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: 1239

A sequence $x_1, x_2, \ldots$ is defined by $x_1 = 1$ and $x_{2k}=-x_k, x_{2k-1} = (-1)^{k+1}x_k$ for all $k \geq 1.$ Prove that $\forall n \geq 1$ $x_1 + x_2 + \ldots + x_n \geq 0.$ [i]Proposed by Gerhard Wöginger, Austria[/i]
Find all positive integers $n$ such that there exists a sequence of positive integers $a_1$, $a_2$,$\ldots$, $a_n$ satisfying: \[a_{k+1}=\frac{a_k^2+1}{a_{k-1}+1}-1\] for every $k$ with $2\leq k\leq n-1$. [i]Proposed by North Korea[/i]
Let $a_1 , b_1 , c_1$ be positive real numbers whose sum is $1,$ and for $n=1, 2, \ldots$ we define $$a_{n+1}= a_{n}^{2} +2 b_n c_n, \;\;\;b_{n+1}= b_{n}^{2} +2 a_n c_n, \;\;\; c_{n+1}= c_{n}^{2} +2 a_n b_n.$$ Show that $a_n , b_n ,c_n$ approach limits as $n\to \infty$ and find those limits.
Let $m, n$ be positive integers. Consider a sequence of positive integers $a_1, a_2, ... , a_n$ that satisfies $m = a_1 \ge a_2\ge ... \ge a_n \ge 1$. Then define, for $1\le  i\le  m$, $b_i =$ # $\{ j \in \{1, 2, ... , n\}: a_j \ge i\}$, so $b_i$ is the number of terms $a_j $ of the given sequence for which $a_j  \ge i$. Similarly, we define, for $1\le   j \le  n$, $c_j=$ # $\{ i \in \{1, 2, ... , m\}: b_i \ge j\}$ , thus $c_j$ is the number of terms bi in the given sequence for which $b_i \ge j$. E.g.: If $a$ is the sequence $5, 3, 3, 2, 1, 1$ then $b$ is the sequence $6, 4, 3, 1, 1$. (a) Prove that $a_j = c_j $ for $1  \le j  \le n$. (b) Prove that for $1\le  k \le m$: $\sum_{i=1}^{k} b_i = k \cdot b_k + \sum_{j=b_{k+1}}^{n} a_j$.
Let $n > 1$ be a given integer. Prove that infinitely many terms of the sequence $(a_k )_{k\ge 1}$, defined by \[a_k=\left\lfloor\frac{n^k}{k}\right\rfloor,\] are odd. (For a real number $x$, $\lfloor x\rfloor$ denotes the largest integer not exceeding $x$.) [i]Proposed by Hong Kong[/i]
Consider the infinite, strictly increasing sequence of positive integer $(a_n)$ such that i. All terms of sequences are pairwise coprime. ii. The sum $\frac{1}{\sqrt{a_1a_2}} +\frac{1}{\sqrt{a_2a_3}}+ \frac{1}{\sqrt{a_3a_4}} + ..$ is unbounded. Prove that this sequence contains infinitely many primes.
Consider the sequence of rational numbers defined by $x_1=\frac{4}{3}$, and $x_{n+1}=\frac{x_n^2}{x_n^2-x_n+1}$. Show that the nu,erator of the lowest term expression of each sum $x_1+x_2+...+x_k$ is a perfect square.
Let $0<f(1)<f(2)<f(3)<\ldots$ a sequence with all its terms positive$.$ The $n-th$ positive integer which doesn't belong to the sequence is $f(f(n))+1.$ Find $f(240).$
Consider the following sequence $$(a_n)_{n=1}^{\infty}=(1,1,2,1,2,3,1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4,5,1,\dots)$$ Find all pairs $(\alpha, \beta)$ of positive real numbers such that $\lim_{n\to \infty}\frac{\displaystyle\sum_{k=1}^n a_k}{n^{\alpha}}=\beta$. (Proposed by Tomas Barta, Charles University, Prague)
Do there exist a positive integer $k$ and a non-constant sequence $a_1, a_2, a_3, ...$ of positive integers such that $a_n = gcd(a_{n+k}, a_{n+k+1})$ for all positive integers $n$?
Let $a_1=2020$ and let $a_{n+1}=\sqrt{2020+a_n}$ for $n\ge 1$. How much is $\left\lfloor a_{2020}\right\rfloor$? Note: $\lfloor x\rfloor$ denotes the integer part of a number, that is that is, the immediate integer less than $x$. For example, $\lfloor 2.71\rfloor=2$ and $\lfloor \pi\rfloor=3$.
For non-negative real numbers $a,$ $b$ let $A(a, b)$ be their arithmetic mean and $G(a, b)$ their geometric mean. We consider the sequence $\langle a_n \rangle$ with $a_0 = 0,$ $a_1 = 1$ and $a_{n+1} = A(A(a_{n-1}, a_n), G(a_{n-1}, a_n))$ for $n > 0.$ (a) Show that each $a_n = b^2_n$ is the square of a rational number (with $b_n \geq 0$). (b) Show that the inequality $\left|b_n - \frac{2}{3}\right| < \frac{1}{2^n}$ holds for all $n > 0.$
The sequence $ \{a_n\}$ of integers is defined by \[ a_1 \equal{} 2, a_2 \equal{} 7 \] and \[ \minus{} \frac {1}{2} < a_{n \plus{} 1} \minus{} \frac {a^2_n}{a_{n \minus{} 1}} \leq \frac {}{}, n \geq 2. \] Prove that $ a_n$ is odd for all $ n > 1.$
Positive integers $a_0<a_1<\dots<a_n$, are to be chosen so that $a_j-a_i$ is not a prime for any $i,j$ with $0 \le i <j \le n$. For each $n \ge 1$, determine the smallest possible value of $a_n$.
Let $\alpha > 0$ be a real number. Compute the limit of the sequence $\{x_n\}_{n\geq 1}$ defined by $$x_n=\begin{cases} \sum \limits_{k=1}^n \sinh \left(\frac{k}{n^2}\right),& \text{when}\ n>\frac{1}{\alpha}\\ 0,& \text{when}\ n\leq \frac{1}{\alpha}\end{cases}$$
$x_1=\frac{1}{2}$ and $x_{k+1}=\frac{x_k}{x_1^2+...+x_k^2}$ Prove that $\sqrt{x_k^4+4\frac{x_{k-1}}{x_{k+1}}}$ is rational
Let $\{a_n\}^\infty_{n=0}$ be the sequence of integers such that $a_0=1$, $a_1=1$, $a_{n+2}=2a_{n+1}-2a_n$. Decide whether $$a_n=\sum_{k=0}^{\left\lfloor\frac n2\right\rfloor}\binom n{2k}(-1)^k.$$
The terms of a sequence $(T_n)$ satisfy $T_n T_{n+1} =n$ for all positive integers $n$ and $$\lim_{n\to \infty} \frac{ T_{n} }{ T_{n+1}}=1.$$ Show that $ \pi T_{1}^{2}=2.$
Let $k$ be a fixed integer greater than 1, and let ${m=4k^2-5}$. Show that there exist positive integers $a$ and $b$ such that the sequence $(x_n)$ defined by \[x_0=a,\quad x_1=b,\quad x_{n+2}=x_{n+1}+x_n\quad\text{for}\quad n=0,1,2,\dots,\] has all of its terms relatively prime to $m$. [i]Proposed by Jaroslaw Wroblewski, Poland[/i]
Consider any sequence of real numbers $a_0$, $a_1$, $\cdots$. If, for all pairs of nonnegative integers $(m, s)$, there exists some integer $n \in [m+1, m+2024(s+1)]$ satisfying $a_m+a_{m+1}+\cdots+a_{m+s}=a_n+a_{n+1}+\cdots+a_{n+s}$, say that this sequence has [i]repeating sums[/i]. Is a sequence with repeating sums always eventually periodic?
The sequence $a_1, a_2, a_3,...$ is defined so that $a_1 = 1$ and $a_{n+1} =\frac{a_1 + a_2 + ...+ a_n}{n}+1$ for $n \ge 1$. Show that for every positive real number $b$ we can find $a_k$ so that $a_k < bk$.
A deck consists of $2^n$ cards. The deck is shuffled using the following operation: if the cards are initially in the order $a_1,a_2,a_3,a_4,...,a_{2^n-1},a_{2^n}$ then after shuffling the order becomes $a_{2^{n-1}+1},a_1,a_{2^{n-1}+2},a_2,...,a_{2^n},a_{2^{n-1}}$ . Find the smallest number of such operations after which the original order of the cards is restored. (R. Palm)
Let $a$ be a positive integer and let $\{a_n\}$ be defined by $a_0 = 0$ and \[a_{n+1 }= (a_n + 1)a + (a + 1)a_n + 2 \sqrt{a(a + 1)a_n(a_n + 1)} \qquad (n = 1, 2 ,\dots ).\] Show that for each positive integer $n$, $a_n$ is a positive integer.
Let $(a_i)_{i\in \mathbb{N}}$ be a sequence with $a_1=\frac{3}2$ such that $$a_{n+1}=1+\frac{n}{a_n}$$ Find $n$ such that $2020\le a_n <2021$
Let $\mathbb{N}_0$ denote the set of non-negative integers. Determine all non-negative integers $k$ for which there exists a function $f: \mathbb{N}_0 \to \mathbb{N}_0$ such that $f(2024) = k$ and $f(f(n)) \leq f(n+1) - f(n)$ for all non-negative integers $n$.