Category Archives: problem

2022-05 squares of perfect squares

Show that there exist perfect squares a, b, c such that a2+b2=c2.

====== REVISED (2022-04-04) ======

I hope you noticed the day this problem appeared was April fool’s day. Show instead that there do not exist perfect squares a, b, c such that a2+b2=c2, provided that a, b, c are nonzero integers.

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2022-04 Cosine matrix

Prove or disprove the following: There exists a real 2×2 matrix M such that
cosM=(1202201).

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2022-03 Sum of vectors

For k,n1, let v1,,vn be unit vectors in Rk. Prove that we can always choose signs ε1,,εn{1,+1} such that |ni=1εivi|n.

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2022-02 ordering group elements 

For any positive integer n2, let Bn be the group given by the following presentationBn=<σ1,,σn1|σiσi+1σi=σi+1σiσi+1,σiσj=σjσi>where the first relation is for 1in2 and the second relation is for |ij|2. Show that there exists a total order < on Bn such that for any three elements a,b,cBn, if a<b then ca<cb

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2022-01 Alternating series

Evaluate the following:
\frac{1}{1^2 \cdot 3^3 \cdot 5^2} – \frac{1}{3^2 \cdot 5^3 \cdot 7^2} + \frac{1}{5^2 \cdot 7^3 \cdot 9^2} – \dots

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2021-24 The squares of wins and losses

There are n people participating to a chess tournament and every two players play one game. There are no draws. Let a_i be the number of wins of the i-th player and b_i be the number of losses of the i-th player. Prove that
\sum_{i\in [n]} a_i^2 = \sum_{i\in [n]} b_i^2.

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Notice on 2021-21

The problem on 2021-21 was written in an ambiguous way, which led the contestants to misunderstand the problem. The problem is updated to be more clear, and anyone is again welcome to submit a solution for the problem.

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2021-22 Sum of fractions

Determine all rational numbers that can be written as
\frac{1}{n_1} + \frac{1}{n_1 n_2} + \frac{1}{n_1 n_2 n_3} + \dots + \frac{1}{n_1 n_2 n_3 \dots n_k} ,
where n_1, n_2, n_3 \dots, n_k are positive integers greater than 1.

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2021-21 Different unions

Let F be a family of nonempty subsets of [n]=\{1,\dots,n\} such that no two disjoint subsets of F have the same union. In other words, for F =\{ A_1,A_2,\dots, A_k\}, there exists no two sets I, J\subseteq [k] with I\cap J =\emptyset and \bigcup_{i\in I}A_i = \bigcup_{j\in J} A_j. Determine the maximum possible size of F.

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