers from the blackboard, say $x$ and $y$, erases them and she writes instead the number $x + y + xy$. She continues to do this until only one number is left on the board. What are the possible values of the final number?

Let $S = \{1,2,3,\ldots,n\}$. Consider a function $f\colon S\to S$. A subset $D$ of $S$ is said to be invariant if for all $x\in D$ we have $f(x)\in D$. The empty set and $S$ are also considered as invariant subsets. By $\deg (f)$ we define the number of invariant subsets $D$ of $S$ for the function $f$. [b]i)[/b] Show that there exists a function $f\colon S\to S$ such that $\deg (f)=2$. [b]ii)[/b] Show that for every $1\leq k\leq n$ there exists a function $f\colon S\to S$ such that $\deg (f)=2^{k}$.

If $a,b,c,d \in \mathbb{R}_{+}$ and $a+b +c +d =1$, show that \[ ab +bc +cd \leq \dfrac{1}{4}. \]