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 $P(x)=x^{100}+20x^{99}+198x^{98}+a_{97}x^{97}+\ldots+a_1x+1$ be a polynomial where the $a_i~(1\le i\le97)$ are real numbers. Prove that the equation $P(x)=0$ has at least one nonreal root.
Does there exist a second-degree polynomial $p(x, y)$ in two variables such that every non-negative integer $ n $ equals $p(k,m)$ for one and only one ordered pair $(k,m)$ of non-negative integers? [i]Proposed by Finland.[/i]
The polynomial $P(x)=x^3+ax+1$ has exactly one solution on the interval $[-2,0)$ and has exactly one solution on the interval $(0,1]$ where $a$ is a real number. Which of the followings cannot be equal to $P(2)$? $ \textbf{(A)}\ \sqrt{17} \qquad\textbf{(B)}\ \sqrt[3]{30} \qquad\textbf{(C)}\ \sqrt{26}-1 \qquad\textbf{(D)}\ \sqrt {30} \qquad\textbf{(E)}\ \sqrt [3]{10} $
You are given $N$ such that $ n \ge 3$. We call a set of $N$ points on a plane acceptable if their abscissae are unique, and each of the points is coloured either red or blue. Let's say that a polynomial $P(x)$ divides a set of acceptable points either if there are no red dots above the graph of $P(x)$, and below, there are no blue dots, or if there are no blue dots above the graph of $P(x)$ and there are no red dots below. Keep in mind, dots of both colors can be present on the graph of $P(x)$ itself. For what least value of k is an arbitrary set of $N$ points divisible by a polynomial of degree $k$?
Let $P$ be a polynomial with integer coefficients such that $P(0)=0$ and \[\gcd(P(0), P(1), P(2), \ldots ) = 1.\] Show there are infinitely many $n$ such that \[\gcd(P(n)- P(0), P(n+1)-P(1), P(n+2)-P(2), \ldots) = n.\]
Let $n > 1$ be an integer. In a circular arrangement of $n$ lamps $L_0, \ldots, L_{n-1},$ each of of which can either ON or OFF, we start with the situation where all lamps are ON, and then carry out a sequence of steps, $Step_0, Step_1, \ldots .$ If $L_{j-1}$ ($j$ is taken mod $n$) is ON then $Step_j$ changes the state of $L_j$ (it goes from ON to OFF or from OFF to ON) but does not change the state of any of the other lamps. If $L_{j-1}$ is OFF then $Step_j$ does not change anything at all. Show that: (i) There is a positive integer $M(n)$ such that after $M(n)$ steps all lamps are ON again, (ii) If $n$ has the form $2^k$ then all the lamps are ON after $n^2-1$ steps, (iii) If $n$ has the form $2^k + 1$ then all lamps are ON after $n^2 - n + 1$ steps.
Let $A\in \mathcal{M}_2(\mathbb{R})$ such that $\det(A)=d\neq 0$ and $\det(A+dA^*)=0$. Prove that $\det(A-dA^*)=4$. [i]Daniel Jinga[/i]
For a prime $p$, let $\mathbb{F}_p$ denote the integers modulo $p$, and let $\mathbb{F}_p[x]$ be the set of polynomials with coefficients in $\mathbb{F}_p$. Find all $p$ for which there exists a quartic polynomial $P(x) \in \mathbb{F}_p[x]$ such that for all integers $k$, there exists some integer $\ell$ such that $P(\ell) \equiv k \pmod p$. (Note that there are $p^4(p-1)$ quartic polynomials in $\mathbb{F}_p[x]$ in total.) [i]Aprameya Tripathy[/i]
A large equilateral triangle is constructed by using toothpicks to create rows of small equilateral triangles. For example, in the figure we have $ 3$ rows of small congruent equilateral triangles, with $ 5$ small triangles in the base row. How many toothpicks would be needed to construct a large equilateral triangle if the base row of the triangle consists of $ 2003$ small equilateral triangles? [asy]unitsize(15mm); defaultpen(linewidth(.8pt)+fontsize(8pt)); pair Ap=(0,0), Bp=(1,0), Cp=(2,0), Dp=(3,0), Gp=dir(60); pair Fp=shift(Gp)*Bp, Ep=shift(Gp)*Cp; pair Hp=shift(Gp)*Gp, Ip=shift(Gp)*Fp; pair Jp=shift(Gp)*Hp; pair[] points={Ap,Bp,Cp,Dp,Ep,Fp,Gp,Hp,Ip,Jp}; draw(Ap--Dp--Jp--cycle); draw(Gp--Bp--Ip--Hp--Cp--Ep--cycle); for(pair p : points) { fill(circle(p, 0.07),white); } pair[] Cn=new pair[5]; Cn[0]=centroid(Ap,Bp,Gp); Cn[1]=centroid(Gp,Bp,Fp); Cn[2]=centroid(Bp,Fp,Cp); Cn[3]=centroid(Cp,Fp,Ep); Cn[4]=centroid(Cp,Ep,Dp); label("$1$",Cn[0]); label("$2$",Cn[1]); label("$3$",Cn[2]); label("$4$",Cn[3]); label("$5$",Cn[4]); for (pair p : Cn) { draw(circle(p,0.1)); }[/asy] $ \textbf{(A)}\ 1,\!004,\!004 \qquad \textbf{(B)}\ 1,\!005,\!006 \qquad \textbf{(C)}\ 1,\!507,\!509 \qquad \textbf{(D)}\ 3,\!015,\!018 \qquad \textbf{(E)}\ 6,\!021,\!018$
Find all possible values of $ x_0$ and $ x_1$ such that the sequence defined by: $ x_{n\plus{}1}\equal{}\frac{x_{n\minus{}1} x_n}{3x_{n\minus{}1}\minus{}2x_n}$ for $ n \ge 1$ contains infinitely many natural numbers.
Let $P(x)$ be a polynomial with integer coefficient such that $P(1) = 10$ and $P(-1) = 22$. (a) Give an example of $P(x)$ such that $P(x) = 0$ has an integer root. (b) Suppose that $P(0) = 4$, prove that $P(x) = 0$ does not have an integer root.
Let $P(x)=kx^3+2k^2x^2+k^3$. Find the sum of all real numbers $k$ for which $x-2$ is a factor of $P(x)$. $\textbf{(A) }-8\qquad\textbf{(B) }-4\qquad\textbf{(C) }0\qquad\textbf{(D) }5\qquad\textbf{(E) }8$
Let $P(x)$ be a polynomial of degree $n$ such that $P(x)=Q(x)P^{\prime\prime}(x)$, where $Q(x)$ is a quadratic polynomial and $P^{\prime\prime}(x)$ is the second derivative of $P(x)$. Show that if $P(x)$ has at least two distinct roots then it must have $n$ distinct roots.
Let $ P(x)$ be a polynomial with integer coefficients such that \[ P(m_1) \equal{} P(m_2) \equal{} P(m_3) \equal{} P(m_4) \equal{} 7\] for given distinct integers $ m_1,m_2,m_3,$ and $ m_4.$ Show that there is no integer m such that $ P(m) \equal{} 14.$
a) Let $ax^3 + bx^2 + cx + d$ be divisible by $5$ for given positive integers $a, b, c, d$ and any integer $x$. Prove that $a, b, c$ and $d$ are all divisible by $5$. b) Let $ax^4 + bx^3 + cx^2 + dx + e$ be divisible by $7$ for given positive integers $a, b, c, d, e$ and all integers $x$. Prove that $a, b, c, d$ and $e$ are all divisible by $7$.
Let $n$ be an odd number larger than 1, and $f(x)$ is a polynomial with degree $n$ such that $f(k)=2^k$ for $k=0,1,\cdots,n$. Prove that there is only finite integer $x$ such that $f(x)$ is the power of two.
Let $p$ and $q$ be complex polynomials with $\deg p>\deg q$ and let $f(z)=\frac{p(z)}{q(z)}$. Suppose that all roots of $p$ lie inside the unit circle $|z|=1$ and that all roots of $q$ lie outside the unit circle. Prove that $$\max_{|z|=1}|f'(z)|>\frac{\deg p-\deg q}2\max_{|z|=1}|f(z)|.$$
For a given positive integer $n$ and prime number $p$, find the minimum value of positive integer $m$ that satisfies the following property: for any polynomial $$f(x)=(x+a_1)(x+a_2)\ldots(x+a_n)$$ ($a_1,a_2,\ldots,a_n$ are positive integers), and for any non-negative integer $k$, there exists a non-negative integer $k'$ such that $$v_p(f(k))<v_p(f(k'))\leq v_p(f(k))+m.$$ Note: for non-zero integer $N$,$v_p(N)$ is the largest non-zero integer $t$ that satisfies $p^t\mid N$.
[b]p1.[/b] What is $(2 + 4 + ... + 20) - (1 + 3 + ...+ 19)$? [b]p2.[/b] Two ants start on opposite vertices of a dodecagon ($12$-gon). Each second, they randomly move to an adjacent vertex. What is the probability they meet after four moves? [b]p3.[/b] How many distinct $8$-letter strings can be made using $8$ of the $9$ letters from the words $FORK$ and $KNIFE$ (e.g., $FORKNIFE$)? [b]p4.[/b] Let $ABC$ be an equilateral triangle with side length $8$ and let $D$ be a point on segment $BC$ such that $BD = 2$. Given that $E$ is the midpoint of $AD$, what is the value of $CE^2 - BE^2$? [b][color=#f00](mistyped p4)[/color][/b] Let $ABC$ be an equilateral triangle with side length $8$ and let $D$ be a point on segment $BC$ such that $BD = 2$. Given that $E$ is the midpoint of $AD$, what is the value of $CE^2 + BE^2$? [b]p5.[/b] You have two fair six-sided dice, one labeled $1$ to $6$, and for the other one, each face is labeled $1$, $2$, $3$, or $4$ (not necessarily all numbers are used). Let $p$ be the probability that when the two dice are rolled, the number on the special die is smaller than the number on the normal die. Given that $p = 1/2$, how many distinct combinations of $1$, $2$, $3$, $4$ can appear on the special die? The arrangement of the numbers on the die does not matter. [b]p6.[/b] Let $\omega_1$ and $\omega_2$ be two circles with centers $A$ and $B$ and radii $3$ and $13$, respectively. Suppose $AB = 10$ and that $C$ is the midpoint of $AB$. Let $\ell$ be a line that passes through $C$ and is tangent to $\omega_1$ at $P$. Given that $\ell$ intersects $\omega_2$ at $X$ and $Y$ such that $XP < Y P$, what is $XP$? [b]p7.[/b] Let $f(x)$ be a cubic polynomial. Given that $f(1) = 13$, $f(4) = 19$, $f(7) = 7$, and $f(10) = 13$, find $f(13)$. [b]p8.[/b] For all integers $0 \le n \le 202$ not divisible by seven, define $f(n) = \{\sqrt{7n}\}$. For what value $n$ does $f(n)$ take its minimum value? (Note: $\{x\} = x - \lfloor x \rfloor$, where $\lfloor x \rfloor$ is the greatest integer less than or equal to $x$.) [b]p9.[/b] Let $ABC$ be a triangle with $AB = 14$ and $AC = 25$. Let the incenter of $ABC$ be $I$. Let line $AI$ intersect the circumcircle of $BIC$ at $D$ (different from $I$). Given that line $DC$ is tangent to the circumcircle of $ABC$, find the area of triangle $BCD$. [b]p10.[/b] Evaluate the infinite sum $$\frac{4^2 + 3}{1 \cdot 3 \cdot 5 \cdot 7} +\frac{6^2 + 3}{3 \cdot 5 \cdot 7 \cdot 9}+\frac{8^2 + 3}{5 \cdot 7 \cdot 9 \cdot 11}+ ...$$ PS. You should use hide for answers. Collected [url=https://artofproblemsolving.com/community/c5h2760506p24143309]here[/url].
Prove that, for any positive integer $n$, there exists a polynomial $p(x)$ of degree at most $n$ whose coefficients are all integers such that, $p(k)$ is divisible by $2^n$ for every even integer $k$, and $p(k) -1$ is divisible by $2^n$ for every odd integer $k$.
Let $ n>4$ be a positive integer such that $ n$ is composite (not a prime) and divides $ \varphi (n) \sigma (n) \plus{}1$, where $ \varphi (n)$ is the Euler's totient function of $ n$ and $ \sigma (n)$ is the sum of the positive divisors of $ n$. Prove that $ n$ has at least three distinct prime factors.
We say that a function $f:\mathbb{R}^k \rightarrow \mathbb{R}$ is a metapolynomial if, for some positive integers $m$ and $n$, it can be represented in the form \[f(x_1,\cdots , x_k )=\max_{i=1,\cdots , m} \min_{j=1,\cdots , n}P_{i,j}(x_1,\cdots , x_k),\] where $P_{i,j}$ are multivariate polynomials. Prove that the product of two metapolynomials is also a metapolynomial.
Let $p$ be a prime and $P\in \mathbb{R}[x]$ be a polynomial of degree less than $p-1$ such that $\lvert P(1)\rvert=\lvert P(2)\rvert=\ldots=\lvert P(p)\rvert$. Prove that $P$ is constant.
Define a function $f:\mathbb{N}\rightarrow\mathbb{N}$, \[f(1)=p+1,\] \[f(n+1)=f(1)\cdot f(2)\cdots f(n)+p,\] where $p$ is a prime number. Find all $p$ such that there exists a natural number $k$ such that $f(k)$ is a perfect square.
Let $ f(x) \equal{} x^3 \plus{} x \plus{} 1$. Suppose $ g$ is a cubic polynomial such that $ g(0) \equal{} \minus{} 1$, and the roots of $ g$ are the squares of the roots of $ f$. Find $ g(9)$.