Determine whether there exist distinct real numbers $a, b, c, t$ for which: [i](i)[/i] the equation $ax^2 + btx + c = 0$ has two distinct real roots $x_1, x_2,$ [i](ii)[/i] the equation $bx^2 + ctx + a = 0$ has two distinct real roots $x_2, x_3,$ [i](iii)[/i] the equation $cx^2 + atx + b = 0$ has two distinct real roots $x_3, x_1.$

Today was the 5th Kettering Olympiad - and here are the problems, which are very good intermediate problems. 1. Find all real $x$ so that $(1+x^2)(1+x^4)=4x^3$ 2. Mark and John play a game. They have $100$ pebbles on a table. They take turns taking at least one at at most eight pebbles away. The person to claim the last pebble wins. Mark goes first. Can you find a way for Mark to always win? What about John? 3. Prove that $\sin x + \sin 3x + \sin 5x + ... + \sin 11 x = (1-\cos 12 x)/(2 \sin x)$ 4. Mark has $7$ pieces of paper. He takes some of them and splits each into $7$ pieces of paper. He repeats this process some number of times. He then tells John he has $2000$ pieces of paper. John tells him he is wrong. Why is John right? 5. In a triangle $ABC$, the altitude, angle bisector, and median split angle $A$ into four equal angles. Find the angles of $ABC.$ 6. There are $100$ cities. There exist airlines connecting pairs of cities. a) Find the minimal number of airlines such that with at most $k$ plane changes, one can go from any city to any other city. b) Given that there are $4852$ airlines, show that, given any schematic, one can go from any city to any other city.

Let $p$ be a prime number and $\mathcal{A}$ be a finite set of integers, with at least $p^k$ elements. Denote by $N_{\text{even}}$ the number of subsets of $\mathcal{A}$ with even cardinality and sum of elements divisible by $p^k$. Define $N_{\text{odd}}$ similarly. Prove that $N_{\text{even}}\equiv N_{\text{odd}}\bmod{p}.$

Prove that, for all integers $a, b$, there exists a positive integer $n$, such that the number $n^2+an+b$ has at least $2018$ different prime divisors.

Knowing that the system \[x + y + z = 3,\]\[x^3 + y^3 + z^3 = 15,\]\[x^4 + y^4 + z^4 = 35,\] has a real solution $x, y, z$ for which $x^2 + y^2 + z^2 < 10$, find the value of $x^5 + y^5 + z^5$ for that solution.

Let $ n$ be the number of integer values of $ x$ such that $ P \equal{} x^4 \plus{} 6x^3 \plus{} 11x^2 \plus{} 3x \plus{} 31$ is the square of an integer. Then $ n$ is: $ \textbf{(A)}\ 4 \qquad \textbf{(B)}\ 3 \qquad \textbf{(C)}\ 2 \qquad \textbf{(D)}\ 1 \qquad \textbf{(E)}\ 0$

Find the smallest number $n$ such that there exist polynomials $f_1, f_2, \ldots , f_n$ with rational coefficients satisfying \[x^2+7 = f_1\left(x\right)^2 + f_2\left(x\right)^2 + \ldots + f_n\left(x\right)^2.\] [i]Proposed by Mariusz Skałba, Poland[/i]

Show that there is precisely one sequence $ a_1,a_2,...$ of integers which satisfies $ a_1\equal{}1, a_2>1,$ and $ a_{n\plus{}1}^3\plus{}1\equal{}a_n a_{n\plus{}2}$ for $ n \ge 1$.

Let $P\left(X\right)=X^5+3X^4-4X^3-X^2-3X+4$. Determine the number of monic polynomials $Q\left(x\right)$ with integer coefficients such that $\frac{P\left(X\right)}{Q\left(X\right)}$ is a polynomial with integer coefficients. Note: a monic polynomial is one with leading coefficient $1$ (so $x^3-4x+5$ is one but not $5x^3-4x^2+1$ or $x^2+3x^3$). [i]2016 CCA Math Bonanza Individual #9[/i]

Let $m,n\geq 2$ be integers. Let $f(x_1,\dots, x_n)$ be a polynomial with real coefficients such that $$f(x_1,\dots, x_n)=\left\lfloor \frac{x_1+\dots + x_n}{m} \right\rfloor\text{ for every } x_1,\dots, x_n\in \{0,1,\dots, m-1\}.$$ Prove that the total degree of $f$ is at least $n$.

Let $p$ be a real number and $f(x)=x^p-x+p$. Prove that: (a) Every root $\alpha$ of $f(x)$ satisfies $|\alpha|<p^{\frac1{p-1}}$; (b) If $p$ is a prime number, then $f(x)$ cannot be written as the product of two non-constant polynomials with integer coefficients.

For any positive integer $k$, denote the sum of digits of $k$ in its decimal representation by $S(k)$. Find all polynomials $P(x)$ with integer coefficients such that for any positive integer $n \geq 2016$, the integer $P(n)$ is positive and $$S(P(n)) = P(S(n)).$$ [i]Proposed by Warut Suksompong, Thailand[/i]

Find all triples $(a,b,c)$ of positive integers with the following property: for every prime $p$, if $n$ is a quadratic residue $\mod p$, then $an^2+bn+c$ is a quadratic residue $\mod p$.

Consider the matrices $A\in \mathcal{M}_{m,n}(\mathbb{C})$ and $B\in \mathcal{M}_{n,m}(\mathbb{C})$ with $n\le m$. It is given that $\text{rank}(AB)=n$ and $(AB)^2=AB$. a)Prove that $(BA)^3=(BA)^2$. b)Find $BA$.

Find all polynomials $f(x)$ such that $f(2x) = f'(x) f''(x)$.

Find all polynomials $P(x)$ with real coefficients that satisfy \[P(x\sqrt{2})=P(x+\sqrt{1-x^2})\]for all real $x$ with $|x|\le 1$.

[list=1] [*] Let $G$ be a $(4, 4)$ unoriented graph, 2-regulate, containing a cycle with the length 3. Find the characteristic polynomial $P_G (\lambda)$ , its spectrum $Spec (G)$ and draw the graph $G$. [*] Let $G'$ be another 2-regulate graph, having its characteristic polynomial $P_{G'} (\lambda) = \lambda^4 - 4\lambda^2 + \alpha, \alpha \in \mathbb{R}$. Find the spectrum $Spec(G')$ and draw the graph $G'$. [*] Are the graphs $G$ and $G'$ cospectral or isomorphic? [/list]

Let $ n$ be a positive integer. Find the number of odd coefficients of the polynomial \[ u_n(x) \equal{} (x^2 \plus{} x \plus{} 1)^n. \]

Let $ P(x)$ be a polynomial with real coefficients such that $ P(x) > 0$ for all $ x \geq 0.$ Prove that there exists a positive integer n such that $ (1 \plus{} x)^n \cdot P(x)$ is a polynomial with nonnegative coefficients.

Let $x,y,z$ be complex numbers satisfying \begin{align*} z^2 + 5x &= 10z \\ y^2 + 5z &= 10y \\ x^2 + 5y &= 10x \end{align*} Find the sum of all possible values of $z$. [i]Proposed by Aaron Lin[/i]

Suppose $p$ is a prime number and $a,b,c \in \mathbb Q^+$ are rational numbers; [b]a)[/b] Prove that $\mathbb Q(\sqrt[p]{a}+\sqrt[p]{b})=\mathbb Q(\sqrt[p]{a},\sqrt[p]{b})$. [b]b)[/b] If $\sqrt[p]{b} \in \mathbb Q(\sqrt[p]{a})$, prove that for a nonnegative integer $k$ we have $\sqrt[p]{\frac{b}{a^k}}\in \mathbb Q$. [b]c)[/b] If $\sqrt[p]{a}+\sqrt[p]{b}+\sqrt[p]{c} \in \mathbb Q$, then prove that numbers $\sqrt[p]{a},\sqrt[p]{b}$ and $\sqrt[p]{c}$ are rational.

Let $n$ be a natural number and $P_1, P_2, ... , P_n$ are polynomials with integer coefficients, each of degree at least $2$. Let $S$ be the set of all natural numbers $N$ for which there exists a natural number $a$ and an index $1 \le i \le n$ such that $P_i(a) = N$. Prove, that there are infinitely many primes that do not belong to $S$.

For each positive integer $n$, determine the smallest possible value of the polynomial $$ W_n(x)=x^{2n}+2x^{2n-1}+3x^{2n-2}+\ldots + (2n-1)x^2+2nx. $$

Prove that for all natural $ m$, $ n$ polynomial $ \sum_{i \equal{} 0}^{m}\binom{n\plus{}i}{n}\cdot x^i$ has at most one real root.

For arbitrary natural number $n$, prove that $\sum^n_{k=0}C^k_n2^kC^{[(n-k)/2]}_{n-k}=C^n_{2n+1}$, where $C^0_0=1$ and $[\dfrac{n-k}{2}]$ denotes the integer part of $\dfrac{n-k}{2}$.