A pyramid has square base and equal sides. It is cut into two parts by a plane parallel to the base. The lower part (which has square top and square base) is such that the circumcircle of the base is smaller than the circumcircles of the lateral faces. Show that the shortest path on the surface joining the two endpoints of a spatial diagonal lies entirely on the lateral faces. [img]https://cdn.artofproblemsolving.com/attachments/c/8/170bec826d5e40308cfd7360725d2aba250bf6.png[/img]

The diagram below shows four congruent squares and some of their diagonals. Let $T$ be the number of triangles and $R$ be the number of rectangles that appear in the diagram. Find $T + R$. [img]https://cdn.artofproblemsolving.com/attachments/1/5/f756bbe67c09c19e811011cb6b18d0ff44be8b.png[/img]

a) In the decimal expression of a positive number, $a$, all decimals beginning with the third after the decimal point, are deleted (i.e., we take an approximation of $a$ with accuracy to $0.01$ with deficiency). The number obtained is divided by $a$ and the quotient is similarly approximated with the same accuracy by a number $b$. What numbers $b$ can be thus obtained? Write all their possible values. b) same as (a) but with accuracy to $0.001$ c) same as (a) but with accuracy to $0.0001$

Let $n \in N$ such that $1 + 2 + ... + n$ is divisible by $3$. Integers $a_1\ge a_2\ge a_3\ge 2$ have sum $n$ and they satisfy $1 + 2 + ... + a_1\le \frac{1}{3}( 1 + 2 + ... + n ) $ and $1 + 2 + ... + (a_1+ a_2) \le \frac{2}{3}( 1 + 2 + ... + n )$. Prove that there is a partition of $\{ 1 , 2 , ... , n\}$ in three subsets $A_1, A_2, A_3$ with cardinals $| A_i| = a_i, i = 1 , 2 , 3$, and with equal sums of their elements .

Let $ I $ be the incenter of triangle $ ABC $. The incircle touches $ BC, CA, AB$ at points $ P, Q, R $. A circle passing through $ B , C $ is tangent to the circle $I$ at point $ X $, a circle passing through $ C , A $ is tangent to the circle $I$ at point $ Y $, and a circle passing through $ A , B $ is tangent to the circle $I$ at point $ Z $, respectively. Prove that three lines $ PX, QY, RZ $ are concurrent.

Let $n$ and $k$ be positive integers, where $n > 1$ is odd. Suppose $n$ voters are to elect one of the $k$ cadidates from a set $A$ according to the rule of "majoritarian compromise" described below. After each voter ranks the candidates in a column according to his/her preferences, these columns are concatenated to form a $k$ x $n$ voting matrix. We denote the number of ccurences of $a \in A$ in the $i$-th row of the voting matrix by $a_{i}$ . Let $l_{a}$ stand for the minimum integer $l$ for which $\sum^{l}_{i=1}{a_{i}}> \frac{n}{2}$. Setting $l'= min \{l_{a} | a \in A\}$, we will regard the voting matrices which make the set $\{a \in A | l_{a} = l' \}$ as admissible. For each such matrix, the single candidate in this set will get elected according to majoritarian compromise. Moreover, if $w_{1} \geq w_{2} \geq ... \geq
w_{k} \geq 0$ are given, for each admissible voting matrix, $\sum^{k}_{i=1}{w_{i}a_{i}}$ is called the total weighted score of $a \in A$. We will say that the system $(w_{1},w_{2}, . . . , w_{k})$ of weights represents majoritarian compromise if the total score of the elected candidate is maximum among the scores of all candidates. (a) Determine whether there is a system of weights representing majoritarian compromise if $k = 3$. (b) Show that such a system of weights does not exist for $k > 3$.

Let $\leftarrow$ denote the left arrow key on a standard keyboard. If one opens a text editor and types the keys "ab$\leftarrow$ cd $\leftarrow \leftarrow$ e $\leftarrow \leftarrow$ f", the result is "faecdb". We say that a string $B$ is [i]reachable[/i] from a string $A$ if it is possible to insert some amount of $\leftarrow$'s in $A$, such that typing the resulting characters produces $B$. So, our example shows that "faecdb" is reachable from "abcdef". Prove that for any two strings $A$ and $B$, $A$ is reachable from $B$ if and only if $B$ is reachable from $A$.

From the altitudes of an acute-angled triangle, a triangle can be composed. Prove that a triangle can be composed from the bisectors of this triangle.

Find all positive integers $n$ for which all positive divisors of $n$ can be put into the cells of a rectangular table under the following constraints: [list] [*]each cell contains a distinct divisor; [*]the sums of all rows are equal; and [*]the sums of all columns are equal. [/list]

he sequence of real number $ (x_n)$ is defined by $ x_1 \equal{} 0,$ $ x_2 \equal{} 2$ and $ x_{n\plus{}2} \equal{} 2^{\minus{}x_n} \plus{} \frac{1}{2}$ $ \forall n \equal{} 1,2,3 \ldots$ Prove that the sequence has a limit as $ n$ approaches $ \plus{}\infty.$ Determine the limit.

Let $S$ be the sum of all real $x$ such that $4^x = x^4$. Find the nearest integer to $S$.

Find all real numbers $x$ that satisfy the following inequality $|x^2-4x+1|>|x^2-4x+5|$

There are $ n \geq 5$ pairwise different points in the plane. For every point, there are just four points whose distance from which is $ 1$. Find the maximum value of $ n$.

Let $p \geq 3$ be a prime number. Prove that there is a permutation $(x_1,\ldots, x_{p-1})$ of $(1,2,\ldots,p-1)$ such that $x_1x_2 + x_2x_3 + \cdots + x_{p-2}x_{p-1} \equiv 2 \pmod p$.

Solve the equation $$16x^3 = (11x^2 + x -1)\sqrt{x^2 - x + 1}.$$