Found problems: 815
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:
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[*] 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.
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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 $r>1$ be a rational number. Alice plays a solitaire game on a number line. Initially there is a red bead at $0$ and a blue bead at $1$. In a move, Alice chooses one of the beads and an integer $k \in \mathbb{Z}$. If the chosen bead is at $x$, and the other bead is at $y$, then the bead at $x$ is moved to the point $x'$ satisfying $x'-y=r^k(x-y)$.
Find all $r$ for which Alice can move the red bead to $1$ in at most $2021$ moves.
Let $ABCD$ be a cyclic convex quadrilateral and $\Gamma$ be its circumcircle. Let $E$ be the intersection of the diagonals of $AC$ and $BD$. Let $L$ be the center of the circle tangent to sides $AB$, $BC$, and $CD$, and let $M$ be the midpoint of the arc $BC$ of $\Gamma$ not containing $A$ and $D$. Prove that the excenter of triangle $BCE$ opposite $E$ lies on the line $LM$.
Let $n$ be a positive integer. Ana and Banana play a game with $2n$ lamps numbered $1$ to $2n$ from left to right. Initially, all lamps numbered $1$ through $n$ are on, and all lamps numbered $n+1$ through $2n$ are off. They play with the following rules, where they alternate turns with Ana going first:
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[*] On Ana's turn, she can choose two adjacent lamps $i$ and $i+1$, where lamp $i$ is on and lamp $i+1$ is off, and toggle both.
[*] On Banana's turn, she can choose two adjacent lamps which are either both on or both off, and toggle both.
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Players must move on their turn if they are able to,
and if at any point a player is not able to move on her turn, then the game ends.
Determine all $n$ for which Banana can turn off all the lamps before the game ends, regardless of the moves that Ana makes.
[i]Andrew Wen[/i]
Let $n \geq 2$ be an integer. Carl has $n$ books arranged on a bookshelf. Each book has a height and a width. No two books have the same height, and no two books have the same width. Initially, the books are arranged in increasing order of height from left to right. In a move, Carl picks any two adjacent books where the left book is wider and shorter than the right book, and swaps their locations. Carl does this repeatedly until no further moves are possible. Prove that regardless of how Carl makes his moves, he must stop after a finite number of moves, and when he does stop, the books are sorted in increasing order of width from left to right.
[i]Proposed by Milan Haiman[/i]
We are given an infinite row of cells extending infinitely in both directions. Some cells contain one or more stones. The total number of stones is finite. At each move, the player performs one of the following three operations:
[b]1. [/b]Take three stones from some cell, and add one stone to the cells located one cell to the left and one cell to the right, each skipping one cell in between.
[b]2. [/b]Take two stones from some cell, and add one stone to the cell one cell to the left, skipping one cell and one stone to the adjacent cell to the right.
[b]3.[/b] Take one stone from each of two adjacent cells, and add one stone to the cell to the right of these two cells.
The process ends when no moves are possible. Prove that the process always terminates and the final distribution of stones does not depend on the choices of moves made by the player.
[img]https://i.imgur.com/IjcIDOa.png[/img]
[i]Proposed by Luka Tsulaia, Georgia[/i]
A tourist has arrived on an island where $100$ wizards live, each of whom can be a knight or a liar. He knows that at the time of his arrival, one of the hundred wizards is a knight (but does not know who exactly), and the rest are liars. A tourist can choose any two wizards $A$ and $B$ and ask $A$ to spell on $B$ with the spell "Whoosh"!, which changes the essence (turns a knight into a liar, and a liar into a knight). Wizards fulfill the tourist's requests, but if at that moment wizard $A$ is a knight, then the essence of $B$ really changes, and if $A$ is a liar, that doesn't change. The tourist wants to know the essence of at least $k$ wizards at the same time after several consecutive requests. For which maximum $k$ will he be able to achieve his goal?
For which $n\ge 3$ does there exist positive integers $a_1<a_2<\cdots <a_n$, such that: $$a_n=a_1+...+a_{n-1}, \hspace{0.5cm} \frac{1}{a_1}=\frac{1}{a_2}+...+\frac{1}{a_n}$$ are both true?
[i]Proposed by Ivan Chan Kai Chin[/i]
For all integers $x$ and $y$, let $a_{x, y}$ be a real number. Suppose that $a_{0, 0} = 0$. Suppose that only a finite number of the $a_{x, y}$ are nonzero. Prove that
\[
\sum_{x = -\infty}^\infty \sum_{y = -\infty}^{\infty} a_{x,y} ( a_{x, 2x + y} + a_{x + 2y, y} )
\le \sqrt{3} \sum_{x = -\infty}^\infty \sum_{y = -\infty}^{\infty} a_{x, y}^2 \, .
\]
The numbers $1, 2, ..., 2020$ and $2021$ are written on a blackboard. The following operation is executed:
Two numbers are chosen, both are erased and replaced by the absolute value of their difference.
This operation is repeated until there is only one number left on the blackboard.
(a) Show that $2021$ can be the final number on the blackboard.
(b) Show that $2020$ cannot be the final number on the blackboard.
(Karl Czakler)
Consider 2n+1 coins lying in a circle. At the beginning, all the coins are heads up. Moving clockwise, 2n+1 flips are performed: one coin is flipped, the next coin is skipped, the next coin is flipped, the next two coins are skipped, the next coin is flipped,the next three coins are skipped and so on, until finally 2n coins are skipped and the next coin is flipped.Prove that at the end of this procedure,exactly one coin is heads down.
Objects $A$ and $B$ move simultaneously in the coordinate plane via a sequence of steps, each of length one. Object $A$ starts at $(0,0)$ and each of its steps is either right or up, both equally likely. Object $B$ starts at $(5,7)$ and each of its steps is either left or down, both equally likely. Which of the following is closest to the probability that the objects meet?
$ \textbf{(A)}\ 0.10 \qquad
\textbf{(B)}\ 0.15 \qquad
\textbf{(C)}\ 0.20 \qquad
\textbf{(D)}\ 0.25 \qquad
\textbf{(E)}\ 0.30$
We are given a polyhedron with at least $5$ vertices, such that exactly $3$ edges meet in each of the vertices. Prove that we can assign a rational number to every vertex of the given polyhedron such that the following conditions are met:
$(i)$ At least one of the numbers assigned to the vertices is equal to $2020$.
$(ii)$ For every polygonal face, the product of the numbers assigned to the vertices of that face is equal to $1$.
Given several numbers, one of them, $a$, is chosen and replaced by the three numbers $\frac{a}{3}, \frac{a}{3}, \frac{a}{3}$. This process is repeated with the new set of numbers, and so on. Originally, there are $1000$ ones, and we apply the process several times. A number $m$ is called [i]good[/i] if there are $m$ or more numbers that are the same after each iteration, no matter how many or what operations are performed. Find the largest possible good number.
In a word formed with the letters $a,b$ we can change some blocks: $aba$ in $b$ and back, $bba$ in $a$ and backwards. If the initial word is $aaa\ldots ab$ where $a$ appears 2003 times can we reach the word $baaa\ldots a$, where $a$ appears 2003 times.
Let $a, b, c, p, q, r$ be positive integers with $p, q, r \ge 2$. Denote
\[Q=\{(x, y, z)\in \mathbb{Z}^3 : 0 \le x \le a, 0 \le y \le b , 0 \le z \le c \}. \]
Initially, some pieces are put on the each point in $Q$, with a total of $M$ pieces. Then, one can perform the following three types of operations repeatedly:
(1) Remove $p$ pieces on $(x, y, z)$ and place a piece on $(x-1, y, z)$ ;
(2) Remove $q$ pieces on $(x, y, z)$ and place a piece on $(x, y-1, z)$ ;
(3) Remove $r$ pieces on $(x, y, z)$ and place a piece on $(x, y, z-1)$.
Find the smallest positive integer $M$ such that one can always perform a sequence of operations, making a piece placed on $(0,0,0)$, no matter how the pieces are distributed initially.
For any positive integer $n$, let
[list]
[*]$\tau(n)$ denote the number of positive integer divisors of $n$,
[*]$\sigma(n)$ denote the sum of the positive integer divisors of $n$, and
[*]$\varphi(n)$ denote the number of positive integers less than or equal to $n$ that are relatively prime to $n$.
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Let $a,b > 1$ be integers. Brandon has a calculator with three buttons that replace the integer $n$ currently displayed with $\tau(n)$, $\sigma(n)$, or $\varphi(n)$, respectively. Prove that if the calculator currently displays $a$, then Brandon can make the calculator display $b$ after a finite (possibly empty) sequence of button presses.
[i]Proposed by Jaedon Whyte.[/i]
The sequences $(a_n),(b_n)$ are defined by $a_0=1,b_0=4$ and for $n\ge 0$
\[a_{n+1}=a_n^{2001}+b_n,\ \ b_{n+1}=b_n^{2001}+a_n\]
Show that $2003$ is not divisor of any of the terms in these two sequences.
For a positive integer $n$, there are $n$ positive reals $a_1 \ge a_2 \ge a_3 \cdots \ge a_n$.
For all positive reals $b_1, b_2, \cdots b_n$, prove the following inequality.
$$\frac{a_1b_1+a_2b_2 + \cdots +a_nb_n}{a_1+a_2+ \cdots a_n} \le \text{max}\{ \frac{b_1}{1}, \frac{b_1+b_2}{2}, \cdots, \frac{b_1+b_2+ \cdots +b_n}{n} \}$$
Let $n\geqslant 2$ be a positive integer. Paul has a $1\times n^2$ rectangular strip consisting of $n^2$ unit squares, where the $i^{\text{th}}$ square is labelled with $i$ for all $1\leqslant i\leqslant n^2$. He wishes to cut the strip into several pieces, where each piece consists of a number of consecutive unit squares, and then [i]translate[/i] (without rotating or flipping) the pieces to obtain an $n\times n$ square satisfying the following property: if the unit square in the $i^{\text{th}}$ row and $j^{\text{th}}$ column is labelled with $a_{ij}$, then $a_{ij}-(i+j-1)$ is divisible by $n$.
Determine the smallest number of pieces Paul needs to make in order to accomplish this.
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]
There are $2n-1$ lamps in a row. In the beginning only the middle one is on (the $n$-th one), and the other ones are off. Allowed move is to take two non-adjacent lamps which are turned off such that all lamps between them are turned on and switch all of their states from on to off and vice versa. What is the maximal number of moves until the process terminates?
Let $n\geqslant 2$ be a positive integer. Paul has a $1\times n^2$ rectangular strip consisting of $n^2$ unit squares, where the $i^{\text{th}}$ square is labelled with $i$ for all $1\leqslant i\leqslant n^2$. He wishes to cut the strip into several pieces, where each piece consists of a number of consecutive unit squares, and then [i]translate[/i] (without rotating or flipping) the pieces to obtain an $n\times n$ square satisfying the following property: if the unit square in the $i^{\text{th}}$ row and $j^{\text{th}}$ column is labelled with $a_{ij}$, then $a_{ij}-(i+j-1)$ is divisible by $n$.
Determine the smallest number of pieces Paul needs to make in order to accomplish this.
Let $n$ be a positive integer and let $a_1, \ldots, a_{n-1} $ be arbitrary real numbers. Define the sequences $u_0, \ldots, u_n $ and $v_0, \ldots, v_n $ inductively by $u_0 = u_1 = v_0 = v_1 = 1$, and $u_{k+1} = u_k + a_k u_{k-1}$, $v_{k+1} = v_k + a_{n-k} v_{k-1}$ for $k=1, \ldots, n-1.$
Prove that $u_n = v_n.$
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.