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: 4275

Let $\alpha$ be the unique real root of the polynomial $x^3-2x^2+x-1$. It is known that $1<\alpha<2$. We define the sequence of polynomials $\left\{{p_n(x)}\right\}_{n\ge0}$ by taking $p_0(x)=x$ and setting \begin{align*} p_{n+1}(x)=(p_n(x))^2-\alpha \end{align*} How many distinct real roots does $p_{10}(x)$ have?
Let $P(x)$ be a polynomial with integer coefficients such that $P(0)=1$, and let $c > 1$ be an integer. Define $x_0=0$ and $x_{i+1} = P(x_i)$ for all integers $i \ge 0$. Show that there are infinitely many positive integers $n$ such that $\gcd (x_n, n+c)=1$. [i]Proposed by Milan Haiman and Carl Schildkraut[/i]
$P(x),Q(x)$ are two polynomials such that $P(x)=Q(x)$ has no real solution, and $P(Q(x))\equiv Q(P(x))\forall x\in\mathbb{R}$. Prove that $P(P(x))=Q(Q(x))$ has no real solution.
Determine all polynomials P(x) with real coefficients such that [(x + 1)P(x − 1) − (x − 1)P(x)] is a constant polynomial.
Let $G$ be the set of polynomials of the form \[P(z)=z^n+c_{n-1}z^{n-1}+\cdots+c_2z^2+c_1z+50,\] where $c_1,c_2,\cdots, c_{n-1}$ are integers and $P(z)$ has $n$ distinct roots of the form $a+ib$ with $a$ and $b$ integers. How many polynomials are in $G$? ${ \textbf{(A)}\ 288\qquad\textbf{(B)}\ 528\qquad\textbf{(C)}\ 576\qquad\textbf{(D}}\ 992\qquad\textbf{(E)}\ 1056 $
Let $n$ be a positive even integer, and let $c_1, c_2, \dots, c_{n-1}$ be real numbers satisfying \[ \sum_{i=1}^{n-1} \left\lvert c_i-1 \right\rvert < 1. \] Prove that \[ 2x^n - c_{n-1}x^{n-1} + c_{n-2}x^{n-2} - \dots - c_1x^1 + 2 \] has no real roots.
The nonzero coefficients of a polynomial $P$ with real coefficients are all replaced by their mean to form a polynomial $Q$. Which of the following could be a graph of $y = P(x)$ and $y = Q(x)$ over the interval $-4\leq x \leq 4$? [asy]//Choice A size(100);defaultpen(linewidth(0.7)+fontsize(8)); real end=4.5; draw((-end,0)--(end,0), EndArrow(5)); draw((0,-end)--(0,end), EndArrow(5)); real ticks=0.2, four=3.7, r=0.1; draw((1,ticks)--(1,-ticks)^^(-1,ticks)--(-1,-ticks)^^(four,ticks)--(four,-ticks)^^(-four,ticks)--(-four,-ticks)); label("$x$", (4,0), N); label("$y$", (0,4), W); label("$-4$", (-4,-ticks), S); label("$-1$", (-1,-ticks), S); label("$1$", (1,-ticks), S); label("$4$", (4,-ticks), S); real f(real x) { return 0.101562 x^4+0.265625 x^3+0.0546875 x^2-0.109375 x+0.125; } real g(real x) { return 0.0625 x^4+0.0520833 x^3-0.21875 x^2-0.145833 x-2.5; } draw(graph(f,-four, four), heavygray); draw(graph(g,-four, four), black); clip((-end-r,-end-r)--(-end-r, end+r)--(end+r,end+r)--(end+r, -end-r)--cycle); label("$\textbf{(A)}$", (-5,4.5)); [/asy] [asy]//Choice B size(100);defaultpen(linewidth(0.7)+fontsize(8)); real end=4.5; draw((-end,0)--(end,0), EndArrow(5)); draw((0,-end)--(0,end), EndArrow(5)); real ticks=0.2, four=3.7, r=0.1; draw((1,ticks)--(1,-ticks)^^(-1,ticks)--(-1,-ticks)^^(four,ticks)--(four,-ticks)^^(-four,ticks)--(-four,-ticks)); label("$x$", (4,0), N); label("$y$", (0,4), W); label("$-4$", (-4,-ticks), S); label("$-1$", (-1,-ticks), S); label("$1$", (1,-ticks), S); label("$4$", (4,-ticks), S); real f(real x) { return 0.541667 x^4+0.458333 x^3-0.510417 x^2-0.927083 x-2; } real g(real x) { return -0.791667 x^4-0.208333 x^3-0.177083 x^2-0.260417 x-1; } draw(graph(f,-four, four), heavygray); draw(graph(g,-four, four), black); clip((-end-r,-end-r)--(-end-r, end+r)--(end+r,end+r)--(end+r, -end-r)--cycle); label("$\textbf{(B)}$", (-5,4.5)); [/asy] [asy]//Choice C size(100);defaultpen(linewidth(0.7)+fontsize(8)); real end=4.5; draw((-end,0)--(end,0), EndArrow(5)); draw((0,-end)--(0,end), EndArrow(5)); real ticks=0.2, four=3.7, r=0.1; draw((1,ticks)--(1,-ticks)^^(-1,ticks)--(-1,-ticks)^^(four,ticks)--(four,-ticks)^^(-four,ticks)--(-four,-ticks)); label("$x$", (4,0), N); label("$y$", (0,4), W); label("$-4$", (-4,-ticks), S); label("$-1$", (-1,-ticks), S); label("$1$", (1,-ticks), S); label("$4$", (4,-ticks), S); real f(real x) { return 0.21875 x^2+0.28125 x+0.5; } real g(real x) { return -0.375 x^2-0.75 x+0.5; } draw(graph(f,-four, four), heavygray); draw(graph(g,-four, four), black); clip((-end-r,-end-r)--(-end-r, end+r)--(end+r,end+r)--(end+r, -end-r)--cycle); label("$\textbf{(C)}$", (-5,4.5)); [/asy] [asy]//Choice D size(100);defaultpen(linewidth(0.7)+fontsize(8)); real end=4.5; draw((-end,0)--(end,0), EndArrow(5)); draw((0,-end)--(0,end), EndArrow(5)); real ticks=0.2, four=3.7, r=0.1; draw((1,ticks)--(1,-ticks)^^(-1,ticks)--(-1,-ticks)^^(four,ticks)--(four,-ticks)^^(-four,ticks)--(-four,-ticks)); label("$x$", (4,0), N); label("$y$", (0,4), W); label("$-4$", (-4,-ticks), S); label("$-1$", (-1,-ticks), S); label("$1$", (1,-ticks), S); label("$4$", (4,-ticks), S); real f(real x) { return 0.015625 x^5-0.244792 x^3+0.416667 x+0.6875; } real g(real x) { return 0.0284722 x^6-0.340278 x^4+0.874306 x^2-1.5625; } real z=3.14; draw(graph(f,-z, z), heavygray); draw(graph(g,-z, z), black); clip((-end-r,-end-r)--(-end-r, end+r)--(end+r,end+r)--(end+r, -end-r)--cycle); label("$\textbf{(D)}$", (-5,4.5)); [/asy] [asy]//Choice E size(100);defaultpen(linewidth(0.7)+fontsize(8)); real end=4.5; draw((-end,0)--(end,0), EndArrow(5)); draw((0,-end)--(0,end), EndArrow(5)); real ticks=0.2, four=3.7, r=0.1; draw((1,ticks)--(1,-ticks)^^(-1,ticks)--(-1,-ticks)^^(four,ticks)--(four,-ticks)^^(-four,ticks)--(-four,-ticks)); label("$x$", (4,0), N); label("$y$", (0,4), W); label("$-4$", (-4,-ticks), S); label("$-1$", (-1,-ticks), S); label("$1$", (1,-ticks), S); label("$4$", (4,-ticks), S); real f(real x) { return 0.026067 x^4-0.0136612 x^3-0.157131 x^2-0.00961796 x+1.21598; } real g(real x) { return -0.166667 x^3+0.125 x^2+0.479167 x-0.375; } draw(graph(f,-four, four), heavygray); draw(graph(g,-four, four), black); clip((-end-r,-end-r)--(-end-r, end+r)--(end+r,end+r)--(end+r, -end-r)--cycle); label("$\textbf{(E)}$", (-5,4.5)); [/asy]
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]
[b]p10.[/b] Three rectangles of dimension $X \times 2$ and four rectangles of dimension $Y \times 1$ are the pieces that form a rectangle of area $3XY$ where $X$ and $Y$ are positive, integer values. What is the sum of all possible values of $X$? [b]p11.[/b] Suppose we have a polynomial $p(x) = x^2 + ax + b$ with real coefficients $a + b = 1000$ and $b > 0$. Find the smallest possible value of $b$ such that $p(x)$ has two integer roots. [b]p12.[/b] Ten square slips of paper of the same size, numbered $0, 1, 2, ..., 9$, are placed into a bag. Four of these squares are then randomly chosen and placed into a two-by-two grid of squares. What is the probability that the numbers in every pair of blocks sharing a side have an absolute difference no greater than two? PS. You should use hide for answers. Collected [url=https://artofproblemsolving.com/community/c5h2760506p24143309]here[/url].
Find all polynomials with integer coefficients $P$ such that for all positive integers $n$, the sequence $$0, P(0), P(P(0)), \cdots$$ is eventually constant modulo $n$. [i]Proposed by Ivan Chan Kai Chin[/i]
Let $p \equiv 2 \pmod 3$ be a prime, $k$ a positive integer and $P(x) = 3x^{\frac{2p-1}{3}}+3x^{\frac{p+1}{3}}+x+1$. For any integer $n$, let $R(n)$ denote the remainder when $n$ is divided by $p$ and let $S = \{0,1,\cdots,p-1\}$. At each step, you can either (a) replaced every element $i$ of $S$ with $R(P(i))$ or (b) replaced every element $i$ of $S$ with $R(i^k)$. Determine all $k$ such that there exists a finite sequence of steps that reduces $S$ to $\{0\}$. [i]Proposed by fattypiggy123[/i]
We say that a set $S$ of integers is [i]rootiful[/i] if, for any positive integer $n$ and any $a_0, a_1, \cdots, a_n \in S$, all integer roots of the polynomial $a_0+a_1x+\cdots+a_nx^n$ are also in $S$. Find all rootiful sets of integers that contain all numbers of the form $2^a - 2^b$ for positive integers $a$ and $b$.
A [i]root of unity[/i] is a complex number that is a solution to $ z^n \equal{} 1$ for some positive integer $ n$. Determine the number of roots of unity that are also roots of $ z^2 \plus{} az \plus{} b \equal{} 0$ for some integers $ a$ and $ b$.
The positive numbers $a, b, c,d,e$ are such that the following identity hold for all real number $x$: $(x + a)(x + b)(x + c) = x^3 + 3dx^2 + 3x + e^3$. Find the smallest value of $d$.
The scores of this problem were: one time 17/20 (by the runner-up) one time 4/20 (by Andrei Negut) one time 1/20 (by the winner) the rest had zero... just to give an idea of the difficulty. Let $A_{i},B_{i},S_{i}$ ($i=1,2,3$) be invertible real $2\times 2$ matrices such that [list][*]not all $A_{i}$ have a common real eigenvector, [*]$A_{i}=S_{i}^{-1}B_{i}S_{i}$ for $i=1,2,3$, [*]$A_{1}A_{2}A_{3}=B_{1}B_{2}B_{3}=I$.[/list] Prove that there is an invertible $2\times 2$ matrix $S$ such that $A_{i}=S^{-1}B_{i}S$ for all $i=1,2,3$.
Prove that the polynomial $P_n(x)=1+x+\frac{x^2}{2!}+\cdots +\frac{x^n}{n!}$ has no real zeros if $n$ is even and has exatly one real zero if $n$ is odd
[b]Problem 3[/b] Let $ P(x) = x^{2015} -2x^{2014}+1$ and $ Q(x) = x^{2015} -2x^{2014}-1$. Determine for each of the polynomials $P$ and $Q$ whether it is a divisor of some nonzero polynomial $c_0 + c_{1}x +\ldots + c_{n}x^n$ n whose coefficients $c_i$ are all in the set $ \{ -1, 1\}$.
For arbitrary non-constant polynomials $f_1(x),\ldots,f_{2018}(x)\in\mathbb Z[x]$, is it always possible to find a polynomial $g(x)\in\mathbb Z[x]$ such that $$f_1(g(x)),\ldots,f_{2018}(g(x))$$are all reducible.
Let $a_1,a_2,\ldots a_n,k$, and $M$ be positive integers such that $$\frac{1}{a_1}+\frac{1}{a_2}+\cdots+\frac{1}{a_n}=k\quad\text{and}\quad a_1a_2\cdots a_n=M.$$ If $M>1$, prove that the polynomial $$P(x)=M(x+1)^k-(x+a_1)(x+a_2)\cdots (x+a_n)$$ has no positive roots.
When $ y^2 \plus{} my \plus{} 2$ is divided by $ y \minus{} 1$ the quotient is $ f(y)$ and the remainder is $ R_1$. When $ y^2 \plus{} my \plus{} 2$ is divided by $ y \plus{} 1$ the quotient is $ g(y)$ and the remainder is $ R_2$. If $ R_1 \equal{} R_2$ then $ m$ is: $ \textbf{(A)}\ 0 \qquad \textbf{(B)}\ 1 \qquad \textbf{(C)}\ 2 \qquad \textbf{(D)}\ \minus{} 1 \qquad \textbf{(E)}\ \text{an undetermined constant}$
Find real $a,b$ such that polynomial $P(x)=x^{n+1}+ax+b$ to be divisible by $(x-1)^2$. Then find the quotient $P(x):(x-1)^2 , n\in \mathbb{N}^*$
Find any polynomial with integer coefficients, the smallest value of which on the entire line is equal to : a) $-\sqrt2$ b) $\sqrt2$
Let $P_0(x)=x^3-4x$. Sequence of polynomials is defined as following:\\ $P_{n+1}=P_n(1+x)P_n(1-x)-1$.\\ Prove that $x^{2016}|P_{2016}(x)$.
Determine all positive integers $n{}$ for which there exist pairwise distinct integers $a_1,\ldots,a_n{}$ and $b_1,\ldots, b_n$ such that \[\prod_{i=1}^n(a_k^2+a_ia_k+b_i)=\prod_{i=1}^n(b_k^2+a_ib_k+b_i)=0, \quad \forall k=1,\ldots,n.\]
Given an integer $n \geq 3$, determine if there are $n$ integers $b_1, b_2, \dots , b_n$, distinct two-by-two (that is, $b_i \neq b_j$ for all $i \neq j$) and a polynomial $P(x)$ with coefficients integers, such that $P(b_1) = b_2, P(b_2) = b_3, \dots , P(b_{n-1}) = b_n$ and $P(b_n) = b_1$.