# Miscellaneous questions: part II: tutorial practice for preRMO and RMO

Problem 1:

Let $a_{1}, a_{2}, \ldots, a_{10}$ be ten real numbers such that each is greater than 1 and less than 55. Prove that there are three among the given numbers which form the lengths of the sides of a triangle.

Problem 2:

In a collection of 1234 persons, any two persons are mutual friends or enemies. Each person has at most 3 enemies. Prove that it is possible to divide this collection into two parts such that each person has at most 1 enemy in his subcollection.

Problem 3:

A barrel contains 2n balls numbered 1 to 2n. Choose three balls at random, one after the other, and with the balls replaced after each draw. What is the probability that the three element sequence obtained has the properties that the smallest element is odd and that only the smallest element, if any, is repeated?

That’s all, folks !!

You will need to churn a lot…!! In other words, learn to brood now…learn to think for a long time on a single hard problem …

Regards,
Nalin Pithwa

# Miscellaneous questions: Part I: tutorial practice for preRMO and RMO

Problem 1:

The sixty four squares of a chess board are filled with positive integers one on each in such a way that each integer is the average of the of the integers on the neighbouring squares. (Two squares are neighbours if they share a common edge or vertex. Thus, a square can have 8,5 or 3 neighbours depending on its position). Show that all sixty four entries are in fact equal.

Problem 2:

Let T be the set of all triples (a,b,c) of integers such that $1 \leq a < b < c \leq 6$. For each triple (a,b,c) in T, take the product abc. Add all these products corresponding to all triples in I. Prove that the sum is divisible by 7.

Problem 3:

In a class of 25 students, there are 17 cyclists, 13 swimmers, and 8 weight lifters and no one in all the three. In a certain mathematics examination, 6 students got grades D or E. If the cyclists, swimmers and weight lifters all got grade B or C, determine the number of students who got grade A. Also, find the number of cyclists, who are swimmers.

Problem 4:

Five men A, B, C, D, E are wearing caps of black or white colour without each knowing the colour of his cap. It is known that a man wearing a black cap always speaks the truth while a man wearing a white cap always lies. If they make the following statements, find the colour of the cap worn by each of them:

A: I see three black and one white cap.
B: I see four white caps.
C: I see one black and three white caps.
D: I see four black caps.

Problem 5:

Let f be a bijective (one-one and onto) function from the set $A=\{ 1,2,3,\ldots,n\}$ to itself. Show that there is a positive integer $M>1$ such that $f^{M}(i)=f(i)$ for each $i \in A$. Note that $f^{M}$ denotes the composite function $f \circ f \circ f \ldots \circ f$ repeated M times.

Problem 6:

Show that there exists a convex hexagon in the plane such that:
a) all its interior angles are equal
b) its sides are 1,2,3,4,5,6 in some order.

Problem 7:

There are ten objects with total weights 20, each of the weights being a positive integer. Given that none of the weights exceed 10, prove that the ten objects can be divided into two groups that balance each other when placed on the pans of a balance.

Problem 8:

In each of the eight corners of a cube, write +1 or -1 arbitrarily. Then, on each of the six faces of the cube write the product of the numbers written at the four corners of that face. Add all the fourteen numbers so writtein down. Is it possible to arrange the numbers +1 and -1 at the corners initially so that this final sum is zero?

Problem 9:

Given the seven element set $A = \{ a,b,c,d,e,f,g\}$ find a collection T of 3-element subsets of A such that each pair of elements from A occurs exactly in one of the subsets of T.

Try these !!

Regards,
Nalin Pithwa

# A fifth degree equation in two variables: a clever solution

Question:

Verify the identity: $(2xy+(x^{2}-2y^{2}))^{5}+(2xy-(x^{2}-2y^{2}))^{5}=(2xy+(x^{2}+2y^{2})i)^{5}+(2xy-(x^{2}+2y^{2})i)^{5}$

let us observe first that each of the fifth degree expression is just a quadratic in two variables x and y. Let us say the above identity to be verified is:

$P_{1}+P_{2}=P_{3}+P_{4}$

Method I:

Use binomial expansion. It is a very longish tedious method.

Method II:

Factorize each of the quadratic expressions $P_{1}, P_{2}, P_{3}, P_{4}$ using quadratic formula method (what is known in India as Sridhar Acharya’s method):

Now fill in the above details.

You will conclude very happily that :

The above identity is transformed to :

$P_{1}=(x+y+\sqrt{3}y)^{5}(x+y-\sqrt{3}y)^{5}$

$P_{2}=(-1)^{5}(x-y-\sqrt{3}y)^{5}(x-y+\sqrt{3}y)^{5}$

$P_{3}=(i^{2}(x-y-\sqrt{3}y)(x-y+\sqrt{3}y))^{5}$

$P_{4}=((-i^{2})(x+y+\sqrt{3}y)(x-y-\sqrt{3}y))^{5}$

You will find that $P_{1}=P_{4}$ and $P_{2}=P_{4}$

Hence, it is verified that the given identity $P_{1}+P_{2}=P_{3}+P_{4}$. QED.

Regards,
Nalin Pithwa.

# A quadratic equation question for pRMO or preRMO

Question:

Find the necessary and sufficient condition that the quadratic equation $ax^{2}+bx+c=0$ where $a \neq 0$ has one root which is the square of the other.

Solution:

Let the two roots of the given quadratic equation $ax^{2}+bx+c=0$, with $a \neq 0$ be $\alpha$ and $\beta$ such that $\beta = \alpha^{2}$.

Then, we know $\alpha+\beta=-\frac{b}{a}$ and $\alpha\beta=\frac{c}{a}$ so that $\alpha+\alpha^{2}=-\frac{b}{a}$ and $\alpha^{3}=\frac{c}{a}$. From the latter relation, we get that $\alpha = (\frac{c}{a})^{\frac{1}{3}}$. Substituting this in the first relation of sum of roots, we get the following necessary and sufficient condition:

$(\frac{c}{a})^{\frac{1}{3}} + (\frac{c}{a})^{\frac{2}{3}} = -\frac{b}{a}$.

The above is the desired solution.

🙂 🙂 🙂

Nalin Pithwa

# A quadratic and trigonometry combo question: RMO and IITJEE maths coaching

Question:

Given that $\tan {A}$ and $\tan {B}$ are the roots of the quadratic equation $x^{2}+px+q=0$, find the value of

$\sin^{2}{(A+B)}+ p \sin{(A+B)}\cos{(A+B)} + q\cos^{2}{(A+B)}$

Solution:

Let $\alpha=\tan{A}$ and $\beta=\tan{B}$ be the two roots of the given quadratic equation: $x^{2}+px+q=0$

By Viete’s relations between roots and coefficients:

$\alpha+\beta=\tan{A}+\tan{B}=-p$ and $\alpha \beta = \tan{A}\tan{B}=q$ but we also know that $\tan{(A+B)}=\frac{\tan{A}+\tan{B}}{1-\tan{A}\tan{B}}=\frac{-p}{1-q}=\frac{p}{q-1}$

Now, let us call $E=\sin^{2}{(A+B)}+p\sin{(A+B)\cos{(A+B)}}+\cos^{2}{(A+B)}$ which in turn is same as

$\cos^{2}{(A+B)}(\tan^{2}{(A+B)}+p\tan{(A+B)}+q)$

We have already determined $\tan{(A+B)}$ in terms of p and q above.

Now, again note that $\sin^{2}{\theta}+\cos^{2}{\theta}=1$ which in turn gives us that $\tan^{2}{\theta}+1=\sec^{2}{\theta}$ so we get:

$\sec^{2}{(A+B)}=1+\tan^{2}{(A+B)}=1+\frac{p^{2}}{(q-1)^{2}}=\frac{p^{2}+(q-1)^{2}}{(q-1)^{2}}$ so that

$\cos^{2}{(A+B)}=\frac{1}{\sec^{2}{(A+B)}}=\frac{(q-1)^{2}}{p^{2}+(q-1)^{2}}$

Hence, the given expression E becomes:

$(\frac{(q-1)^{2}}{p^{2}+(q-1)^{2}})(\frac{p^{2}}{(q-1)^{2}}+\frac{p^{2}}{q-1}+q)$, which is the desired solution.

🙂 🙂 🙂

Nalin Pithwa.