Found problems: 1239
Let $a_1, a_2,...,a_{2018}$ be a sequence of numbers such that all its elements are elements of a set $\{-1,1\}$. Sum
$$S=\sum \limits_{1 \leq i < j \leq 2018} a_i a_j$$ can be negative and can also be positive. Find the minimal value of this sum
Let be a natural number $ k $ and let be two infinite sequences $ \left( x_n \right)_{n\ge 1} ,\left( y_n \right)_{n\ge 1} $ such that
$$ \{1\}\cap\{ x_1,x_2,\ldots ,x_k\}=\{1\}\cap\{ y_1,y_2,\ldots ,y_k\} =\{ x_1,x_2,\ldots ,x_k\}\cap\{ y_1,y_2,\ldots ,y_k\} =\emptyset , $$
and defined by the following recurrence relations:
$$ x_{n+k}=\frac{y_n}{x_n} ,\quad y_{n+k} =\frac{y_n-1}{x_n-1} $$
Prove that $ \left( x_n \right)_{n\ge 1} $ and $ \left( y_n \right)_{n\ge 1} $ are periodic.
[i]Dumitru Acu[/i]
Consider two finite sequences of real numbers \( a_1, a_2, \dots, a_n \) and \( b_1, b_2, \dots, b_n \). Let \( \alpha(x) = \#\{i | a_i = x \} \) and \( \beta(x) = \#\{i | b_i = -x \} \). Prove that there exists a permutation \( \sigma \in S_n \) (the symmetric group of \( n \) elements) such that \( a_{\sigma(i)} + b_i \neq 0 \) for all \( i = 1, \dots, n \) if and only if \( \alpha(x) + \beta(x) \leq n \) for all \( x \in \mathbb{R} \).
Let $n\ge 2$ be a natural number. Let $a_1\le a_2\le a_3\le \cdots \le a_n$ be real numbers such that $a_1+a_2+\cdots +a_n>0$ and $n(a_1^2+a_2^2+\cdots +a_n^2)=2(a_1+a_2+\cdots +a_n)^2.$ If $m=\lfloor n/2\rfloor+1$, the smallest integer larger than $n/2$, then show that $a_m>0.$
Let $\{a_n\}$ be a sequence of positive integers such that $a_{n+1} = a_n^2+1$ for all $n \geq 1$. Prove that there is no positive integer $N$ such that $$\prod_{k=1}^N(a_k^2+a_k+1)$$ is a perfect square.
Two sequences $(a_k)_{k\ge 0}$ and $(b_k)_{k\ge 0}$ of integers are given by $b_k = a_k + 9$ and $a_{k+1} = 8b_k + 8$ for $k\ge 0$. Suppose that the number $1988$ occurs in one of these sequences. Show that the sequence $(a_k)$ does not contain any nonzero perfect square.
The sequence $(a_n)$ is defined by $a_1 = 1$ and $a_{n+1} = \sqrt{a_n^2 +\frac{1}{a_n}}$ for $n \ge 1$.
Prove that there exists $a$ such that $\frac{1}{2} \le \frac{a_n}{n^a} \le 2$ for $n \ge 1$.
Let $ \left( a_n \right)_{n\ge 1} $ be a sequence of real numbers such that $ a_1>2 $ and $ a_{n+1} =a_1+\frac{2}{a_n} , $ for all natural numbers $ n. $
[b]a)[/b] Show that $ a_{2n-1} +a_{2n} >4 , $ for all natural numbers $ n, $ and $ \lim_{n\to\infty} a_n =2. $
[b]b)[/b] Find the biggest real number $ a $ for which the following inequality is true:
$$ \sqrt{x^2+a_1^2} +\sqrt{x^2+a_2^2} +\sqrt{x^2+a_3^2} +\cdots +\sqrt{x^2+a_n^2} > n\sqrt{x^2+a^2}, \quad\forall x\in\mathbb{R} ,\quad\forall n\in\mathbb{N} . $$
Let $n$ be an integer greater than $1$. Define
\[x_1 = n, y_1 = 1, x_{i+1} =\left[ \frac{x_i+y_i}{2}\right] , y_{i+1} = \left[ \frac{n}{x_{i+1}}\right], \qquad \text{for }i = 1, 2, \ldots\ ,\]
where $[z]$ denotes the largest integer less than or equal to $z$. Prove that
\[ \min \{x_1, x_2, \ldots, x_n \} =[ \sqrt n ]\]
Prove that for all $a, b$ and $x_0$ positive integers, in the sequence $x_1, x_2, x_3, \cdots$ defined by
$$x_{n+1}=ax_n+b, n\geq 0$$
Exist an $x_i$ that is not prime for some $i\geq 1$
Define the polymonial sequence $\left \{ f_n\left ( x \right ) \right \}_{n\ge 1}$ with $f_1\left ( x \right )=1$, $$f_{2n}\left ( x \right )=xf_n\left ( x \right ), \; f_{2n+1}\left ( x \right ) = f_n\left ( x \right )+ f_{n+1} \left ( x \right ), \; n\ge 1.$$ Look for all the rational number $a$ which is a root of certain $f_n\left ( x \right ).$
For which integers $n \geq 4$ is the following procedure possible? Remove one number of the integers $1,2,3,\dots,n+1$ and arrange them in a sequence $a_1,a_2,\dots,a_n$ such that of the $n$ numbers \[ |a_1-a_2|,|a_2-a_3|,\dots,|a_{n-1}-a_n|,|a_n-a_1| \] no two are equal.
Indians find those sequences of non-negative real numbers $x_0, x_1,...$ [i]mystical [/i]t hat satisfy $x_0 < 2021$, $x_{i+1} = \lfloor x_i \rfloor \{x_i\}$ for every $i \ge 0$, furthermore the sequence contains an integer different from $0$. How many sequences are mystical according to the Indians?
Suppose we have four real numbers $a,b,c,d$ such that $a$ is nonzero, $a,b,c$ form a geometric sequence, in that order, and $b,c,d$ form an arithmetic sequence, in that order. Compute the smallest possible value of $\frac{d}{a}.$ (A geometric sequence is one where every succeeding term can be written as the previous term multiplied by a constant, and an arithmetic sequence is one where every succeeeding term can be written as the previous term added to a constant.)
Let $p$ be a prime. How many different (infinite) sequences $\left(a_k\right)_{k\ge0}$ exist such that for every positive integer $n$ \[\frac{a_0}{a_1}+\frac{a_0}{a_2}+\cdots+\frac{a_0}{a_n}+\frac{p}{a_{n+1}}=1?\]
For a positive integer $K$, de fine a sequence, $\{a_n\}$, as following: $a_1 = K$ and
$a_{n+1} =a_n -1$ if $a_n$ is even
$a_{n+1} =\frac{a_n - 1}{2}$ if $a_n$ is odd , for all $n \ge 1$.
Find the smallest value of $K$, which makes $a_{2005}$ the first term equal to $0$.
A sequence $\{an\}$ of positive integers is defined by
\[a_n=\left[ n +\sqrt n + \frac 12 \right] , \qquad \forall n \in \mathbb N\]
Determine the positive integers that occur in the sequence.
Let $b$ and $c$ be real numbers not both equal to $1$ such that $1,b,c$ is an arithmetic progression and $1,c,b$ is a geometric progression. What is $100(b-c)$?
[i]Proposed by Noah Kravitz[/i]
Given a finite sequence of integers $a_{1},$ $a_{2},$ $...,$ $a_{n}$ for $n\geq 2.$ Show that there exists a subsequence $a_{k_{1}},$ $a_{k_{2}},$ $...,$ $a_{k_{m}},$ where $1\leq k_{1}\leq k_{2}\leq...\leq k_{m}\leq n,$ such that the number $a_{k_{1}}^{2}+a_{k_{2}}^{2}+...+a_{k_{m}}^{2}$ is divisible by
$n.$
[b]Note by Darij:[/b] Of course, the $1\leq k_{1}\leq k_{2}\leq ...\leq k_{m}\leq n$ should be understood as $1\leq k_{1}<k_{2}<...<k_{m}\leq n;$ else, we could take $m=n$ and $k_{1}=k_{2}=...=k_{m},$ so that the number $a_{k_{1}}^{2}+a_{k_{2}}^{2}+...+a_{k_{m}}^{2}=n^{2}a_{k_{1}}^{2}$ will surely be divisible by $n.$
Given a positive integer $k$ show that there exists a prime $p$ such that one can choose distinct integers $a_1,a_2\cdots, a_{k+3} \in \{1, 2, \cdots ,p-1\}$ such that p divides $a_ia_{i+1}a_{i+2}a_{i+3}-i$ for all $i= 1, 2, \cdots, k$.
[i]South Africa [/i]
Let $\mathcal{S}$ be a set consisting of $n \ge 3$ positive integers, none of which is a sum of two other distinct members of $\mathcal{S}$. Prove that the elements of $\mathcal{S}$ may be ordered as $a_1, a_2, \dots, a_n$ so that $a_i$ does not divide $a_{i - 1} + a_{i + 1}$ for all $i = 2, 3, \dots, n - 1$.
We say that each positive number $x$ has two sons: $x+1$ and $\frac{x}{x+1}$. Characterize all the descendants of number $1$.
For each positive integer $n$, define $a_n = n(n + 1)$. Prove that
$$n^{1/a_1} + n^{1/a_3} + n^{1/a_5} + ...+ n^{1/a_{2n-1}} \ge n^{a_{3n+2}/a_{3n+1}}$$
.
Let $c \ge 2$ be a fixed integer. Let $a_1 = c$ and for all $n \ge 2$ let $a_n = c \cdot \phi (a_{n-1})$. What are the numbers $c$ for which sequence $(a_n)$ will be bounded?
$\phi$ denotes Euler’s Phi Function, meaning that $\phi (n)$ gives the number of integers within the set $\{1, 2, . . . , n\}$ that are relative primes to $n$. We call a sequence $(x_n)$ bounded if there exist a constant $D$ such that $|x_n| < D$ for all positive integers $n$.
Let $a$ be a given positive integer. We consider the sequence $(x_n)_{n \ge 1}$ defined by $x_n=\frac{1}{1+na},$ for every positive integer $n.$
Prove that for any integer $k \ge 3,$ there exist positive integers $n_1<n_2<\ldots<n_k$ such that the numbers $x_{n_1},x_{n_2},\ldots,x_{n_k}$ are consecutive terms in an arithmetic progression.