Found problems: 48
2015 VJIMC, 1
[b]Problem 1 [/b]
Let $A$ and $B$ be two $3 \times 3$ matrices with real entries. Prove that
$$ A-(A^{-1} +(B^{-1}-A)^{-1})^{-1} =ABA\ , $$
provided all the inverses appearing on the left-hand side of the equality exist.
2018 District Olympiad, 1
Show that if $n\ge 2$ is an integer, then there exist invertible matrices $A_1, A_2, \ldots, A_n \in \mathcal{M}_2(\mathbb{R})$ with non-zero entries such that:
\[A_1^{-1} + A_2^{-1} + \ldots + A_n^{-1} = (A_1 + A_2 + \ldots + A_n)^{-1}.\]
[hide=Edit.]
The $77777^{\text{th}}$ topic in College Math :coolspeak:
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2016 District Olympiad, 1
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. $
2022 Romania National Olympiad, P2
Let $\mathcal{F}$ be the set of pairs of matrices $(A,B)\in\mathcal{M}_2(\mathbb{Z})\times\mathcal{M}_2(\mathbb{Z})$ for which there exists some positive integer $k$ and matrices $C_1,C_2,\ldots, C_k\in\{A,B\}$ such that $C_1C_2\cdots C_k=O_2.$ For each $(A,B)\in\mathcal{F},$ let $k(A,B)$ denote the minimal positive integer $k$ which satisfies the latter property.
[list=a]
[*]Let $(A,B)\in\mathcal{F}$ with $\det(A)=0,\det(B)\neq 0$ and $k(A,B)=p+2$ for some $p\in\mathbb{N}^*.$ Show that $AB^pA=O_2.$
[*]Prove that for any $k\geq 3$ there exists a pair $(A,B)\in\mathcal{F}$ such that $k(A,B)=k.$
[/list][i]Bogdan Blaga[/i]
2019 Brazil Undergrad MO, 1
Let $ I $ and $ 0 $ be the square identity and null matrices, both of size $ 2019 $. There is a square matrix $A$
with rational entries and size $ 2019 $ such that:
a) $ A ^ 3 + 6A ^ 2-2I = 0 $?
b) $ A ^ 4 + 6A ^ 3-2I = 0 $?
1972 Spain Mathematical Olympiad, 1
Let $K$ be a ring with unit and $M$ the set of $2 \times 2$ matrices constituted with elements of $K$. An addition and a multiplication are defined in $M$ in the usual way between arrays. It is requested to:
a) Check that $M$ is a ring with unit and not commutative with respect to the laws of defined composition.
b) Check that if $K$ is a commutative field, the elements of$ M$ that have inverse they are characterized by the condition $ad - bc \ne 0$.
c) Prove that the subset of $M$ formed by the elements that have inverse is a multiplicative group.
2001 Miklós Schweitzer, 3
How many minimal left ideals does the full matrix ring $M_n(K)$ of $n\times n$ matrices over a field $K$ have?
2018 Romania National Olympiad, 4
Let $n$ be an integer with $n \geq 2$ and let $A \in \mathcal{M}_n(\mathbb{C})$ such that $\operatorname{rank} A \neq \operatorname{rank} A^2.$ Prove that there exists a nonzero matrix $B \in \mathcal{M}_n(\mathbb{C})$ such that $$AB=BA=B^2=0$$
[i]Cornel Delasava[/i]
1996 Romania National Olympiad, 3
Let $A, B \in M_2(\mathbb{R})$ such as $det(AB+BA)\leq 0$. Prove that $$det(A^2+B^2)\geq 0$$
2000 Moldova National Olympiad, Problem 7
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.
2004 Nicolae Coculescu, 3
Solve in $ \mathcal{M}_2(\mathbb{R}) $ the equation $ X^3+X+2I=0. $
[i]Florian Dumitrel[/i]
2015 District Olympiad, 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. $
2015 IMC, 9
An $n \times n$ complex matrix $A$ is called \emph{t-normal} if
$AA^t = A^t A$ where $A^t$ is the transpose of $A$. For each $n$,
determine the maximum dimension of a linear space of complex $n
\times n$ matrices consisting of t-normal matrices.
Proposed by Shachar Carmeli, Weizmann Institute of Science
2014 CHMMC (Fall), 2
A matrix $\begin{bmatrix}
x & y \\
z & w
\end{bmatrix}$ has square root $\begin{bmatrix}
a & b \\
c & d
\end{bmatrix}$ if
$$\begin{bmatrix}
a & b \\
c & d
\end{bmatrix}^2
=
\begin{bmatrix}
a^2 + bc &ab + bd \\
ac + cd & bc + d^2
\end{bmatrix}
=
\begin{bmatrix}
x & y \\
z & w
\end{bmatrix}$$
Determine how many square roots the matrix $\begin{bmatrix}
2 & 2 \\
3 & 4
\end{bmatrix}$ has (complex coefficients are allowed).
1996 Romania National Olympiad, 4
Let $A,B,C,D \in \mathcal{M}_n(\mathbb{C}),$ $A$ and $C$ invertible. Prove that if $A^k B = C^k D$ for any positive integer $k,$ then $B=D.$
2024 Mexican University Math Olympiad, 4
Given \( b > 0 \), consider the following matrix:
\[
B = \begin{pmatrix} b & b^2 \\ b^2 & b^3 \end{pmatrix}
\]
Denote by \( e_i \) the top left entry of \( B^i \). Prove that the following limit exists and calculate its value:
\[
\lim_{i \to \infty} \sqrt[i]{e_i}.
\]
2024 IMC, 7
Let $n$ be a positive integer. Suppose that $A$ and $B$ are invertible $n \times n$ matrices with complex entries such that $A+B=I$ (where $I$ is the identity matrix) and
\[(A^2+B^2)(A^4+B^4)=A^5+B^5.\]
Find all possible values of $\det(AB)$ for the given $n$.
2024 VJIMC, 2
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
2015 IMC, 1
For any integer $n\ge 2$ and two $n\times n$ matrices with real
entries $A,\; B$ that satisfy the equation
$$A^{-1}+B^{-1}=(A+B)^{-1}\;$$
prove that $\det (A)=\det(B)$.
Does the same conclusion follow for matrices with complex entries?
(Proposed by Zbigniew Skoczylas, Wroclaw University of Technology)
2022 SEEMOUS, 3
Let $\alpha \in \mathbb{C}\setminus \{0\}$ and $A \in \mathcal{M}_n(\mathbb{C})$, $A \neq O_n$, be such that
$$A^2 + (A^*)^2 = \alpha A\cdot A^*,$$
where $A^* = (\bar A)^T.$ Prove that $\alpha \in \mathbb{R}$, $|\alpha| \le 2$. and $A\cdot A^* = A^*\cdot A.$
2003 Romania National Olympiad, 2
Let be eight real numbers $ 1\le a_1< a_2< a_3< a_4,x_1<x_2<x_3<x_4. $ Prove that
$$ \begin{vmatrix}a_1^{x_1} & a_1^{x_2} & a_1^{x_3} & a_1^{x_4} \\
a_2^{x_1} & a_2^{x_2} & a_2^{x_3} & a_2^{x_4} \\
a_3^{x_1} & a_3^{x_2} & a_3^{x_3} & a_3^{x_4} \\
a_4^{x_1} & a_4^{x_2} & a_4^{x_3} & a_4^{x_4} \\
\end{vmatrix} >0. $$
[i]Marian Andronache, Ion Savu[/i]
2019 LIMIT Category C, Problem 10
Let $A\in M_3(\mathbb Z)$ such that $\det(A)=1$. What is the maximum possible number of entries of $A$ that are even?
1967 Putnam, A2
Define $S_0$ to be $1.$ For $n \geq 1 $, let $S_n $ be the number of $n\times n $ matrices whose elements are nonnegative integers with the property that $a_{ij}=a_{ji}$ (for $i,j=1,2,\ldots, n$) and where $\sum_{i=1}^{n} a_{ij}=1$ (for $j=1,2,\ldots, n$). Prove that
a) $S_{n+1}=S_{n} +nS_{n-1}.$
b) $\sum_{n=0}^{\infty} S_{n} \frac{x^{n}}{n!} =\exp \left(x+\frac{x^{2}}{2}\right).$
2004 Spain Mathematical Olympiad, Problem 1
We have a set of ${221}$ real numbers whose sum is ${110721}$. It is deemed that the numbers form a rectangular table such that every row as well as the first and last columns are arithmetic progressions of more than one element. Prove that the sum of the elements in the four corners is equal to ${2004}$.
2017 Simon Marais Mathematical Competition, A3
For each positive integer $n$, let $M(n)$ be the $n\times n$ matrix whose $(i,j)$ entry is equal to $1$ if $i+1$ is divisible by $j$, and equal to $0$ otherwise. Prove that $M(n)$ is invertible if and only if $n+1$ is square-free. (An integer is [i]square-free[/i] if it is not divisible by a square of an integer larger than $1$.)