Found problems: 259
Russian TST 2014, P3
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.
1993 IMO Shortlist, 3
Let $n > 1$ be an integer. In a circular arrangement of $n$ lamps $L_0, \ldots, L_{n-1},$ each of of which can either ON or OFF, we start with the situation where all lamps are ON, and then carry out a sequence of steps, $Step_0, Step_1, \ldots .$ If $L_{j-1}$ ($j$ is taken mod $n$) is ON then $Step_j$ changes the state of $L_j$ (it goes from ON to OFF or from OFF to ON) but does not change the state of any of the other lamps. If $L_{j-1}$ is OFF then $Step_j$ does not change anything at all. Show that:
(i) There is a positive integer $M(n)$ such that after $M(n)$ steps all lamps are ON again,
(ii) If $n$ has the form $2^k$ then all the lamps are ON after $n^2-1$ steps,
(iii) If $n$ has the form $2^k + 1$ then all lamps are ON after $n^2 - n + 1$ steps.
2009 Iran MO (2nd Round), 3
$11$ people are sitting around a circle table, orderly (means that the distance between two adjacent persons is equal to others) and $11$ cards with numbers $1$ to $11$ are given to them. Some may have no card and some may have more than $1$ card. In each round, one [and only one] can give one of his cards with number $ i $ to his adjacent person if after and before the round, the locations of the cards with numbers $ i-1,i,i+1 $ don’t make an acute-angled triangle.
(Card with number $0$ means the card with number $11$ and card with number $12$ means the card with number $1$!)
Suppose that the cards are given to the persons regularly clockwise. (Mean that the number of the cards in the clockwise direction is increasing.)
Prove that the cards can’t be gathered at one person.
2007 China Team Selection Test, 3
Consider a $ 7\times 7$ numbers table $ a_{ij} \equal{} (i^2 \plus{} j)(i \plus{} j^2), 1\le i,j\le 7.$ When we add arbitrarily each term of an arithmetical progression consisting of $ 7$ integers to corresponding to term of certain row (or column) in turn, call it an operation. Determine whether such that each row of numbers table is an arithmetical progression, after a finite number of operations.
1996 IMO Shortlist, 1
Four integers are marked on a circle. On each step we simultaneously replace each number by the difference between this number and next number on the circle, moving in a clockwise direction; that is, the numbers $ a,b,c,d$ are replaced by $ a\minus{}b,b\minus{}c,c\minus{}d,d\minus{}a.$ Is it possible after 1996 such to have numbers $ a,b,c,d$ such the numbers $ |bc\minus{}ad|, |ac \minus{} bd|, |ab \minus{} cd|$ are primes?
2021 Science ON all problems, 4
The numbers $\frac 32$, $\frac 43$ and $\frac 65$ are intially written on the blackboard. A move consists of erasing one of the numbers from the blackboard, call it $a$, and replacing it with $bc-b-c+2$, where $b,c$ are the other two numbers currently written on the blackboard. Is it possible that $\frac{1000}{999}$ would eventually appear on the blackboard? What about $\frac{113}{108}$?
[i] (Andrei Bâra)[/i]
2012 Regional Olympiad of Mexico Center Zone, 6
A board of $2n$ x $2n$ is colored chess style, a movement is the changing of colors of a $2$ x $2$ square. For what integers $n$ is possible to complete the board with one color using a finite number of movements?
1991 China Team Selection Test, 3
$5$ points are given in the plane, any three non-collinear and any four non-concyclic. If three points determine a circle that has one of the remaining points inside it and the other one outside it, then the circle is said to be [i]good[/i]. Let the number of good circles be $n$; find all possible values of $n$.
2009 South africa National Olympiad, 5
A game is played on a board with an infinite row of holes labelled $0, 1, 2, \dots$. Initially, $2009$ pebbles are put into hole $1$; the other holes are left empty. Now steps are performed according to the following scheme:
(i) At each step, two pebbles are removed from one of the holes (if possible), and one pebble is put into each of the neighbouring holes.
(ii) No pebbles are ever removed from hole $0$.
(iii) The game ends if there is no hole with a positive label that contains at least two pebbles.
Show that the game always terminates, and that the number of pebbles in hole $0$ at the end of the game is independent of the specific sequence of steps. Determine this number.
2022 Brazil National Olympiad, 1
A single player game has the following rules: initially, there are $10$ piles of stones with $1,2,...,10$ stones, respectively. A movement consists on making one of the following operations:
[b]i)[/b] to choose $2$ piles, both of them with at least $2$ stones, combine them and then add $2$ stones to the new pile;
[b]ii)[/b] to choose a pile with at least $4$ stones, remove $2$ stones from it, and then split it into two piles with amount of piles to be chosen by the player.
The game continues until is not possible to make an operation. Show that the number of piles with one stone in the end of the game is always the same, no matter how the movements are made.
1994 USAMO, 2
The sides of a 99-gon are initially colored so that consecutive sides are red, blue, red, blue, $\,\ldots, \,$ red, blue, yellow. We make a sequence of modifications in the coloring, changing the color of one side at a time to one of the three given colors (red, blue, yellow), under the constraint that no two adjacent sides may be the same color. By making a sequence of such modifications, is it possible to arrive at the coloring in which consecutive sides
are red, blue, red, blue, red, blue, $\, \ldots, \,$ red, yellow, blue?
2011 AIME Problems, 11
Let $R$ be the set of all possible remainders when a number of the form $2^n$, $n$ a nonnegative integer, is divided by $1000$. Let $S$ be the sum of all elements in $R$. Find the remainder when $S$ is divided by $1000$.
2013 Putnam, 6
Let $n\ge 1$ be an odd integer. Alice and Bob play the following game, taking alternating turns, with Alice playing first. The playing area consists of $n$ spaces, arranged in a line. Initially all spaces are empty. At each turn, a player either
• places a stone in an empty space, or
• removes a stone from a nonempty space $s,$ places a stone in the nearest empty space to the left of $s$ (if such a space exists), and places a stone in the nearest empty space to the right of $s$ (if such a space exists).
Furthermore, a move is permitted only if the resulting position has not occurred previously in the game. A player loses if he or she is unable to move. Assuming that both players play optimally throughout the game, what moves may Alice make on her first turn?
2014 NIMO Problems, 3
The numbers $1,2,\dots,10$ are written on a board. Every minute, one can select three numbers $a$, $b$, $c$ on the board, erase them, and write $\sqrt{a^2+b^2+c^2}$ in their place. This process continues until no more numbers can be erased. What is the largest possible number that can remain on the board at this point?
[i]Proposed by Evan Chen[/i]
2012 IMO Shortlist, C4
Players $A$ and $B$ play a game with $N \geq 2012$ coins and $2012$ boxes arranged around a circle. Initially $A$ distributes the coins among the boxes so that there is at least $1$ coin in each box. Then the two of them make moves in the order $B,A,B,A,\ldots $ by the following rules:
[b](a)[/b] On every move of his $B$ passes $1$ coin from every box to an adjacent box.
[b](b)[/b] On every move of hers $A$ chooses several coins that were [i]not[/i] involved in $B$'s previous move and are in different boxes. She passes every coin to an adjacent box.
Player $A$'s goal is to ensure at least $1$ coin in each box after every move of hers, regardless of how $B$ plays and how many moves are made. Find the least $N$ that enables her to succeed.
1991 Arnold's Trivium, 95
Decompose the space of homogeneous polynomials of degree $5$ in $(x, y, z)$ into irreducible subspaces invariant with respect to the rotation group $SO(3)$.
2010 Laurențiu Panaitopol, Tulcea, 3
Let $ R $ be the circumradius of a triangle $ ABC. $ The points $ B,C, $ lie on a circle of radius $ \rho $ that intersects $ AB,AC $ at $ E,D, $ respectively. $ \rho' $ is the circumradius of $ ADE. $ Show that there exists a triangle with sides $ R,\rho ,\rho' , $ and having an angle whose value doesn't depend on $ \rho . $
[i]Laurențiu Panaitopol[/i]
1966 IMO Longlists, 51
Consider $n$ students with numbers $1, 2, \ldots, n$ standing in the order $1, 2, \ldots, n.$ Upon a command, any of the students either remains on his place or switches his place with another student. (Actually, if student $A$ switches his place with student $B,$ then $B$ cannot switch his place with any other student $C$ any more until the next command comes.)
Is it possible to arrange the students in the order $n,1, 2, \ldots, n-1$ after two commands ?
2002 India IMO Training Camp, 12
Let $a,b$ be integers with $0<a<b$. A set $\{x,y,z\}$ of non-negative integers is [i]olympic[/i] if $x<y<z$ and if $\{z-y,y-x\}=\{a,b\}$. Show that the set of all non-negative integers is the union of pairwise disjoint olympic sets.
2013 Iran MO (2nd Round), 2
Suppose a $m \times n$ table. We write an integer in each cell of the table. In each move, we chose a column, a row, or a diagonal (diagonal is the set of cells which the difference between their row number and their column number is constant) and add either $+1$ or $-1$ to all of its cells. Prove that if for all arbitrary $3 \times 3$ table we can change all numbers to zero, then we can change all numbers of $m \times n$ table to zero.
([i]Hint[/i]: First of all think about it how we can change number of $ 3 \times 3$ table to zero.)
2010 Tuymaada Olympiad, 4
On a blackboard there are $2010$ natural nonzero numbers. We define a "move" by erasing $x$ and $y$ with $y\neq0$ and replacing them with $2x+1$ and $y-1$, or we can choose to replace them by $2x+1$ and $\frac{y-1}{4}$ if $y-1$ is divisible by 4.
Knowing that in the beginning the numbers $2006$ and $2008$ have been erased, show that the original set of numbers cannot be attained again by any sequence of moves.
2009 All-Russian Olympiad, 6
Given a finite tree $ T$ and isomorphism $ f: T\rightarrow T$. Prove that either there exist a vertex $ a$ such that $ f(a)\equal{}a$ or there exist two neighbor vertices $ a$, $ b$ such that $ f(a)\equal{}b$, $ f(b)\equal{}a$.
2014 Middle European Mathematical Olympiad, 4
In Happy City there are $2014$ citizens called $A_1, A_2, \dots , A_{2014}$. Each of them is either [i]happy[/i] or [i]unhappy[/i] at any moment in time. The mood of any citizen $A$ changes (from being unhappy to being happy or vice versa) if and only if some other happy citizen smiles at $A$. On Monday morning there were $N$ happy citizens in the city.
The following happened on Monday during the day: the citizen $A_1$ smiled at citizen $A_2$, then $A_2$ smiled at $A_3$, etc., and, finally, $A_{2013}$ smiled at $A_{2014}$. Nobody smiled at anyone else apart from this. Exactly the same repeated on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. There were exactly $2000$ happy citizens on Thursday evening.
Determine the largest possible value of $N$.
2009 AIME Problems, 7
The sequence $ (a_n)$ satisfies $ a_1 \equal{} 1$ and $ \displaystyle 5^{(a_{n\plus{}1}\minus{}a_n)} \minus{} 1 \equal{} \frac{1}{n\plus{}\frac{2}{3}}$ for $ n \geq 1$. Let $ k$ be the least integer greater than $ 1$ for which $ a_k$ is an integer. Find $ k$.
2010 Indonesia TST, 1
The integers $ 1,2,\dots,20$ are written on the blackboard. Consider the following operation as one step: [i]choose two integers $ a$ and $ b$ such that $ a\minus{}b \ge 2$ and replace them with $ a\minus{}1$ and $ b\plus{}1$[/i]. Please, determine the maximum number of steps that can be done.
[i]Yudi Satria, Jakarta[/i]