| A1. an is a sequence of positive reals satisfying an ≤ a2n + a2n+1 for all n. Prove that ∑ an diverges. |
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| A2. Let R be the region in the first quadrant bounded by the x-axis, the line 2y = x, and the ellipse x2/9 + y2 = 1. Let R' be the region in the first quadrant bounded by the y-axis, the line y = mx, and the ellipse. Find m such that R and R' have the same area. |
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| A3. X is the set of points on one or more sides of a triangle with sides length 1, 1 and √2. Show that if X is 4-colored, then there must be two points of the same color a distance 2 - √2 or more apart. |
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| A4. A and B are 2 x 2 matrices with integral values. A, A + B, A + 2B, A + 3B, and A + 4B all have inverses with integral values. Show that A + 5B does also. |
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| A5. Given a sequence of positive real numbers which tends to zero, show that every non-empty interval (a, b) contains a non-empty subinterval (c, d) that does not contain any numbers equal to a sum of 1994 distinct elements of the sequence. |
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| A6. Let Z be the integers. Let f1, f2, ... , f10 : Z → Z be bijections. Given any n ∈ Z we can find some composition of the fi (allowing repetitions) which maps 0 to n. Consider the set of 1024 functions S = { g1g2... g10}, where gi = the identity or fi. Show that at most half the functions in S map a finite (non-empty) subset of Z onto itself. |
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| B1. For a positive integer n, let f(n) be the number of perfect squares d such that |n - d| ≤ 250. Find all n such that f(n) = 15. [The perfect squares are 0, 1, 4, 9, 16, ... .] |
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| B2. For which real α does the curve y = x4 + 9x3 + α x2 + 9x + 4 contain four collinear points? |
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| B3. Let R be the reals and R+ the positive reals. f : R → R+ is differentiable and f '(x) > f(x) for all x. For what k must f(x) exceed ekx for all sufficiently large x? |
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| B4. A is the 2 x 2 matrix (aij) with a11 = a22 = 3, a12 = 2, a21 = 4 and I is the 2 x 2 unit matrix. Show that the greatest common divisor of the entries of An - I tends to infinity. |
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| B5. For any real α define fα(x) = [αx]. Let n be a positive integer. Show that there exists an α such that for 1 ≤ k ≤ n, fαk(n2) = n2 - k = fαk(n2), where fαk denotes the k-fold composition of fα. |
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| B6. a, b, c, d are integers in the range 0 - 99. Show that if 101a -100·2a + 101b - 100·2b = 101c - 100·2c + 101d - 100·2d (mod 10100) then {a, b} = {c, d}. |
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To avoid possible copyright problems, I have changed the wording, but not the substance of all the problems. The original text of the problems and the official solutions are in American Mathematical Monthly 102 (1995) 677.
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© John Scholes
jscholes@kalva.demon.co.uk
16 Dec 1998
Last updated/corrected 19 Oct 03