MOSP 2011 Blue Joshua Nichols-Barrer
bxc and dxe
1. A large rectangle in the plane is partitioned into smaller rectangles, each of which has
either integer height or integer width (or both). Prove that the large rectangle also
has this property.
2. Given positive integers a, b, and m with gcd(a, b) = 1. Let A be a nonempty set
of positive integers such that for every positive integer n either an A or bn A.
Determine the minimum number of elements the set A {1, 2, . . . , m} can have.
3. In the Cartesian coordinate plan define the strip
Sn = {(x, y) : n x < n + 1}
for every integer n. Assume that each strip Sn is colored either red or blue, and let a
and b be two distinct positive integers. Prove that there exists a rectangle with side
lengths a and b such that its vertices have the same color.
4. What is the units digit of
1020000
?
10100 + 3
5. Let a, b, c be positive real numbers such that
banc + bbnc = bcnc
for all positive integers n. Prove that at least one of a, b is an integer.
6. Find all integers a with the property that for infinitely many positive integers n,
$ %
2n2 j k
= n 2 + a.
n 2
7. For a prime p and a positive integer n, denote by p (n) the exponent of p in the
prime factorization of n!. Given a positive integer d and a finite set {p1 , . . . , pk } of
primes, show that there are infinitely many positive integers n such that d|p (n) for all
1 i k.
8. Prove that the sequence (bn 2003c)n1 contains arbitrarily long geometric progressions
with arbitrarily large ratio.
9. Consider a positive integer k and a real number a such that log a is irrational. For
each n 1 let xn be the number formed by the first k digits of ban c. Prove that the
sequence (xn )n1 is not eventually periodic.
1
MOSP 2011 Blue Joshua Nichols-Barrer
10. For a pair (a, b) of real numbers let F (a, b) denote the sequence of general term cn =
ban + bc. Find all pairs (a, b) such that F (x, y) = F (a, b) implies (x, y) = (a, b).
11. Let and be positive real irrational numbers with
1 1
+ = 1.
Prove that the sets {bnc}n1 and {bnc}n1 comprise a partition of the positive
integers.
12. Prove
that for
every k one can find distinct
positive
integers
n1 , n2 , . . . , nk such that
bn1 2c, bn2 2c, . . . , bnk 2c and bn1 3c, bn2 3c, . . . , bnk 3c are both geometric se-
quences.
13. A flea moves in the positive direction
along the x-axis, starting from the origin. It can
only jump over distances equal to 2 and 2005. Prove that there exists an n0 such
that the flea will be able to arrive in any interval [n, n + 1] for each n n0 .
14. Let k be a positive integer. Prove that there exist polynomials P0 (n), P1 (n), . . . , Pk1 (n)
(which may depend on k) such that for any integer n,
j n kk jnk j n kk1
= P0 (n) + P1 (n) + + Pk1 (n) .
k k k
15. Suppose that and are real numbers such that for no rationals a, b, c not all zero
a + b + c = 0. Let I , I [0, 1) be intervals of positive length in [0, 1). Prove that
there is a positive integer n with {n} I and {n} I .
16. Find a nonzero polynomial P (x, y) such that P (bac, b2ac) = 0 for all real numbers a.
17. Find necessary and sufficient conditions on positive integers m and n so that
mn1
X
(1)bi/mc+bi/nc = 0.
i=0
18. Let a, b, c be positive real numbers. Prove that the sets
A = {bnac|n 1}, B = {bnbc|n 1}, C = {bncc|n 1}
cannot form a partition of the set of positive integers.
