Found problems: 175
2012 Switzerland - Final Round, 5
Let n be a natural number. Let $A_1, A_2, . . . , A_k$ be distinct $3$-element subsets of $\{1, 2, . . . , n\}$ such that $|A_i \cap A_j | \ne 1$ for all $1 \le i, j \le k$. Determine all $n$ for which there are $n$ such that these subsets exist.
[hide=original wording of last sentence]Bestimme alle n, fur die es n solche Teilmengen gibt.[/hide]
1991 Poland - Second Round, 5
$ P_1, P_2, \ldots, P_n $ are different two-element subsets of $ \{1,2,\ldots,n\} $. The sets $ P_i $, $ P_j $ for $ i\neq j $ have a common element if and only if the set $ \{i,j\} $ is one of the sets $ P_1, P_2, \ldots, P_n $. Prove that each of the numbers $ 1,2,\ldots,n $ is a common element of exactly two sets from $ P_1, P_2, \ldots, P_n $.
2001 Croatia Team Selection Test, 1
Consider $A = \{1, 2, ..., 16\}$. A partition of $A$ into nonempty sets $A_1, A_2,..., A_n$ is said to be good if none of the Ai contains elements $a, b, c$ (not necessarily distinct) such that $a = b + c$.
(a) Find a good partition $\{A_1, A_2, A_3, A_4\}$ of $A$.
(b) Prove that no partition $\{A_1, A_2, A_3\}$ of $A$ is good
2017 Saudi Arabia JBMO TST, 4
Let $S = \{-17, -16, ..., 16, 17\}$. We call a subset $T$ of $S$ a good set if $-x \in T$ for all $x \in T$ and if $x, y, z \in T (x, y, z$ may be equal) then $x + y + z \ne 0$. Find the largest number of elements in a good set.
1998 Bundeswettbewerb Mathematik, 2
Prove that there exist $16$ subsets of set $M = \{1,2,...,10000\}$ with the following property:
For every $z \in M$ there are eight of these subsets whose intersection is $\{z\}$.
2016 India PRMO, 14
Find the minimum value of $m$ such that any $m$-element subset of the set of integers $\{1,2,...,2016\}$ contains at least two distinct numbers $a$ and $b$ which satisfy $|a - b|\le 3$.
1999 IMO Shortlist, 7
Let $p >3$ be a prime number. For each nonempty subset $T$ of $\{0,1,2,3, \ldots , p-1\}$, let $E(T)$ be the set of all $(p-1)$-tuples $(x_1, \ldots ,x_{p-1} )$, where each $x_i \in T$ and $x_1+2x_2+ \ldots + (p-1)x_{p-1}$ is divisible by $p$ and let $|E(T)|$ denote the number of elements in $E(T)$. Prove that
\[|E(\{0,1,3\})| \geq |E(\{0,1,2\})|\]
with equality if and only if $p = 5$.
2004 Singapore MO Open, 1
Let $m,n$ be integers so that $m \ge n > 1$. Let $F_1,...,F_k$ be a collection of $n$-element subsets of $\{1,...,m\}$ so that $F_i\cap F_j$ contains at most $1$ element, $1 \le i < j \le k$. Show that $k\le \frac{m(m-1)}{n(n-1)} $
1969 IMO Longlists, 42
$(MON 3)$ Let $A_k (1 \le k \le h)$ be $n-$element sets such that each two of them have a nonempty intersection. Let $A$ be the union of all the sets $A_k,$ and let $B$ be a subset of $A$ such that for each $k (1\le k \le h)$ the intersection of $A_k$ and $B$ consists of exactly two different elements $a_k$ and $b_k$. Find all subsets $X$ of the set $A$ with $r$ elements satisfying the condition that for at least one index $k,$ both elements $a_k$ and $b_k$ belong to $X$.
2008 Indonesia TST, 2
Let $S = \{1, 2, 3, ..., 100\}$ and $P$ is the collection of all subset $T$ of $S$ that have $49$ elements, or in other words: $$P = \{T \subset S : |T| = 49\}.$$ Every element of $P$ is labelled by the element of $S$ randomly (the labels may be the same). Show that there exist subset $M$ of $S$ that has $50$ members such that for every $x \in M$, the label of $M -\{x\}$ is not equal to $x$
2022 New Zealand MO, 3
Let $S$ be a set of $10$ positive integers. Prove that one can find two disjoint subsets $A =\{a_1, ..., a_k\}$ and $B = \{b_1, ... , b_k\}$ of $S$ with $|A| = |B|$ such that the sums $x =\frac{1}{a_1}+ ... +\frac{1}{a_k}$ and $y =\frac{1}{b_1}+ ... +\frac{1}{b_k}$ differ by less than $0.01$, i.e., $|x - y| < 1/100$.
2017 Bosnia and Herzegovina Junior BMO TST, 2
Let $A$ be a set $A=\{1,2,3,...,2017\}$. Subset $S$ of set $A$ is [i]good [/i] if for all $x\in A$ sum of remaining elements of set $S$ has same last digit as $x$. Prove that [i]good[/i] subset with $405$ elements is not possible.
2016 Kurschak Competition, 1
Let $1\le k\le n$ be integers. At most how many $k$-element subsets can we select from $\{1,2,\dots,n\}$ such that for any two selected subsets, one of the subsets consists of the $k$ smallest elements of their union?
1953 Kurschak Competition, 1
$A$ and $B$ are any two subsets of $\{1, 2,...,n - 1\}$ such that $|A| +|B|> n - 1$. Prove that one can find $a$ in $A$ and $b$ in $B$ such that $a + b = n$.
2008 IMO Shortlist, 6
For $ n\ge 2$, let $ S_1$, $ S_2$, $ \ldots$, $ S_{2^n}$ be $ 2^n$ subsets of $ A \equal{} \{1, 2, 3, \ldots, 2^{n \plus{} 1}\}$ that satisfy the following property: There do not exist indices $ a$ and $ b$ with $ a < b$ and elements $ x$, $ y$, $ z\in A$ with $ x < y < z$ and $ y$, $ z\in S_a$, and $ x$, $ z\in S_b$. Prove that at least one of the sets $ S_1$, $ S_2$, $ \ldots$, $ S_{2^n}$ contains no more than $ 4n$ elements.
[i]Proposed by Gerhard Woeginger, Netherlands[/i]
2015 Saudi Arabia BMO TST, 2
Given $2015$ subsets $A_1, A_2,...,A_{2015}$ of the set $\{1, 2,..., 1000\}$ such that $|A_i| \ge 2$ for every $i \ge 1$ and $|A_i \cap A_j| \ge 1$ for every $1 \le i < j \le 2015$. Prove that $k = 3$ is the smallest number of colors such that we can always color the elements of the set $\{1, 2,..., 1000\}$ by $k$ colors with the property that the subset $A_i$ has at least two elements of different colors for every $i \ge 1$.
Lê Anh Vinh
2024 Indonesia TST, C
Let $A$ be a set with $1000$ members and $\mathcal F =${$A_1,A_2,\ldots,A_n$} a family of subsets of A such that
(a) Each element in $\mathcal F$ consists of 3 members
(b) For every five elements in $\mathcal F$, the union of them all will have at least $12$ members
Find the largest value of $n$
2006 Lithuania National Olympiad, 4
Find the maximal cardinality $|S|$ of the subset $S \subset A=\{1, 2, 3, \dots, 9\}$ given that no two sums $a+b | a, b \in S, a \neq b$ are equal.
2012 Danube Mathematical Competition, 4
Let $A$ be a subset with seven elements of the set $\{1,2,3, ...,26\}$.
Show that there are two distinct elements of $A$, having the same sum of their elements.
2012 Belarus Team Selection Test, 2
Determine the greatest possible value of n that satisfies the following condition:
for any choice of $n$ subsets $M_1, ...,M_n$ of the set $M = \{1,2,...,n\}$ satisfying the conditions
i) $i \in M_i$ and
ii) $i \in M_j \Leftrightarrow j \notin M_i$ for all $i \ne j$,
there exist $M_k$ and $M_l$ such that $M_k \cup M_l = M$.
(Moscow regional olympiad,adopted)
1982 Spain Mathematical Olympiad, 7
Let $S$ be the subset of rational numbers that can be written in the form $a/b$, where $a$ is any integer and $b$ is an odd integer. Does the sum of two of its elements belong to the $S$ ? And the product? Are there elements in $S$ whose inverse belongs to $S$ ?
2008 Indonesia TST, 1
Let $A$ be the subset of $\{1, 2, ..., 16\}$ that has $6$ elements. Prove that there exist $2$ subsets of $A$ that are disjoint, and the sum of their elements are the same.
1998 IMO Shortlist, 4
Let $U=\{1,2,\ldots ,n\}$, where $n\geq 3$. A subset $S$ of $U$ is said to be [i]split[/i] by an arrangement of the elements of $U$ if an element not in $S$ occurs in the arrangement somewhere between two elements of $S$. For example, 13542 splits $\{1,2,3\}$ but not $\{3,4,5\}$. Prove that for any $n-2$ subsets of $U$, each containing at least 2 and at most $n-1$ elements, there is an arrangement of the elements of $U$ which splits all of them.
1954 Moscow Mathematical Olympiad, 286
Consider the set of all $10$-digit numbers expressible with the help of figures $1$ and $2$ only. Divide it into two subsets so that the sum of any two numbers of the same subset is a number which is written with not less than two $3$’s.
2007 Dutch Mathematical Olympiad, 2
Is it possible to partition the set $A = \{1, 2, 3, ... , 32, 33\}$ into eleven subsets that contain three integers each, such that for every one of these eleven subsets, one of the integers is equal to the sum of the other two? If so, give such a partition, if not, prove that such a partition cannot exist.