The first three terms of a geometric sequence are the integers $a,\,720,$ and $b,$ where $a<720<b.$ What is the sum of the digits of the least possible value of $b?$ $\textbf{(A) } 9 \qquad \textbf{(B) } 12 \qquad \textbf{(C) } 16 \qquad \textbf{(D) } 18 \qquad \textbf{(E) } 21$

Assume that $ S\equal{}(a_1, a_2, \cdots, a_n)$ consists of $ 0$ and $ 1$ and is the longest sequence of number, which satisfies the following condition: Every two sections of successive $ 5$ terms in the sequence of numbers $ S$ are different, i.e., for arbitrary $ 1\le i<j\le n\minus{}4$, $ (a_i, a_{i\plus{}1}, a_{i\plus{}2}, a_{i\plus{}3}, a_{i\plus{}4})$ and $ (a_j, a_{j\plus{}1}, a_{j\plus{}2}, a_{j\plus{}3}, a_{j\plus{}4})$ are different. Prove that the first four terms and the last four terms in the sequence are the same.

A sequence of real numbers $\{a_n\}_n$ is called a [i]bs[/i] sequence if $a_n = |a_{n+1} - a_{n+2}|$, for all $n\geq 0$. Prove that a bs sequence is bounded if and only if the function $f$ given by $f(n,k)=a_na_k(a_n-a_k)$, for all $n,k\geq 0$ is the null function. [i]Mihai Baluna - ISL 2004[/i]

Consider sequences that consist entirely of $ A$'s and $ B$'s and that have the property that every run of consecutive $ A$'s has even length, and every run of consecutive $ B$'s has odd length. Examples of such sequences are $ AA$, $ B$, and $ AABAA$, while $ BBAB$ is not such a sequence. How many such sequences have length 14?

We have an infinite sequence of integers $\{x_n\}$, such that $x_1 = 1$, and, for all $n \ge 1$, it holds that $x_n < x_{n+1} \le 2n$. Prove that there are two terms of the sequence,$ x_r$ and $x_s$, such that $x_r - x_s = 2018$.

Let $a_1, a_2, a_3, ...$ be a sequence of positive real numbers. Prove that for any positive integer $n$ the inequality holds $\sum_{i=1}^n b_i^2 \le 4 \sum_{i=1}^n a_i^2$ where $b_i$ is the arithmetic mean of the numbers $a_1, a_2, ..., a_n$

Let $(b_{n})_{n\in \mathbb{N}}$ be a sequence of positive real numbers such that $b_{0}=1$, $b_{n}=2+\sqrt{b_{n-1}}-2\sqrt{1+\sqrt{b_{n-1}}}$. Calculate $$\sum_{n=1}^{\infty}b_{n}2^{n}.$$

Steve is piling $m\geq 1$ indistinguishable stones on the squares of an $n\times n$ grid. Each square can have an arbitrarily high pile of stones. After he finished piling his stones in some manner, he can then perform [i]stone moves[/i], defined as follows. Consider any four grid squares, which are corners of a rectangle, i.e. in positions $(i, k), (i, l), (j, k), (j, l)$ for some $1\leq i, j, k, l\leq n$, such that $i<j$ and $k<l$. A stone move consists of either removing one stone from each of $(i, k)$ and $(j, l)$ and moving them to $(i, l)$ and $(j, k)$ respectively, or removing one stone from each of $(i, l)$ and $(j, k)$ and moving them to $(i, k)$ and $(j, l)$ respectively. Two ways of piling the stones are equivalent if they can be obtained from one another by a sequence of stone moves. How many different non-equivalent ways can Steve pile the stones on the grid?

Let $ X$ the set of all sequences $ \{a_1, a_2,\ldots , a_{2000}\}$, such that each of the first 1000 terms is 0, 1 or 2, and each of the remaining terms is 0 or 1. The [i]distance[/i] between two members $ a$ and $ b$ of $ X$ is defined as the number of $ i$ for which $ a_i$ and $ b_i$ are different. Find the number of functions $ f : X \to X$ which preserve the distance.

Consider $ 2011 $ positive real numbers $ a_1,a_2,\ldots ,a_{2011} . $ If they are in geometric progression, show that there exists a real number $ \lambda $ such that any $ i\in\{ 1,2,\ldots , 1005 \} $ implies $ \lambda =a_i\cdot a_{2012-i} . $ Disprove the converse. [i]Teodor Radu[/i]

Define a sequence of integers $a_0=m, a_1=n$ and $a_{k+1}=4a_k-5a_{k-1}$ for all $k \ge 1$. Suppose $p>5$ is a prime with $p \equiv 1 \pmod{4}$. Prove that it is possible to choose $m,n$ such that $p \nmid a_k$ for any $k \ge 0$.

A sequence $(u_{n})$ is defined by \[ u_{0}=2 \quad u_{1}=\frac{5}{2}, u_{n+1}=u_{n}(u_{n-1}^{2}-2)-u_{1} \quad \textnormal{for } n=1,\ldots \] Prove that for any positive integer $n$ we have \[ [u_{n}]=2^{\frac{(2^{n}-(-1)^{n})}{3}} \](where [x] denotes the smallest integer $\leq$ x)$.$

A subset $Q \subset H^s(\mathbb{R})$ is said to be equicontinuous if for any $\varepsilon>0$, $\exists \delta>0$ such that \[\|f(x+h)-f(x)\|_{H^s}<\varepsilon, \quad \forall \vert h\vert<\delta, \quad f \in Q.\] Fix $r<s$, given a bounded sequence of functions $f_n \in H^s(\mathbb{R}$. If $f_n$ converges in $H^r(\mathbb{R})$ and equicontinuous in $H^s(\mathbb{R})$, show that it also converges in $H^s(\mathbb{R})$.

Let $B$ be a set of $k$ sequences each having $n$ terms equal to $1$ or $-1$. The product of two such sequences $(a_1, a_2, \ldots , a_n)$ and $(b_1, b_2, \ldots , b_n)$ is defined as $(a_1b_1, a_2b_2, \ldots , a_nb_n)$. Prove that there exists a sequence $(c_1, c_2, \ldots , c_n)$ such that the intersection of $B$ and the set containing all sequences from $B$ multiplied by $(c_1, c_2, \ldots , c_n)$ contains at most $\frac{k^2}{2^n}$ sequences.

On a chessboard with dimensions 1000 by 1000 and squares colored in the usual way in white and black, there is a set A consisting of 1000 squares. Any two fields of set A can be connected by a sequence of fields of set A so that subsequent fields have a common side. Prove that there are at least 250 white fields in set A.