Found problems: 815
Let $x_1, x_2, \dots, x_n$ be different real numbers. Prove that
\[\sum_{1 \leqslant i \leqslant n} \prod_{j \neq i} \frac{1-x_{i} x_{j}}{x_{i}-x_{j}}=\left\{\begin{array}{ll}
0, & \text { if } n \text { is even; } \\
1, & \text { if } n \text { is odd. }
\end{array}\right.\]
A student firstly wrote $x=3$ on the board. For each procces, the stutent deletes the number x and replaces it with either $(2x+4)$ or $(3x+8)$ or $(x^2+5x)$. Is this possible to make the number $(20^{17}+2016)$ on the board? \\
(Explain your answer) \\
[hide=Note]This type of the question is well known but I am going to make a collection so, :blush: [/hide]
Steve is piling $m\geq 1$ indistinguishable stones on the squares of an $n\times n$ grid. Each square can have an arbitrarily high pile of stones. After he finished piling his stones in some manner, he can then perform [i]stone moves[/i], defined as follows. Consider any four grid squares, which are corners of a rectangle, i.e. in positions $(i, k), (i, l), (j, k), (j, l)$ for some $1\leq i, j, k, l\leq n$, such that $i<j$ and $k<l$. A stone move consists of either removing one stone from each of $(i, k)$ and $(j, l)$ and moving them to $(i, l)$ and $(j, k)$ respectively, or removing one stone from each of $(i, l)$ and $(j, k)$ and moving them to $(i, k)$ and $(j, l)$ respectively.
Two ways of piling the stones are equivalent if they can be obtained from one another by a sequence of stone moves.
How many different non-equivalent ways can Steve pile the stones on the grid?
Suppose that $ a_1$, $ a_2$, $ \ldots$, $ a_n$ are integers such that $ n\mid a_1 \plus{} a_2 \plus{} \ldots \plus{} a_n$.
Prove that there exist two permutations $ \left(b_1,b_2,\ldots,b_n\right)$ and $ \left(c_1,c_2,\ldots,c_n\right)$ of $ \left(1,2,\ldots,n\right)$ such that for each integer $ i$ with $ 1\leq i\leq n$, we have
\[ n\mid a_i \minus{} b_i \minus{} c_i
\]
[i]Proposed by Ricky Liu & Zuming Feng, USA[/i]
A certain calculator has only two keys [+1] and [x2]. When you press one of the keys, the calculator automatically displays the result. For instance, if the calculator originally displayed "9" and you pressed [+1], it would display "10." If you then pressed [x2], it would display "20." Starting with the display "1," what is the fewest number of keystrokes you would need to reach "200"?
$ \textbf{(A)}\ 8\qquad\textbf{(B)}\ 9\qquad\textbf{(C)}\ 10\qquad\textbf{(D)}\ 11\qquad\textbf{(E)}\ 12$
Let $P(x)$ be a polynomial with integer coefficients that has at least one rational root. Let $n$ be a positive integer.
Alan and Allan are playing a game. First, Alan writes down $n$ integers at $n$ different locations on a board. Then Allan may make moves of the following kind: choose a position that has integer $a$ written, then choose a different position that has integer $b$ written, then at the first position erase $a$ and in its place write $a+P(b)$. After any nonnegative number of moves, Allan may choose to end the game. Once Allan ends the game, his score is the number of times the mode (most common element) of the integers on the board appears.
Find, in terms of $P(x)$ and $n$, the maximum score Allan can guarantee.
[i]Henrick Rabinovitz[/i]
The vertices of a regular $2005$-gon are colored red, white and blue. Whenever two vertices of different colors stand next to each other, we are allowed to recolor them into the third color.
(a) Prove that there exists a finite sequence of allowed recolorings after which all the vertices are of the same color.
(b) Is that color uniquely determined by the initial coloring?
Elisa has $2023$ treasure chests, all of which are unlocked and empty at first. Each day, Elisa adds a new gem to one of the unlocked chests of her choice, and afterwards, a fairy acts according to the following rules:
[list=disc]
[*]if more than one chests are unlocked, it locks one of them, or
[*]if there is only one unlocked chest, it unlocks all the chests.
[/list]
Given that this process goes on forever, prove that there is a constant $C$ with the following property: Elisa can ensure that the difference between the numbers of gems in any two chests never exceeds $C$, regardless of how the fairy chooses the chests to unlock.
A set $ S$ of points from the space will be called [b]completely symmetric[/b] if it has at least three elements and fulfills the condition that for every two distinct points $ A$ and $ B$ from $ S$, the perpendicular bisector plane of the segment $ AB$ is a plane of symmetry for $ S$. Prove that if a completely symmetric set is finite, then it consists of the vertices of either a regular polygon, or a regular tetrahedron or a regular octahedron.
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?
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]
Theseus starts at the point $(0, 0)$ in the plane. If Theseus is standing at the point $(x, y)$ in the plane, he can step one unit to the north to point $(x, y+1)$, one unit to the west to point $(x-1, y)$, one unit to the south to point $(x, y-1)$, or one unit to the east to point $(x+1, y)$. After a sequence of more than two such moves, starting with a step one unit to the south (to point $(0, -1)$), Theseus finds himself back at the point $(0, 0)$. He never visited any point other than $(0, 0)$ more than once, and never visited the point $(0, 0)$ except at the start and end of this sequence of moves.
Let $X$ be the number of times that Theseus took a step one unit to the north, and then a step one unit to the west immediately afterward. Let $Y$ be the number of times that Theseus took a step one unit to the west, and then a step one unit to the north immediately afterward. Prove that $|X - Y| = 1$.
[i]Mitchell Lee[/i]
A social network has $2019$ users, some pairs of whom are friends. Whenever user $A$ is friends with user $B$, user $B$ is also friends with user $A$. Events of the following kind may happen repeatedly, one at a time:
[list]
[*] Three users $A$, $B$, and $C$ such that $A$ is friends with both $B$ and $C$, but $B$ and $C$ are not friends, change their friendship statuses such that $B$ and $C$ are now friends, but $A$ is no longer friends with $B$, and no longer friends with $C$. All other friendship statuses are unchanged.
[/list]
Initially, $1010$ users have $1009$ friends each, and $1009$ users have $1010$ friends each. Prove that there exists a sequence of such events after which each user is friends with at most one other user.
[i]Proposed by Adrian Beker, Croatia[/i]
Let $V_1,V_2,V_3,V_4$ be four dimensional linear subspaces in $\mathbb{R}^8$ such that the intersection of any two contains only the zero vector. Prove that there exists a linear four dimensional subspace $W$ in $\mathbb{R}^8$ such that all four vector spaces $W\cap V_i$ are two dimensional.
A and B play tennis. The player to first win at least four points and at least two more than the other player wins. We know that A gets a point each time with probability $p\le \frac12$, independent of the game so far. Prove that the probability that A wins is at most $2p^2$.
Let $G = (V, E)$ be a finite simple graph on $n$ vertices. An edge $e$ of $G$ is called a [i]bottleneck[/i] if one can partition $V$ into two disjoint sets $A$ and $B$ such that
[list]
[*] at most $100$ edges of $G$ have one endpoint in $A$ and one endpoint in $B$; and
[*] the edge $e$ is one such edge (meaning the edge $e$ also has one endpoint in $A$ and one endpoint in $B$).
[/list]
Prove that at most $100n$ edges of $G$ are bottlenecks.
[i]Proposed by Yang Liu[/i]
Let $n \ge 2$ be an integer and let $a_1, a_2, \cdots a_n$ be fixed positive integers (not necessarily all distinct) in such a way that $\gcd(a_1, a_2 \cdots a_n)=1$. In a board the numbers $a_1, a_2 \cdots a_n$ are all written along with a positive integer $x$. A move consists of choosing two numbers $a>b$ from the $n+1$ numbers in the board and replace them with $a-b,2b$. Find all possible values of $x$, with respect of the values of $a_1, a_2 \cdots a_n$, for which it is possible to achieve a finite sequence of moves (possibly none) such that eventually all numbers written in the board are equal.
Let $a,b,c,d$ be positive integers such that $ad \neq bc$ and $gcd(a,b,c,d)=1$. Let $S$ be the set of values attained by $\gcd(an+b,cn+d)$ as $n$ runs through the positive integers. Show that $S$ is the set of all positive divisors of some positive integer.
Let $M$ be a connected, compact $C^{\infty}$-differentiable manifold, and denote the vector space of smooth real functions on $M$ by $C^{\infty}(M)$. Let the subspace $V\le C^{\infty}(M)$ be invariant under $C^{\infty}$-diffeomorphisms of $M$, that is, let $f\circ h\in V$ for every $f\in V$ and for every $C^{\infty}$-diffeomorphism $h\colon M\rightarrow M$. Prove that if $V$ is different from the subspaces $\{ 0\}$ and $C^{\infty}(M)$ then $V$ only contains the constant functions.
Let $\triangle ABC$ be an acute triangle, and let $I_B, I_C,$ and $O$ denote its $B$-excenter, $C$-excenter, and circumcenter, respectively. Points $E$ and $Y$ are selected on $\overline{AC}$ such that $\angle ABY=\angle CBY$ and $\overline{BE}\perp\overline{AC}$. Similarly, points $F$ and $Z$ are selected on $\overline{AB}$ such that $\angle ACZ=\angle BCZ$ and $\overline{CF}\perp\overline{AB}$.
Lines $\overleftrightarrow{I_BF}$ and $\overleftrightarrow{I_CE}$ meet at $P$. Prove that $\overline{PO}$ and $\overline{YZ}$ are perpendicular.
[i]Proposed by Evan Chen and Telv Cohl[/i]
Prove that if a quadrilateral $ABCD$ can be cut into a finite number of parallelograms, then $ABCD$ is a parallelogram.
There are $ n \geq 2$ permutations $ P_1, P_2, \ldots, P_n$ each being an arbitrary permutation of $ \{1,\ldots,n\}.$ Prove that
\[ \sum^{n\minus{}1}_{i\equal{}1} \frac{1}{P_i \plus{} P_{i\plus{}1}} > \frac{n\minus{}1}{n\plus{}2}.\]
Let $m$ and $n$ be positive integers. Find the smallest positive integer $s$ for which there exists an $m \times n$ rectangular array of positive integers such that
[list]
[*]each row contains $n$ distinct consecutive integers in some order,
[*]each column contains $m$ distinct consecutive integers in some order, and
[*]each entry is less than or equal to $s$.
[/list]
[i]Proposed by Ankan Bhattacharya.[/i]
$3n$ people forming $n$ families of a mother, a father and a child, stand in a circle. Every two neighbours can exchange places except the case when a parent exchanges places with his/her child (this is forbidden). For what $n$ is it possible to obtain every arrangement of those people by such
exchanges? The arrangements differing by a circular shift are considered distinct.
Two circles intersect at two points $A$ and $B$. A line $\ell$ which passes through the point $A$ meets the two circles again at the points $C$ and $D$, respectively. Let $M$ and $N$ be the midpoints of the arcs $BC$ and $BD$ (which do not contain the point $A$) on the respective circles. Let $K$ be the midpoint of the segment $CD$. Prove that $\measuredangle MKN = 90^{\circ}$.