Given an infinite sheet of square ruled paper. Some of the squares contain a piece. A move consists of a piece jumping over a piece on a neighbouring square (which shares a side) onto an empty square and removing the piece jumped over. Initially, there are no pieces except in an $m x n$ rectangle ($m, n > 1$) which has a piece on each square. What is the smallest number of pieces that can be left after a series of moves?

[b]a)[/b] Show that the expression $ x^3-5x^2+8x-4 $ is nonegative, for every $ x\in [1,\infty ) . $ [b]b)[/b] Determine $ \min_{a,b\in [1,\infty )} \left( ab(a+b-10) +8(a+b) \right) . $

An infinite squared sheet is given, with squares of side length $1$. The “distance” between two squares is defined as the length of the shortest path from one of these squares to the other if moving between them like a chess rook (measured along the trajectory of the centre of the rook). Determine the minimum number of colours with which it is possible to colour the sheet (each square being given a single colour) in such a way that each pair of squares with distance between them equal to $6$ units is given different colours. Give an example of such a colouring and prove that using a smaller number of colours we cannot achieve this goal. (AG Pechkovskiy, IV Itenberg)

Given regular pentagon $ABCDE$. $M$ is an arbitrary point inside $ABCDE$ or on its side. Let the distances $|MA|, |MB|, ... , |ME|$ be renumerated and denoted with $$r_1\le r_2\le r_3\le r_4\le r_5.$$ Find all the positions of the $M$, giving $r_3$ the minimal possible value. Find all the positions of the $M$, giving $r_3$ the maximal possible value.

What is the smallest positive integer $k$ such that $k(3^3 + 4^3 + 5^3) = a^n$ for some positive integers $a$ and $n$, with $n > 1$?

Consider a rectangular array of single digits $d_{i,j}$ with 10 rows and 7 columns, such that $d_{i+1,j}-d_{i,j}$ is always 1 or -9 for all $1 \leq i \leq 9$ and all $1 \leq j \leq 7$, as in the example below. For $1 \leq i \leq 10$, let $m_i$ be the median of $d_{i,1}$, ..., $d_{i,7}$. Determine the least and greatest possible values of the mean of $m_1$, $m_2$, ..., $m_{10}$. Example: [img]https://cdn.artofproblemsolving.com/attachments/8/a/b77c0c3aeef14f0f48d02dde830f979eca1afb.png[/img]

Let $OP$ be a diagonal of a unit cube. Find the minimum and the maximum value of the area of the intersection of the cube with a plane through $OP$.

Points $A_1,A_2,...,A_n$ are selected from the equilateral triangle with a side that is equal to $1$. Denote by $d_k$ the least distance from $A_k$ to all other selected points. Prove that $d_1^2+...+d_n^2 \le 3,5$.

All the fields of a square $n\times n$ (n>2) table are filled with $+1$ or $-1$ according to the rules: [i]At the beginning $-1$ are put in all the boundary fields. The number put in the field in turn (the field is chosen arbitrarily) equals to the product of the closest, from the different sides, numbers in its row or in its column. [/i] a) What is the minimal b) What is the maximal possible number of $+1$ in the obtained table?

$20$ numbers are written on the board $1, 2, ... ,20$. Two players are putting signs before the numbers in turn ($+$ or $-$). The first wants to obtain the minimal possible absolute value of the sum. What is the maximal value of the absolute value of the sum that can be achieved by the second player?

* Given $\vartriangle ABC$, divide it into the minimal number of parts so that after being flipped over these parts can constitute the same $\vartriangle ABC$.

The real numbers $x, y$ and $z$ are such that $x^2 + y^2 + z^2 = 1$. a) Determine the smallest and the largest possible values of $xy + yz - xz$. b) Prove that there does not exist a triple $(x, y, z)$ of rational numbers, which attains any of the two values in a).

There are $21$ towns. Each airline runs direct flights between every pair of towns in a group of five. What is the minimum number of airlines needed to ensure that at least one airline runs direct flights between every pair of towns?

Consider a board consisting of $n\times n$ unit squares where $n \ge 2$. Two cells are called neighbors if they share a horizontal or vertical border. In the beginning, all cells together contain $k$ tokens. Each cell may contain one or several tokens or none. In each turn, choose one of the cells that contains at least one token for each of its neighbors and move one of those to each of its neighbors. The game ends if no such cell exists. (a) Find the minimal $k$ such that the game does not end for any starting configuration and choice of cells during the game. (b) Find the maximal $k$ such that the game ends for any starting configuration and choice of cells during the game. Proposed by Theresia Eisenkölbl

Find the smallest positive integer $n$ such that the number $2^n + 2^8 + 2^{11}$ is a perfect square. (A): $8$, (B): $9$, (C): $11$, (D): $12$, (E) None of the above.

For an integer $n \ge 1$ we consider sequences of $2n$ numbers, each equal to $0, -1$ or $1$. The [i]sum product value[/i] of such a sequence is calculated by first multiplying each pair of numbers from the sequence, and then adding all the results together. For example, if we take $n = 2$ and the sequence $0,1, 1, -1$, then we find the products $0\cdot 1, 0\cdot 1, 0\cdot -1, 1\cdot 1, 1\cdot -1, 1\cdot -1$. Adding these six results gives the sum product value of this sequence: $0+0+0+1+(-1)+(-1) = -1$. The sum product value of this sequence is therefore smaller than the sum product value of the sequence $0, 0, 0, 0$, which equals $0$. Determine for each integer $n \ge 1$ the smallest sum product value that such a sequence of $2n$ numbers could have. [i]Attention: you are required to prove that a smaller sum product value is impossible.[/i]

We start with any finite list of distinct positive integers. We may replace any pair $n, n + 1$ (not necessarily adjacent in the list) by the single integer $n-2$, now allowing negatives and repeats in the list. We may also replace any pair $n, n + 4$ by $n - 1$. We may repeat these operations as many times as we wish. Either determine the most negative integer which can appear in a list, or prove that there is no such minimum.

Given some cards with either "$-1$" or "$+1$" written on the opposite side. You are allowed to choose a triple of cards and ask about the product of the three numbers on the cards. What is the minimal number of questions allowing to determine all the numbers on the cards ... a) for $30$ cards, b) for $31$ cards, c) for $32$ cards. (You should prove, that you cannot manage with less questions.) d) Fifty above mentioned cards are lying along the circumference. You are allowed to ask about the product of three consecutive numbers only. You need to determine the product af all the $50$ numbers. What is the minimal number of questions allowing to determine it?

Consider a pyramid whose base is an equilateral triangle $BCD$ and whose other faces are triangles isosceles, right at the common vertex $A$. An ant leaves the vertex $B$ arrives at a point $P$ of the $CD$ edge, from there goes to a point $Q$ of the edge $AC$ and returns to point $B$. If the path you made is minimal, how much is the angle $PQA$ ?

The triangle $ABC$ has angle $A = 30^o$ and $AB = \frac{3}{4} AC$. Find the point $P$ inside the triangle which minimizes $5 PA + 4 PB + 3 PC$.

Find the minimum value of $S = |x + 1| + |x + 5|+ |x + 14| + |x + 97| + |x + 1920|$.

Given a piece of graph paper with a letter assigned to each vertex of every square such that on every segment connecting two vertices that have the same letter and are on the same line of the mesh, there is at least one vertex with another letter. What is the least number of distinct letters needed to plot such a picture, along the sides of the cells?

Prove that among all triangles with inradius $1$, the equilateral one has the smallest perimeter .

Let $n$ be a fixed positive integer and let $x, y$ be positive integers such that $xy = nx+ny$. Determine the minimum and the maximum of $x$ in terms of $n$.

Show that $1 \le n^{1/n} \le 2$ for all positive integers $n$. Find the smallest $k$ such that $1 \le n ^{1/n} \le k$ for all positive integers $n$.