New Zealand Maths Olympiad Committee Friday Test, Solutions Camp 2006

1. Let a and b be two integers such that a b mod 3 (that is, 3 is a divisor of their dierence). Show that: 2 2 (a + ab + b2 ) 3 is an integer which can be written as the sum of three perfect squares. Solution: Let b = a + 3k, so k is an integer. Then: 2 2 (a + ab + b2 ) = 2a2 + 6ak + 6k 2 = (a + 2k)2 + (a + k)2 + k 2 . 3 2. A set {a, b, c} of three positive integers is addled if one of its elements is the sum of the other two. Does there exist a partition of {1, 2, . . . , 6018} into 2006 addled sets? Solution: No such partition is possible. The sum of the elements in an addled set is equal to twice its largest member. So, if such a partition existed, the sum of all the elements belonging to the addled sets would be even. But this is the same as the sum of the numbers from 1 through 60018, which equals (6018)(6019)/2 and is odd. 3. A segment AB of length 1 is part of a line tangent to a circle at A. The centre of is O. A square is constructed so that one side lies on AB, one vertex is on , and the fourth vertex is on line OB. Find the side length, s, of this square in terms of the radius r of the circle. Also nd the value of r which maximises s. Solution:
O

r E s A C D B F

Using similar triangles OF G and OBA we get: BA FG = , GO AO Solving, and subtracting s we get: EG = or FG 1 = . rs r

rs s. r

Use the Pythagorean theorem on OGE to get: rs s r

2

+ (r s)2 = r2 .

Simplifying, and removing a factor of r s we get: r s 2s 2s = 0 r2 r which gives: s= 1 r = . 2r2 + 2r + 1 2r + 1/r + 2

Since the product of 2r and 1/r is xed, the sum is minimised when the two quantities are equal, that is, when r = 1/ 2. 4. For which positive integers n is it possible to nd a sequence of n positive integers whose sum is equal to the square root of their product? Solution: taking: This is possible for n = 1 (take 1), not for n = 2 (because (a + b)2 > ab), and for all n 3 n + 6, n + 6, 9, 1, 1, . . . , 1 where there are n 3 1s. 5. In an acute angled triangle ABC, CF is an altitude with F on AB and BM is a median with M on AC. Given that M BC = F CA, prove that AB = BC. Solution: Let CF and BM meet at P . Let AP produced meet BC at K. Draw the circles BP C and BP A.
B

Since ACF = CBM , the circle BP C is tangent to AC. Therefore M C 2 = M P M P . But M C = M A so M A2 = M P M B. Therefore the circle BP A is tangent to AC at A, and so CAP = ABP . Hence AP C = = = 180 P AC P CA 180 ABP CBP 180 B

Therefore F P BK is cyclic. So AKB = 90 and P is the orthocentre of ABC. So AM AC and hence AB = BC. 6. Let x1 , x2 , . . . , xn be positive real numbers, with sum S. Suppose that (n 1)xk < S for all k. Prove that: (S (n 1)x1 ) (S (n 1)x2 ) (S (n 1)xn ) x1 x2 xn and determine when equality occurs.

Solution: Observe that:

(S (n 1)xk ) = nS (n 1)S = S.
k=1

So (S (n 1)xk ) = S (S (n 1)xj ) = (n 1)xj .

k=j

So by AM-GM: xj
k=j

(S (n 1)xk )1/(n1)

for all j. Multiplying these inequalities together with j running from 1 through n gives the required result. Equality holds when it holds in all instances of the AM-GM, which for n > 2 requires that all the xs be equal. For n < 2 equality always holds. 7. Find all pairs (x, y) of positive integers satisfying the equation: (x + y)x = xy .

Solution: Since the LHS is larger than xx we get y > x. Let y = qx where q is rational. We obtain: (x + qx)x = xqx Raise both sides to the 1/x and divide by x: 1 + q = xq1 . The power on the RHS is either irrational or an integer, but the LHS is rational, so must be an integer. So q is actually an integer greater than 1. If q = 2 we get x = 3, y = 6. If q = 3 we get x = 2, = 6. Since x 2 we need 1 + q 2q1 which fails for q 4. So the required pairs are (2, 6) and (3, 6). 8. Let m and n be positive integers and suppose that an m n rectangle is coloured checkerboard style with unit squares such that the lower left corner is black. Draw the diagonal of the rectangle from upper left to lower right and let f (m, n) denote the absolute value of the dierence between the area of the black part and the white part of the triangle below the diagonal. Compute f (m, n) if both m and n are even or both are odd. Show that for any constant C > 0 there are m and n such that f (m, n) > C. Solution: If the parity of m and n are the same then a 180 rotation around the centre of the diagonal preserves the colouring and sends the lower triangle to the upper triangle. So the value of f (m, n) is half the dierence between the number of black squares and the number of white squares in the rectangle, that is 0 if both m and n are even, and 1/2 if they are odd. For the second part consider f (m, m 1). The value of this will be equal to the dierence between the black and white areas in a thin triangle wedged between the diagonal of an m m square and the diagonal of the m (m 1) square. This wedge is covered by small black and white triangles, and the bases and heights of the white triangles form an arithmetic progression. Summing these up we nally get f (m, m 1) = (m + 1)/6 which can be made arbitrarily large.