Found problems: 815
For a positive integer $n(\geq 5)$, there are $n$ white stones and $n$ black stones (total $2n$ stones) lined up in a row. The first $n$ stones from the left are white, and the next $n$ stones are black. $$\underbrace{\Circle \Circle \cdots \Circle}_n \underbrace{\CIRCLE \CIRCLE \cdots \CIRCLE}_n $$
You can swap the stones by repeating the following operation.
[b](Operation)[/b] Choose a positive integer $k (\leq 2n - 5)$, and swap $k$-th stone and $(k+5)$-th stone from the left.
Find all positive integers $n$ such that we can make first $n$ stones to be black and the next $n$ stones to be white in finite number of operations.
Elmo has 2023 cookie jars, all initially empty. Every day, he chooses two distinct jars and places a cookie in each. Every night, Cookie Monster finds a jar with the most cookies and eats all of them. If this process continues indefinitely, what is the maximum possible number of cookies that the Cookie Monster could eat in one night?
[i]Proposed by Espen Slettnes[/i]
Let $m$ and $n$ be fixed positive integers. Tsvety and Freyja play a game on an infinite grid of unit square cells. Tsvety has secretly written a real number inside of each cell so that the sum of the numbers within every rectangle of size either $m$ by $n$ or $n$ by $m$ is zero. Freyja wants to learn all of these numbers.
One by one, Freyja asks Tsvety about some cell in the grid, and Tsvety truthfully reveals what number is written in it. Freyja wins if, at any point, Freyja can simultaneously deduce the number written in every cell of the entire infinite grid (If this never occurs, Freyja has lost the game and Tsvety wins).
In terms of $m$ and $n$, find the smallest number of questions that Freyja must ask to win, or show that no finite number of questions suffice.
[i]Nikolai Beluhov[/i]
A configuration of $4027$ points in the plane is called Colombian if it consists of $2013$ red points and $2014$ blue points, and no three of the points of the configuration are collinear. By drawing some lines, the plane is divided into several regions. An arrangement of lines is good for a Colombian configuration if the following two conditions are satisfied:
i) No line passes through any point of the configuration.
ii) No region contains points of both colors.
Find the least value of $k$ such that for any Colombian configuration of $4027$ points, there is a good arrangement of $k$ lines.
Proposed by [i]Ivan Guo[/i] from [i]Australia.[/i]
Suppose that $a,b,c,d$ are positive real numbers satisfying $(a+c)(b+d)=ac+bd$. Find the smallest possible value of
$$\frac{a}{b}+\frac{b}{c}+\frac{c}{d}+\frac{d}{a}.$$
[i]Israel[/i]
Consider a table with one real number in each cell. In one step, one may switch the sign of the numbers in one row or one column simultaneously. Prove that one can obtain a table with non-negative sums in each row and each column.
There are $n \geq 3$ islands in a city. Initially, the ferry company offers some routes between some pairs of islands so that it is impossible to divide the islands into two groups such that no two islands in different groups are connected by a ferry route.
After each year, the ferry company will close a ferry route between some two islands $X$ and $Y$. At the same time, in order to maintain its service, the company will open new routes according to the following rule: for any island which is connected to a ferry route to exactly one of $X$ and $Y$, a new route between this island and the other of $X$ and $Y$ is added.
Suppose at any moment, if we partition all islands into two nonempty groups in any way, then it is known that the ferry company will close a certain route connecting two islands from the two groups after some years. Prove that after some years there will be an island which is connected to all other islands by ferry routes.
In a room there are several children and a pile of 1000 sweets. The children come to the pile one after another in some order. Upon reaching the pile each of them divides the current number of sweets in the pile by the number of children in the room, rounds the result if it is not integer, takes the resulting number of sweets from the pile and leaves the room. All the boys round upwards and all the girls round downwards. The process continues until everyone leaves the room. Prove that the total number of sweets received by the boys does not depend on the order in which the children reach the pile.
[i]Maxim Didin[/i]
Let $n \geq 3$ be an odd number and suppose that each square in a $n \times n$ chessboard is colored either black or white. Two squares are considered adjacent if they are of the same color and share a common vertex and two squares $a,b$ are considered connected if there exists a sequence of squares $c_1,\ldots,c_k$ with $c_1 = a, c_k = b$ such that $c_i, c_{i+1}$ are adjacent for $i=1,2,\ldots,k-1$.
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Find the maximal number $M$ such that there exists a coloring admitting $M$ pairwise disconnected squares.
Let $ M$ and $ N$ be points on the side $ BC$ of triangle $ ABC$, with the point $ M$ lying on the segment $ BN$, such that $ BM \equal{} CN$. Let $ P$ and $ Q$ be points on the segments $ AN$ and $ AM$, respectively, such that $ \measuredangle PMC \equal{}\measuredangle MAB$ and $ \measuredangle QNB \equal{}\measuredangle NAC$. Prove that $ \measuredangle QBC \equal{}\measuredangle PCB$.
Let $n$ be a fixed integer with $n \ge 2$. We say that two polynomials $P$ and $Q$ with real coefficients are [i]block-similar[/i] if for each $i \in \{1, 2, \ldots, n\}$ the sequences
\begin{eqnarray*}
P(2015i), P(2015i - 1), \ldots, P(2015i - 2014) & \text{and}\\
Q(2015i), Q(2015i - 1), \ldots, Q(2015i - 2014)
\end{eqnarray*}
are permutations of each other.
(a) Prove that there exist distinct block-similar polynomials of degree $n + 1$.
(b) Prove that there do not exist distinct block-similar polynomials of degree $n$.
[i]Proposed by David Arthur, Canada[/i]
Some positive integers are initially written on a board, where each $2$ of them are different.
Each time we can do the following moves:
(1) If there are 2 numbers (written in the board) in the form $n, n+1$ we can erase them and write down $n-2$
(2) If there are 2 numbers (written in the board) in the form $n, n+4$ we can erase them and write down $n-1$
After some moves, there might appear negative numbers. Find the maximum value of the integer $c$ such that:
Independetly of the starting numbers, each number which appears in any move is greater or equal to $c$
Let $n > 3$ be a positive integer. Suppose that $n$ children are arranged in a circle, and $n$ coins are distributed between them (some children may have no coins). At every step, a child with at least 2 coins may give 1 coin to each of their immediate neighbors on the right and left. Determine all initial distributions of the coins from which it is possible that, after a finite number of steps, each child has exactly one coin.
Suppose that $a,b,c,d$ are positive real numbers satisfying $(a+c)(b+d)=ac+bd$. Find the smallest possible value of
$$\frac{a}{b}+\frac{b}{c}+\frac{c}{d}+\frac{d}{a}.$$
[i]Israel[/i]
An open necklace can contain rubies, emeralds, and sapphires. At every step we can perform any of the following operations:
[list=1]
[*]We can replace two consecutive rubies with an emerald and a sapphire, where the emerald is on the left of the sapphire.[/*]
[*]We can replace three consecutive emeralds with a sapphire and a ruby, where the sapphire is on the left of the ruby. [/*]
[*]If we find two consecutive sapphires then we can remove them.[/*]
[*]If we find consecutively and in this order a ruby, an emerald, and a sapphire, then we can remove them.[/*]
[/list]
Furthermore we can also reverse all of the above operations. For example by reversing 3. we can put two consecutive sapphires on any position we wish.
Initially the necklace has one sapphire (and no other precious stones). Decide, with proof, whether there is a finite sequence of steps such that at the end of this sequence the necklace contains one emerald (and no other precious stones).
[i]Remark:[/i] A necklace is open if its precious stones are on a line from left to right. We are not allowed to move a precious stone from the rightmost position to the leftmost as we would be able to do if the necklace was closed.
[i]Proposed by Demetres Christofides, Cyprus[/i]
There are infinitely many boxes - initially one of them contains $n$ balls and all others are empty. On a single move we take some balls from a non-empty box and put them into an empty box and on a sheet of paper we write down the product of the resulting amount of balls in the two boxes. After some moves, the sum of all numbers on the sheet of paper became $2023$. What is the smallest possible value of $n$?
$2022$ points are arranged in a circle, one of which is colored in black, and others in white. In one operation, The Hedgehog can do one of the following actions:
1) Choose two adjacent points of the same color and flip the color of both of them (white becomes black, black becomes white)
2) Choose two points of opposite colors with exactly one point in between them, and flip the color of both of them
Is it possible to achieve a configuration where each point has a color opposite to its initial color with these operations?
[i](Proposed by Oleksii Masalitin)[/i]
Let $n$ be a positive integer. We start with $n$ piles of pebbles, each initially containing a single pebble. One can perform moves of the following form: choose two piles, take an equal number of pebbles from each pile and form a new pile out of these pebbles. Find (in terms of $n$) the smallest number of nonempty piles that one can obtain by performing a finite sequence of moves of this form.
Assign to each side $b$ of a convex polygon $P$ the maximum area of a triangle that has $b$ as a side and is contained in $P$. Show that the sum of the areas assigned to the sides of $P$ is at least twice the area of $P$.
Let $M$ be a set of points in a plane with at least two elements. Prove that if $M$ has two axes of symmetry $g_1$ and $g_2$ intersecting at an angle $\alpha = q\pi$, where $q$ is irrational, then $M$ must be infinite.
At the vertices $A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H$ of a cube, $2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2007$ and $2006$ stones respectively are placed. It is allowed to move a stone from a vertex to each of its three neighbours, or to move a stone to a vertex from each of its three neighbours. Which of the following arrangements of stones at $A, B, \ldots , H$ can be obtained?
$(\text{a})\quad 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2005;$
$(\text{b})\quad 2002, 2003, 2004, 2001, 2006, 2005, 2008, 2007;$
$(\text{c})\quad 2004, 2002, 2003, 2001, 2005, 2008, 2007, 2006.$
In the coordinate plane consider the set $ S$ of all points with integer coordinates. For a positive integer $ k$, two distinct points $A$, $ B\in S$ will be called $ k$-[i]friends[/i] if there is a point $ C\in S$ such that the area of the triangle $ ABC$ is equal to $ k$. A set $ T\subset S$ will be called $ k$-[i]clique[/i] if every two points in $ T$ are $ k$-friends. Find the least positive integer $ k$ for which there exits a $ k$-clique with more than 200 elements.
[i]Proposed by Jorge Tipe, Peru[/i]
A natural number is written in each square of an $ m \times n$ chess board. The allowed move is to add an integer $ k$ to each of two adjacent numbers in such a way that non-negative numbers are obtained. (Two squares are adjacent if they have a common side.) Find a necessary and sufficient condition for it to be possible for all the numbers to be zero after finitely many operations.
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]
Let $n$ be a positive integer and let $x_1\le x_2\le\cdots\le x_n$ be real numbers.
Prove that
\[
\left(\sum_{i,j=1}^{n}|x_i-x_j|\right)^2\le\frac{2(n^2-1)}{3}\sum_{i,j=1}^{n}(x_i-x_j)^2.
\]
Show that the equality holds if and only if $x_1, \ldots, x_n$ is an arithmetic sequence.