Given integer $a_1\geq 2$. For integer $n\geq 2$, define $a_n$ to be the smallest positive integer which is not coprime to $a_{n-1}$ and not equal to $a_1,a_2,\cdots, a_{n-1}$. Prove that every positive integer except 1 appears in this sequence $\{a_n\}$.

Let $n$ be a positive integer. We start with $n$ piles of pebbles, each initially containing a single pebble. One can perform moves of the following form: choose two piles, take an equal number of pebbles from each pile and form a new pile out of these pebbles. Find (in terms of $n$) the smallest number of nonempty piles that one can obtain by performing a finite sequence of moves of this form.

Let $\{F_n\}^\infty_{n=1}$ be the Fibonacci sequence and let $f$ be a polynomial of degree $1006$ such that $f(k) = F_k$ for all $k \in \{1008, \dots , 2014\}$. Prove that $$233\mid f(2015)+1.$$ [i]Note: $F_1=F_2=1$ and $F_{n+2}=F_{n+1}+F_n$ for all $n\geq 1$.[/i]

Let be a nondegenerate and closed interval $ I $ of real numbers, a short map $ m:I\longrightarrow I, $ and a sequence of functions $ \left( x_n \right)_{n\ge 1} :I\longrightarrow\mathbb{R} $ such that $ x_1 $ is the identity map and $$ 2x_{n+1}=x_n+m\circ x_n , $$ for any natural numbers $ n. $ Prove that: [b]a)[/b] there exists a nondegenerate interval having the property that any point of it is a fixed point for $ m. $ [b]b)[/b] $ \left( x_n \right)_{n\ge 1} $ is pointwise convergent and that its limit function is a short map.

The sequence $(a_n)$ is defined as: $$a_1=1007$$ $$a_{i+1}\geq a_i+1$$ Prove the inequality: $$\frac{1}{2016}>\sum_{i=1}^{2016}\frac{1}{a_{i+1}^{2}+a_{i+2}^2}$$

Let $ \,n > 6\,$ be an integer and $ \,a_{1},a_{2},\cdots ,a_{k}\,$ be all the natural numbers less than $ n$ and relatively prime to $ n$. If \[ a_{2} \minus{} a_{1} \equal{} a_{3} \minus{} a_{2} \equal{} \cdots \equal{} a_{k} \minus{} a_{k \minus{} 1} > 0, \] prove that $ \,n\,$ must be either a prime number or a power of $ \,2$.

Let $x\neq y$. Two sequences $x,a_1,a_2,a_3,y$ and $b_1,x,b_2,b_3,y,b_4$ are arithmetic sequence. Then $\frac{b_4-b_3}{a_2-a_1}=$________.

Prove that there exists a sequence of $100$ different integers such that the sum of the squares of any two consecutive terms is a perfect square. (S Tokarev)

Find all real numbers $a,$ which satisfy the following condition: For every sequence $a_1,a_2,a_3,\ldots$ of pairwise different positive integers, for which the inequality $a_n\leq an$ holds for every positive integer $n,$ there exist infinitely many numbers in the sequence with sum of their digits in base $4038,$ which is not divisible by $2019.$

Let $n$ be a given positive integer. Sisyphus performs a sequence of turns on a board consisting of $n + 1$ squares in a row, numbered $0$ to $n$ from left to right. Initially, $n$ stones are put into square $0$, and the other squares are empty. At every turn, Sisyphus chooses any nonempty square, say with $k$ stones, takes one of these stones and moves it to the right by at most $k$ squares (the stone should say within the board). Sisyphus' aim is to move all $n$ stones to square $n$. Prove that Sisyphus cannot reach the aim in less than \[ \left \lceil \frac{n}{1} \right \rceil + \left \lceil \frac{n}{2} \right \rceil + \left \lceil \frac{n}{3} \right \rceil + \dots + \left \lceil \frac{n}{n} \right \rceil \] turns. (As usual, $\lceil x \rceil$ stands for the least integer not smaller than $x$. )

For every positive integer $k$ let $a_{k,1},a_{k,2},\ldots$ be a sequence of positive integers. For every positive integer $k$ let sequence $\{a_{k+1,i}\}$ be the difference sequence of $\{a_{k,i}\}$, i.e. for all positive integers $k$ and $i$ the following holds: $a_{k,i+1}-a_{k,i}=a_{k+1,i}$. Is it possible that every positive integer appears exactly once among numbers $a_{k,i}$? [i]Proposed by Dávid Matolcsi, Berkeley[/i]

Find the limit distribution of the sequence $ \eta_n$ of random variables with distribution \[ P \left( \eta_n\equal{}\arccos (\cos^2 \frac{(2j\minus{}1) \pi}{2n}) \right)\equal{}\frac 1n \;(j\equal{}1,2,...,n)\ .\] ($ \arccos(.)$ denotes the main value.) [i]B. Gyires[/i]

Suppose that a sequence $\{a_n\}_{n\ge 1}$ satisfies $0 < a_n \le a_{2n} + a_{2n+1}$ for all $n\in \mathbb{N}$. Prove that the series$\sum_{n=1}^{\infty} a_n$ diverges.

For some positive integer $n$, a coin will be flipped $n$ times to obtain a sequence of $n$ heads and tails. For each flip of the coin, there is probability $p$ of obtaining a head and probability $1-p$ of obtaining a tail, where $0<p<1$ is a rational number. Kim writes all $2^n$ possible sequences of $n$ heads and tails in two columns, with some sequences in the left column and the remaining sequences in the right column. Kim would like the sequence produced by the coin flips to appear in the left column with probability $1/2$. Determine all pairs $(n,p)$ for which this is possible.