This website contains problems from math contests. Problems and corresponding tags were obtained from the Art of Problem Solving website.

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Found problems: 3597

We call a polynomial $P(x)=a_dx^d+...+a_0$ of degree $d$ [i]nice[/i] if $$\frac{2021(|a_d|+...+|a_0|)}{2022}<max_{0 \le i \le d}|a_i|$$ Initially Shayan has a sequence of $d$ distinct real numbers; $r_1,...,r_d \neq \pm 1$. At each step he choose a positive integer $N>1$ and raises the $d$ numbers he has to the exponent of $N$, then delete the previous $d$ numbers and constructs a monic polynomial of degree $d$ with these number as roots, then examine whether it is nice or not. Prove that after some steps, all the polynomials that shayan produces would be nice polynomials Proposed by [i]Navid Safaei[/i]
Let $f(x)=x^2-ax+b$, where $a$ and $b$ are positive integers. (a) Suppose that $a=2$ and $b=2$. Determine the set of real roots of $f(x)-x$, and the set of real roots of $f(f(x))-x$. (b) Determine the number of positive integers $(a,b)$ with $1\le a,b\le 2011$ for which every root of $f(f(x))-x$ is an integer.
Let $a,b,c,d >0$ and $abcd=1$. Prove that: \[ \frac{1}{(1+a)^2}+\frac{1}{(1+b)^2}+\frac{1}{(1+c)^2}+\frac{1}{(1+d)^2} \geq 1 \]
Determine if there exist four polynomials such that the sum of any three of them has a real root while the sum of any two of them does not.
For each rational number $r$ consider the statement: If $x$ is a real number such that $x^2-rx$ and $x^3-rx$ are both rational, then $x$ is also rational. [list](a) Prove the claim for $r \ge \frac43$ and $r \le 0$. (b) Let $p,q$ be different odd primes such that $3p <4q$. Prove that the claim for $r=\frac{p}q$ does not hold. [/list]
Let $n$ be a natural number and $f(x)$ be a polynomial with real coefficients having $n$ different positive real roots. Is it possible the polynomial: $$x(x+1)(x+2)(x+4)f(x)+a$$ to be presented as the $k$-th power of a polynomial with real coefficients, for some natural $k\geq 2$ and real $a$?
Let $P(x, y)$ and $Q(x, y)$ be polynomials in two variables with integer coefficients. The sequences of integers $a_0, a_1,\ldots$ and $b_0, b_1,\ldots$ satisfy \[a_{n+1}=P(a_n,b_n),\quad b_{n+1}=Q(a_n,b_n)\]for all $n\geqslant 0$. Let $m_n$ be the number of integer points of the coordinate plane, lying strictly inside the segment with endpoints $(a_n,b_n)$ and $(a_{n+1},b_{n+1})$. Prove that the sequence $m_0,m_1,\ldots$ is non-decreasing.
Let $a,b$ be integers with $0<a<b$. A set $\{x,y,z\}$ of non-negative integers is [i]olympic[/i] if $x<y<z$ and if $\{z-y,y-x\}=\{a,b\}$. Show that the set of all non-negative integers is the union of pairwise disjoint olympic sets.
An ordered pair $(x, y)$ of integers is a primitive point if the greatest common divisor of $x$ and $y$ is $1$. Given a finite set $S$ of primitive points, prove that there exist a positive integer $n$ and integers $a_0, a_1, \ldots , a_n$ such that, for each $(x, y)$ in $S$, we have: $$a_0x^n + a_1x^{n-1} y + a_2x^{n-2}y^2 + \cdots + a_{n-1}xy^{n-1} + a_ny^n = 1.$$ [i]Proposed by John Berman, United States[/i]
Assume that a real polynomial $P(x)$ has no real roots. Prove that the polynomial $$Q(x)=P(x)+\frac{P''(x)}{2!}+\frac{P^{(4)}(x)}{4!}+\ldots$$ also has no real roots.
The players Alfred and Bertrand put together a polynomial $x^n + a_{n-1}x^{n- 1} +... + a_0$ with the given degree $n \ge 2$. To do this, they alternately choose the value in $n$ moves one coefficient each, whereby all coefficients must be integers and $a_0 \ne 0$ must apply. Alfred's starts first . Alfred wins if the polynomial has an integer zero at the end. (a) For which $n$ can Alfred force victory if the coefficients $a_j$ are from the right to the left, i.e. for $j = 0, 1,. . . , n - 1$, be determined? (b) For which $n$ can Alfred force victory if the coefficients $a_j$ are from the left to the right, i.e. for $j = n -1, n - 2,. . . , 0$, be determined? (Theresia Eisenkölbl, Clemens Heuberger)
Let $f(x)$ and $g(x)$ be degree $n$ polynomials, and $x_0,x_1,\ldots,x_n$ be real numbers such that $$f(x_0)=g(x_0),f'(x_1)=g'(x_1),f''(x_2)=g''(x_2),\ldots,f^{(n)}(x_n)=g^{(n)}(x_n).$$Prove that $f(x)=g(x)$ for all $x$.
Find all the functions $\varphi:\mathbb{Z}[x]\to\mathbb{Z}[x]$ such that $\varphi(x)=x,$ any integer polynomials $f, g$ satisfy $\varphi(f+g)=\varphi(f)+\varphi(g)$ and $\varphi(f)$ is a perfect power if and only if $f{}$ is a perfect power. [i]Note:[/i] A polynomial $f\in \mathbb{Z}[x]$ is a perfect power if $f = g^n$ for some $g\in \mathbb{Z}[x]$ and $n\geqslant 2.$ [i]Proposed by Pavel Ciurea[/i]
Prove that the polynomial $x^{1999}+x^{1998}+...+x^3+x^2+ax+b$ for any real values of the coefficients $a>b>0$ does not have an integer root.
Find the coefficient of $x$ in the expansion of $(1 + x)(1 - 2x)(1 + 3x)(1 - 4x) ...(1 - 2008x)$.
Let $f(x) = x^2 + 2018x + 1$. Let $f_1(x)=f(x)$ and $f_k(x)=f(f_{k-1}(x))$ for all $k\geqslant 2$. Prove that for any positive integer $n{}$, the equation $f_n(x)=0$ has at least two distinct real roots.
Find a non-zero polynomial $f(x, y)$ such that $f(\lfloor 3t \rfloor, \lfloor 5t \rfloor) = 0$ for all real numbers $t$.
Let $p(x)$ be a polynomial of degree $n$ with real coefficients such that $p(x) \ge 0$ for all $x$. Prove that $p(x)+ p'(x)+ p''(x)+...+ p^{(n)}(x) \ge 0$.
Let $n\ge 1$ be a fixed integer. Calculate the distance $\inf_{p,f}\, \max_{0\le x\le 1} |f(x)-p(x)|$ , where $p$ runs over polynomials of degree less than $n$ with real coefficients and $f$ runs over functions $f(x)= \sum_{k=n}^{\infty} c_k x^k$ defined on the closed interval $[0,1]$ , where $c_k \ge 0$ and $\sum_{k=n}^{\infty} c_k=1$.
Whether exist set $A$ that contain 2016 real numbers (some of them may be equal) not all of which equal 0 such that next statement holds. For arbitrary 1008-element subset of $A$ there is a monic polynomial of degree 1008 such that elements of this subset are roots of the polynomial and other 1008 elements of $A$ are coefficients of this polynomial's degrees from 0 to 1007.
Prove that if $a$ and $b$ are positive integers and $ab>1$, then \[\left\lfloor\frac{(a-b)^2-1}{ab}\right\rfloor=\left\lfloor\frac{(a-b)^2-1}{ab-1}\right\rfloor.\]Here $\lfloor x\rfloor$ denotes the greatest integer not exceeding $x$. [i]Calvin Deng.[/i]
Baron Munchausen presented a new theorem: if a polynomial $x^{n} - ax^{n-1} + bx^{n-2}+ \dots$ has $n$ positive integer roots then there exist $a$ lines in the plane such that they have exactly $b$ intersection points. Is the baron’s theorem true?
Consider all cubic polynomials $f(x)$ such that $f(2018)=2018$, the graph of $f$ intersects the $y$-axis at height $2018$, the coefficients of $f$ sum to $2018$, and $f(2019)>(2018)$. We define the infinimum of a set $S$ as follows. Let $L$ be the set of lower bounds of $S$. That is, $\ell\in L$ if and only if for all $s\in S$, $\ell\leq s$. Then the infinimum of $S$ is $\max(L)$. Of all such $f(x)$, what is the infinimum of the leading coefficient (the coefficient of the $x^3$ term)?
A positive integer $N$ is called [i]balanced[/i], if $N=1$ or if $N$ can be written as a product of an even number of not necessarily distinct primes. Given positive integers $a$ and $b$, consider the polynomial $P$ defined by $P(x)=(x+a)(x+b)$. (a) Prove that there exist distinct positive integers $a$ and $b$ such that all the number $P(1)$, $P(2)$,$\ldots$, $P(50)$ are balanced. (b) Prove that if $P(n)$ is balanced for all positive integers $n$, then $a=b$. [i]Proposed by Jorge Tipe, Peru[/i]
Let $k,n$ and $r$ be positive integers. (a) Let $Q(x)=x^k+a_1x^{k+1}+\cdots+a_nx^{k+n}$ be a polynomial with real coefficients. Show that the function $\frac{Q(x)}{x^k}$ is strictly positive for all real $x$ satisfying $$0<|x|<\frac1{1+\sum\limits_{i=1}^n |a_i|}$$ (b) Let $P(x)=b_0+b_1x+\cdots+b_rx^r$ be a non zero polynomial with real coefficients. Let $m$ be the smallest number such that $b_m \neq 0$. Prove that the graph of $y=P(x)$ cuts the $x$-axis at the origin (i.e., $P$ changes signs at $x=0$) if and only if $m$ is an odd integer.