My Favorite Problems

Ray Li

May 14, 2013

1 Introduction
Here are some of the best (and worst) problems I saw as a high school student. I hope you enjoy
them.

2 The Problems

2.1 Not
((So So Not Serious Problems
(
(
(

1. Find the sum of all distinct integers n such that n|243. (Mock AIME III 2010)

2. If a2 + b2 = 20122012 , ab = 20112011 , compute the sum of all possible values of a + b. (Alex

Song)

3. Points A, B, C and D are given in space such that AB = 4, BC = 2, CD = 5, DA = 7, DB =

5, and AC = 6. Find the volume of tetrahedron ABCD. (Linus Hamilton)
√ √
4. Let ABC be a triangle with AC = 5 − 3, BC = 2. Let A0 , B 0 be points outside of triangle
ABC such that ∠A0 BC = 15◦ ,√ ∠A0 CB = 75◦ , ∠ACB 0 = 60◦ , ∠B 0 AC = 30◦ . Given that A0 B 0
can be expressed in the form a b + c, where a, b, c are positive integers and b is not divisible
by the square of any prime, find a + b + c. (Mock AIME III 2010)

5. Find all positive integers x, y, z that satisfy

xy(x2 + y 2 ) = 2z 4 .

(Ray Li, Max Schindler)

6. The digits of the number 66134880 are permuted and the each digit is colored either yellow,
blue, or red. In how many ways can this be done? (Linus Hamilton)

2.2 Actual Problems

7. There are 100 very small ants walking across a meter stick. Each one walks towards one
end of the stick, independently chosen, at 1 cm/s. If two ants bump into each other, both
immediately reverse direction and start walking the other way. If an ant reachs the end of
the meter stick, it falls off. Determine whether all the ants will always eventually fall off the
stick. If so, determine the longest possible amount of time before the last ant falls off.

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 8. Two trains 150 miles apart are traveling toward each other along the same track. The first
train goes 60 miles per hour; the second train rushes along at 90 miles per hour. A fly is
hovering just above the nose of the first train. It buzzes from the first train to the second
train, turns around immediately, flies back to the first train, and turns around again. It goes
on flying back and forth between the two trains until they collide. If the fly’s speed is 120
miles per hour, how far will it travel?
9. In what context is the phrase ”0 is odd” a true statement?
10. Vlad has a circular table radius R and wants to cut a hole in it of radius r so that he can put
a circular umbrella through it. However, he is drunk so he cuts the hole of radius r a distance
L < R − r from the center of the table. Now he is sober again, and wants to cut the table in
to two or more pieces so that he can glue them back together to form a table with a hole in
the center. What is the minimum perimeter he must cut (in the worst case scenario)?
11. There is a rectangular castle surrounded by a rectangular moat, which is of uniform width 12
feet. You must get across the moat without using the drawbridge, but all you have are two
planks with lengths 11 feet and 11 feet 9 inches. How do you get across?
12. One morning, a monk decides to go to the top of a very tall mountain. He starts at 8:00 am
and reachs the top at noon. The monk does not necessarily walk at a constant rate. The
next morning he starts at 8:00 am the top of the mountain and takes the exact same path(not
necissarily at the same rate) down the mountain, arriving at the bottom at noon. Show that
there is always some time such that the monk was at the same position at that time on both
days. (The Art and Craft of Problem Solving)
13. There are several gas stations placed around a circular track. A car whose fuel tank is initially
has some gas is placed at some point in the track. The car travels along the track, picking
up fuel from gas stations as it passes it. Given that the combined total of the gas in the car
and the stations gives the car exactly enough fuel to travel around the track once, determine
if it is always possible to initially place the car so that it can make it all the way around the
track without ever running out of fuel. Assume that when a car picks up gas from a station
it does not lose any gas.
14. A and B play a game. They have the numbers 1, 2, . . . , 9 written on cards and lined up. Play-
ers alternate taking cards. The first player to have 3 cards whose sum is 15 wins. Determine
which player, if any has a winning strategy.
15. At the national MATHCOUNTS competition, there are 256 students. (not really, but assume
so for this problem) Al is watching the national countdown round on ESPN3, but has to go
to class as soon as the final round begins. That is, Al knows the two finalists, but does not
know the winner. While Al is in class, Bob turns on ESPN3, but is too late for the countdown
round. He only sees the winner of the competition. If Al and Bob can only exchange text
messages in the form of binary bits, what is the minimum number of binary bits that they
must exchange so that Al can also know the winner.
16. Let a, b, c be positive real constants. Solve for x,
√ √ √ √ √ √
a + bx + b + cx + c + ax = b − ax + c − bx + a − cx.
17. The graph of a monotonically increasing function is cut off with two horizontal lines. Find a
point on the graph between intersections such that the sum of the two areas bounded by the
lines, the graph and the vertical line through this point is minimum.

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18. Two players play a game by alternately placing equally-sized pennies on a circular table. In
each turn, the player must place a penny so that its center lies on the table and so that it
does not overlap with any other penny (though they can be tangent.) Which player, if any,
has a winning strategy?
19. There are 2012 families in who each have just bought newly built houses. However, nobody
is pleased with their current house, and each family has a dream house that is among the
other 2011 houses. Conveniently, no two families have the same dream house. Each day, pairs
of families may exchange their current houses, such that no family is part of more than one
exchange that day. What is the minimum number of days needed until every person owns his
or her dream house?
20. In a 100 ∗ 100 grid of squares, the numbers 1, 2, ..., 1002 are filled in row by row consecutively.
That is, the first row contains the numbers 1, 2, ..., 100 in that order, the second row contains
101, 102, ..., 200, and so on. Each square in the grid is colored red or black such that each row
and each column contains exactly 50 red squares and 50 black squares. Show that the sum
of the values in red squares is equal to the sum of the values in black squares.
21. Consider an m ∗ n grid of squares. For each of the unit squares, draw exactly one of its
diagonals. Show that there exists a path lying on only the drawn diagonals that travels either
from the top border of the grid to the bottom border, or the left border of the grid to the
right border.
22. Find all functions F (x) : R → R such that for any a, b ∈ R,

f (a) − f (b) ≤ (a − b)2

23. Prove that there does not exist a function f : R → R such that for all x, y ∈ R,

f (x3 + y 3 ) = f (f (x) − y 3 ) + 2y 3 .

24. There are 20122 people distributed throughout 2012 rooms. Each minute, someone moves
from its room to a room with at least as many people in his or her current room. Show that
eventually all the people are in one room.
25. A cameraman is taking some pictures of some students standing in a line. Each student
has some designated position in the line. However, because the students are naughty, the
cameraman needs to take multiple photos. Right before each photo is snapped, some subset
of students will leave their position and sprint to a different position in the line. After the
cameraman makes his shot, he replaces the students in the correct order. The students are
lazy, so each student sprints during at most one photo. What is the minimum n such that
if the cameraman takes n snaps, it is possible to determine from the order of the students in
these n photos the designated order of the students. (Adapted USACO December 2012)

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26. Let S and S 0 be two circles, with S 0 contained in S. Suppose that, for some circle S1 tangent
to both S and S 0 , one can construct a ring of circles S1 , S2 , . . . , Sn such that Si and Si+2 are
tangent to Si+1 (indicies taken mod n) and all of S1 , . . . , Sn are tangent to S and S 0 . Show
that if this sequence of circles exists for some choice of S1 , then for any choice of S1 such a
sequence exists. (Steiner’s Porism)

27. Suppose that a rectangle R is exactly covered with non-overlapping rectangles with sides
parallel to those of R, such that each of the inner rectangles has at least one side with integer
length. Show that at least one side of R has integer length. (Russia)

28. Let n be a positive integer. There are n soldiers stationed on the verticies of a regular polygon.
Each round, you pick a point inside the polygon, and all the soldiers simultaneously shoot in
a straight line towards that point; if their shot hits another soldier, the hit soldier dies and
no longer shoots during the next round. What is the minimum number of rounds, in terms
of n, required to eliminate all the soldiers? (David Yang)

29. Prove that for every positive integer n ≥ 2,

p p p
.785n2 − n < n2 − 12 + n2 − 22 + · · · + n2 − (n − 1)2 < .79n2

30. Let n ≥ 2 be an integer and S = {(p1 , b1 ), (p2 , b2 ), . . . , (pn , bn )} be a set of n pairs of positive
real numbers such that pi < 1 for all i. Let {(p01 , b01 ), (p02 , b02 ), . . . (p0n , b0n )} be a permtuation of
the elements of S. Find an algorithm that determines the permutation for which

p01 (b01 + p02 (b02 + · · · p0n−1 (b0n−1 + p0n (b0n )) . . . ))

attains its maximum value. (Adapted USACO 2011)

31. Al plays a game by himself on a rooted tree with n verticies. On a move, he chooses a vertex
of the tree that has not been crossed off, and crosses it off, as well as all of its children. The
game ends when he cannot make a move. Determine, as a function of the tree, the expected
number of moves Al will make. (Codeforces 172 div 1)

2.3 Ridiculous Problems

32. Let R1 , R2 , . . . be the family of finite sequences of positive integers defined by the following
rules: R1 = (1), and if Rn−1 = (x1 , x2 , . . . , xs ), then

Rn = (1, 2, . . . , x1 , 1, 2, . . . , x2 , . . . , 1, 2, . . . , xs , n)

For example, R2 = (1, 2), R3 = (1, 1, 2, 3), R4 = (1, 1, 1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4). Prove that if n > 1, then
the kth term from the left in Rn is equal to 1 if and only if the kth term from the right in
Rn is different from 1.

33. Let n be an integer. There are several points P1 , P2 , . . . , Pn inside square ABCD such that
no three of these n + 4 points are colinear. Points A and B are colored white, and C and
D are colored black. Every point inside the square is colored black or white. Segments are
drawn between some pairs points of the same color, such that for any two points of the same
color, it is possible to move from one to the other traveling only on drawn segments. Show
that, no matter how the interior points are colored, it is possible to draw segments with this
property so that pairs of segments only intersect at P1 , P2 , . . . , Pn , A, B, C or D. (Adapted
IOI 2005)

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34. Each of the six boxes B1 , B2 , B3 , B4 , B5 , B6 initially contains one coin. The following
operations are allowed
Type 1) Choose a non-empty box Bj , 1 ≤ j ≤ 5, remove one coin from Bj and add two coins
to Bj+1 ;
Type 2) Choose a non-empty box Bk , 1 ≤ k ≤ 4, remove one coin from Bk and swap the
contents (maybe empty) of the boxes Bk+1 and Bk+2 .
Determine if there exists a finite sequence of operations of the allowed types, such that the
2010
five boxes B1 , B2 , B3 , B4 , B5 become empty, while box B6 contains exactly 20102010 coins.
(IMO 2011)

35. Let ABC be a scalene triangle with altitudes AD, BE and CF. Suppose that M is the
midpoint of BC, and X, Y are the midpoints of M E and M F. Let Z be a point on line XY
such that ZA||BC. Show that ZA = ZM. (Iran)

36. Define the point P0 = (0, 0). Define the point Pn , where n = 1, 2, ..., 8, as the rotation of point
Pn−1 45 degrees counter-clockwise around the point (n, 0). Determine the coordinates of P8 .
(Putnam)

37. Let M = {1, 2, · · · , n}, each element of M is colored in either red, blue or yellow. Set
A = {(x, y, z) ∈ M × M × M |x + y + z ≡ 0 mod n, x, y, z are of same color},
B = {(x, y, z) ∈ M × M × M |x + y + z ≡ 0 mod n, x, y, z are of pairwise distinct color}.
Prove that 2|A| ≥ |B| (China 2010)