In each field of a table there is a real number. We call such $n \times n$ table [i]silly[/i] if each entry equals the product of all the numbers in the neighbouring fields. a) Find all $2 \times 2$ silly tables. b) Find all $3 \times 3$ silly tables.

Prove that for any positive integer $n$ there exists a matrix of the form $$A=\begin{pmatrix}1&a&b&c\\0&1&a&b\\0&0&1&a\\0&0&0&1\end{pmatrix},$$ (a) with nonzero entries, (b) with positive entries, such that the entries of $A^n$ are all perfect squares.

The point $ P \equal{} (1,2,3)$ is reflected in the $ xy$-plane, then its image $ Q$ is rotated by $ 180^\circ$ about the $ x$-axis to produce $ R$, and finally, $ R$ is translated by 5 units in the positive-$ y$ direction to produce $ S$. What are the coordinates of $ S$? $ \textbf{(A)}\ (1,7, \minus{} 3) \qquad \textbf{(B)}\ ( \minus{} 1,7, \minus{} 3) \qquad \textbf{(C)}\ ( \minus{} 1, \minus{} 2,8) \qquad \textbf{(D)}\ ( \minus{} 1,3,3) \qquad \textbf{(E)}\ (1,3,3)$

Find all natural numbers $ k\ge 1 $ and $ n\ge 2, $ which have the property that there exist two matrices $ A,B\in M_n\left(\mathbb{Z}\right) $ such that $ A^3=O_n $ and $ A^kB +BA=I_n. $

Let $ A$ be a $ n\times n$ matrix with complex elements. Prove that $ A^{\minus{}1} \equal{} \overline{A}$ if and only if there exists an invertible matrix $ B$ with complex elements such that $ A\equal{} B^{\minus{}1} \cdot \overline{B}$.

Let $X=\{1,2,\dots,n\},$ and let $k\in X.$ Show that there are exactly $k\cdot n^{n-1}$ functions $f:X\to X$ such that for every $x\in X$ there is a $j\ge 0$ such that $f^{(j)}(x)\le k.$ [Here $f^{(j)}$ denotes the $j$th iterate of $f,$ so that $f^{(0)}(x)=x$ and $f^{(j+1)}(x)=f\left(f^{(j)}(x)\right).$]

Let be a field $ \mathbb{F} $ and two nonzero nilpotent matrices $ M,N\in\mathcal{M}_2\left( \mathbb{F} \right) $ that commute. Show that: [b]a)[/b] $ MN=0 $ [b]b)[/b] there exists a nonzero element $ f\in\mathbb{F} $ such that $ M=fN $ [i]Dorel Miheț[/i]

Let $\mathcal{M}$ be the set of all $2021 \times 2021$ matrices with at most two entries in each row equal to $1$ and all other entries equal to $0$. Determine the size of the set $\{ \det A : A \in M \}$. [i]Here $\det A$ denotes the determinant of the matrix $A$.[/i]

For an ${n\times n}$ matrix $A$, let $X_{i}$ be the set of entries in row $i$, and $Y_{j}$ the set of entries in column $j$, ${1\leq i,j\leq n}$. We say that $A$ is [i]golden[/i] if ${X_{1},\dots ,X_{n},Y_{1},\dots ,Y_{n}}$ are distinct sets. Find the least integer $n$ such that there exists a ${2004\times 2004}$ golden matrix with entries in the set ${\{1,2,\dots ,n\}}$.

Let $ A\in M_2\left( \mathbb{C}\right) $ such that $ \det \left( A^2+A+I_2\right) =\det \left( A^2-A+I_2\right) =3. $ Prove that $ A^2\left( A^2+I_2\right) =2I_2. $

Let $p$ be a prime number. For any $\sigma \in S_p$ (the permutation group of $\{1,2,...,p \}),$ define the matrix $A_{\sigma}=(a_{ij}) \in \mathcal{M}_p(\mathbb{Z})$ as $a_{ij} = \sigma^{i-1}(j),$ where $\sigma^0$ is the identity permutation and $\sigma^k = \underbrace{\sigma \circ \sigma \circ ... \circ \sigma}_k.$ Prove that $D = \{ |\det A_{\sigma}| : \sigma \in S_p \}$ has at most $1+ (p-2)!$ elements.

In the universe of Pi Zone, points are labeled with $2 \times 2$ arrays of positive reals. One can teleport from point $M$ to point $M'$ if $M$ can be obtained from $M'$ by multiplying either a row or column by some positive real. For example, one can teleport from $\left( \begin{array}{cc} 1 & 2 \\ 3 & 4 \end{array} \right)$ to $\left( \begin{array}{cc} 1 & 20 \\ 3 & 40 \end{array} \right)$ and then to $\left( \begin{array}{cc} 1 & 20 \\ 6 & 80 \end{array} \right)$. A [i]tourist attraction[/i] is a point where each of the entries of the associated array is either $1$, $2$, $4$, $8$ or $16$. A company wishes to build a hotel on each of several points so that at least one hotel is accessible from every tourist attraction by teleporting, possibly multiple times. What is the minimum number of hotels necessary? [i]Proposed by Michael Kural[/i]

Suppose that every integer has been given one of the colours red, blue, green or yellow. Let $x$ and $y$ be odd integers so that $|x| \neq |y|$. Show that there are two integers of the same colour whose difference has one of the following values: $x,y,x+y$ or $x-y$.

Here is a problem we (me and my colleagues) suggested and was given at the competition this year. The problem statement is very natural and short. However, we have not seen such a problem before. A real $2024 \times 2024$ matrix $A$ is called nice if $(Av, v) = 1$ for every vector $v\in \mathbb{R}^{2024}$ with unit norm. a) Prove that the only nice matrix such that all of its eigenvalues are real is the identity matrix. b) Find an example of a nice non-identity matrix

Original in Hungarian; translated with Google translate; polished by myself. Let $n$ be a positive integer. Suppose that the sum of the matrices $A_1, \dots, A_n\in \Bbb R^{n\times n}$ is the identity matrix, but $\sum\nolimits_{i = 1}^n\alpha_i A_i$ is singular whenever at least one of the coefficients $\alpha_i \in \Bbb R$ is zero. a) Show that $\sum\nolimits_{i = 1}^n\alpha_i A_i$ is nonsingular if $\alpha_i\neq 0$ for all $i$. b) Show that if the matrices $A_i$ are symmetric, then all of them have rank $1$.

Let \( n \) be a positive integer, and let \( A \) and \( B \) be \( n \times n \) matrices with real coefficients such that \[ ABBA - BAAB = A - B. \] (a) Prove that \( \text{Tr}(A) = \text{Tr}(B) \) and that \( \text{Tr}(A^2) = \text{Tr}(B^2) \). (b) If \(BA^2B= A^2B^2\) and \(AB^2A= B^2A^2\), prove that \( \det A = \det B \). Note: \( \text{Tr}(X) \) denotes the trace of \( X \), which is the sum of the elements on its main diagonal, and \( \det X \) denotes the determinant of \( X \).

Prove that from every set of $n+1$ natural numbers, whose prime factors are in a given set of $n$ prime numbers, one can select several distinct numbers whose product is a perfect square.

We say that the rank of a group $ G$ is at most $ r$ if every subgroup of $ G$ can be generated by at most $ r$ elements. Prove that here exists an integer $ s$ such that for every finite group $ G$ of rank $ 2$ the commutator series of $ G$ has length less than $ s$. [i]J. Erdos[/i]

Prove that the elements of any natural power of a $ 2\times 2 $ special linear integer matrix are pairwise coprime, with the possible exception of the pairs that form the diagonals. [i]Vasile Pop[/i]

Let $S$ denote the set of $2$ by $2$ matrices with integer entries and determinant $1$, and let $T$ denote those matrices of $S$ which are congruent to the identity matrix $I\pmod3$ (so $\begin{pmatrix}a&b\\c&d\end{pmatrix}\in T$ means that $a,b,c,d\in\mathbb Z,ad-bc=1,$ and $3$ divides $b,c,a-1,d-1$). (a) Let $f:T\to\mathbb R$ be a function such that for every $X,Y\in T$ with $Y\ne I$, either $f(XY)>f(X)$ or $f(XY^{-1})>f(X)$. Show that given two finite nonempty subsets $A,B$ of $T$, there are matrices $a\in A$ and $b\in B$ such that if $a'\in A$, $b'\in B$ and $a'b'=ab$, then $a'=a$ and $b'=b$. (b) Show that there is no $f:S\to\mathbb R$ such that for every $X,Y\in S$ with $Y\ne\pm I$, either $f(XY)>f(X)$ or $f(XY^{-1})>f(X)$.

$f: \mathbb R^{n}\longrightarrow\mathbb R^{n}$ is a bijective map, that Image of every $n-1$-dimensional affine space is a $n-1$-dimensional affine space. 1) Prove that Image of every line is a line. 2) Prove that $f$ is an affine map. (i.e. $f=goh$ that $g$ is a translation and $h$ is a linear map.)

Let $x_1,\cdots, x_n$ be nonzero vectors of a vector space $V$ and $\varphi:V\to V$ be a linear transformation such that $\varphi x_1 = x_1$, $\varphi x_k = x_k - x_{k-1}$ for $k = 2, 3,\ldots,n$. Prove that the vectors $x_1,\ldots,x_n$ are linearly independent.

Justify your answer whether $A=\left( \begin{array}{ccc} -4 & -1& -1 \\ 1 & -2& 1 \\ 0 & 0& -3 \end{array} \right)$ is similar to $B=\left( \begin{array}{ccc} -2 & 1& 0 \\ -1 & -4& 1 \\ 0 & 0& -3 \end{array} \right),\ A,\ B\in{M(\mathbb{C})}$ or not.

Find the lengths of the principal axes of the ellipsoid \[\sum_{i\le j}x_i x_j=1\]

Let $n\in\mathbb{N}$, $n\geq 2$. Find all values of $k\in\mathbb{N}$, $k\geq 1$, for which the following statement holds: $$\text{"If }A\in\mathcal{M}_n(\mathbb{C})\text{ is such that }A^kA^*=A\text{, then }A=A^*\text{."}$$ (here, $A^*$ denotes the conjugate transpose of $A$).