Olympiad problems

1999 Turkey Team Selection Test, 3

Prove that the plane is not a union of the inner regions of finitely many parabolas. (The outer region of a parabola is the union of the lines not intersecting the parabola. The inner region of a parabola is the set of points of the plane that do not belong to the outer region of the parabola)

1940 Putnam, B3

Tags: analytic geometry , parabola , conic

Let $p>0$ be a real constant. From any point $(a,b)$ in the cartesian plane, show that i) Three normals, real or imaginary, can be drawn to the parabola $y^2=4px$. ii) These are real and distinct if $4(2-p)^3 +27pb^2<0$. iii) Two of them coincide if $(a,b)$ lies on the curve $27py^2=4(x-2p)^3$. iv) All three coincide only if $a=2p$ and $b=0$.

2021 CCA Math Bonanza, L4.1

Tags: parabola , conic

Suppose that $x^2+px+q$ has two distinct roots $x=a$ and $x=b$. Furthermore, suppose that the positive difference between the roots of $x^2+ax+b$, the positive difference between the roots of $x^2+bx+a$, and twice the positive difference between the roots of $x^2+px+q$ are all equal. Given that $q$ can be expressed in the form $\frac{m}{m}$, where $m$ and $n$ are relatively prime positive integers, compute $m+n$. [i]2021 CCA Math Bonanza Lightning Round #4.1[/i]