JMO 2013 Solution Notes

Compiled by Evan Chen

January 1, 2021

This is an compilation of solutions for the 2013 JMO. Some of the solutions
are my own work, but many are from the official solutions provided by the
organizers (for which they hold any copyrights), and others were found on
the Art of Problem Solving forums.
Corrections and comments are welcome!

Contents
0 Problems 2

1 JMO 2013/1, proposed by Titu Andreescu 3

2 JMO 2013/2, proposed by Sungyoon Kim 4

3 JMO 2013/3, proposed by Zuming Feng 5

4 JMO 2013/4, proposed by Steven Blasberg and Richard Stong 6

5 JMO 2013/5, proposed by Zuming Feng 7

6 JMO 2013/6, proposed by Titu Andreescu 8

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JMO 2013 Solution Notes web.evanchen.cc, updated January 1, 2021

§0 Problems
1. Are there integers a and b such that a5 b + 3 and ab5 + 3 are both perfect cubes of
integers?

2. Each cell of an m × n board is filled with some nonnegative integer. Two numbers
in the filling are said to be adjacent if their cells share a common side. The filling
is called a garden if it satisfies the following two conditions:
(i) The difference between any two adjacent numbers is either 0 or 1.
(ii) If a number is less than or equal to all of its adjacent numbers, then it is equal
to 0.
Determine the number of distinct gardens in terms of m and n.

3. In triangle ABC, points P , Q, R lie on sides BC, CA, AB, respectively. Let ωA ,
ωB , ωC denote the circumcircles of triangles AQR, BRP , CP Q, respectively. Given
the fact that segment AP intersects ωA , ωB , ωC again at X, Y , Z respectively,
prove that Y X/XZ = BP/P C.

4. Let f (n) be the number of ways to write n as a sum of powers of 2, where we

keep track of the order of the summation. For example, f (4) = 6 because 4 can
be written as 4, 2 + 2, 2 + 1 + 1, 1 + 2 + 1, 1 + 1 + 2, and 1 + 1 + 1 + 1. Find the
smallest n greater than 2013 for which f (n) is odd.

5. Quadrilateral XABY is inscribed in the semicircle ω with diameter XY . Segments

AY and BX meet at P . Point Z is the foot of the perpendicular from P to line
XY . Point C lies on ω such that line XC is perpendicular to line AZ. Let Q be
the intersection of segments AY and XC. Prove that
BY CY AY
+ = .
XP XQ AX

6. Find all real numbers x, y, z ≥ 1 satisfying

√ √ √
√ p √
min x + xyz, y + xyz, z + xyz = x − 1 + y − 1 + z − 1.

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JMO 2013 Solution Notes web.evanchen.cc, updated January 1, 2021

§1 JMO 2013/1, proposed by Titu Andreescu

Are there integers a and b such that a5 b + 3 and ab5 + 3 are both perfect cubes of integers?

No, there do not exist such a and b.

We prove this in two cases.

• Assume 3 | ab. WLOG we have 3 | a, but then a5 b + 3 ≡ 3 (mod 9), contradiction.

• Assume 3 - ab. Then a5 b + 3 is a cube not divisible by 3, so it is ±1 mod 9, and we

conclude
a5 b ∈ {5, 7} (mod 9).
Analogously
ab5 ∈ {5, 7} (mod 9).
We claim however these two equations cannot hold simultaneously. Indeed (ab)6 ≡ 1
(mod 9) by Euler’s theorem, despite 5 · 5 ≡ 7, 5 · 7 ≡ 8, 7 · 7 ≡ 4 mod 9.

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JMO 2013 Solution Notes web.evanchen.cc, updated January 1, 2021

§2 JMO 2013/2, proposed by Sungyoon Kim

Each cell of an m × n board is filled with some nonnegative integer. Two numbers in the filling
are said to be adjacent if their cells share a common side. The filling is called a garden if it
satisfies the following two conditions:
(i) The difference between any two adjacent numbers is either 0 or 1.
(ii) If a number is less than or equal to all of its adjacent numbers, then it is equal to 0.
Determine the number of distinct gardens in terms of m and n.

The numerical answer is 2mn − 1. But we claim much more, by giving an explicit
description of all gardens:

Let S be any nonempty subset of the mn cells. Suppose we fill each cell θ
with the minimum (taxicab) distance from θ to some cell in S (in particular,
we write 0 if θ ∈ S). Then
• This gives a garden, and
• All gardens are of this form.

Since there are 2mn − 1 such nonempty subsets S, this would finish the problem. An
example of a garden with |S| = 3 is shown below.
 
2 1 2 1 0 1
 1 0 1 2 1 2
 
 1 1 2 3 2 3
0 1 2 3 3 4

It is actually fairly easy to see that this procedure always gives a garden; so we focus
our attention on showing that every garden is of this form.
Given a garden, note first that it has at least one cell with a zero in it — by considering
the minimum number across the entire garden. Now let S be the (thus nonempty) set of
cells with a zero written in them. We contend that this works, i.e. the following sentence
holds:

Claim — If a cell θ is labeled d, then the minimum distance from that cell to a cell
in S is d.

Proof. The proof is by induction on d, with d = 0 being by definition. Now, consider

any cell θ labeled d ≥ 1. Every neighbor of θ has label at least d − 1, so any path will
necessarily take d − 1 steps after leaving θ. Conversely, there is some d − 1 adjacent to θ
by (ii). Stepping on this cell and using the minimal path (by induction hypothesis) gives
us a path to a cell in S with length exactly d. So the shortest path does indeed have
distance d, as desired.

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JMO 2013 Solution Notes web.evanchen.cc, updated January 1, 2021

§3 JMO 2013/3, proposed by Zuming Feng

In triangle ABC, points P , Q, R lie on sides BC, CA, AB, respectively. Let ωA , ωB , ωC denote
the circumcircles of triangles AQR, BRP , CP Q, respectively. Given the fact that segment AP
intersects ωA , ωB , ωC again at X, Y , Z respectively, prove that Y X/XZ = BP/P C.

Let M be the concurrence point of ωA , ωB , ωC (by Miquel’s theorem).

R Y
Q
M
X
Z

B P C

Then M is the center of a spiral similarity sending Y Z to BC. So it suffices to show

that this spiral similarity also sends X to P , but

]M XY = ]M XA = ]M RA = ]M RB = ]M P B

so this follows.

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JMO 2013 Solution Notes web.evanchen.cc, updated January 1, 2021

§4 JMO 2013/4, proposed by Steven Blasberg and Richard

Stong
Let f (n) be the number of ways to write n as a sum of powers of 2, where we keep track of the
order of the summation. For example, f (4) = 6 because 4 can be written as 4, 2 + 2, 2 + 1 + 1,
1 + 2 + 1, 1 + 1 + 2, and 1 + 1 + 1 + 1. Find the smallest n greater than 2013 for which f (n) is
odd.

For convenience, we agree that f (0) = 1. Then by considering cases on the first number
in the representation, we derive the recurrence
blog2 nc
X
f (n) = f (n − 2k ). (♥)
k=1

We wish to understand the parity of f . The first few values are

f (0) = 1
f (1) = 1
f (2) = 2
f (3) = 3
f (4) = 6
f (5) = 10
f (6) = 18
f (7) = 31.

Inspired by the data we make the key claim that

Claim — f (n) is odd if and only if n + 1 is a power of 2.

Proof. We call a number repetitive if it is zero or its binary representation consists entirely
of 1’s. So we want to prove that f (n) is odd if and only if n is repetitive.
This only takes a few cases:

• If n = 2k , then (♥) has exactly two boring terms on the RHS, namely 0 and 2k − 1.

• If n = 2k + 2` − 1, then (♥) has exactly two boring terms on the RHS, namely
2`+1 − 1 and 2` − 1.

• If n = 2k − 1, then (♥) has exactly one boring terms on the RHS, namely 2k−1 − 1.

• For any other of n, there are no boring terms at all on the RHS of (♥).

Thus the induction checks out.

The final answer to the problem is 2047.

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JMO 2013 Solution Notes web.evanchen.cc, updated January 1, 2021

§5 JMO 2013/5, proposed by Zuming Feng

Quadrilateral XABY is inscribed in the semicircle ω with diameter XY . Segments AY and BX
meet at P . Point Z is the foot of the perpendicular from P to line XY . Point C lies on ω such
that line XC is perpendicular to line AZ. Let Q be the intersection of segments AY and XC.
Prove that
BY CY AY
+ = .
XP XQ AX

Let β = ∠Y XP and α = ∠P Y X and set XY = 1. We do not direct angles in the

following solution.

A
P
C

β
α
X Z Y

Observe that
∠AZX = ∠AP X = α + β
since AP ZX is cyclic. In particular, ∠CXY = 90◦ − (α + β). It is immediate that

BY = sin β, CY = cos (α + β) , AY = cos α, AX = sin α.

sin α
The Law of Sines on 4XP Y gives XP = XY sin(α+β) , and on 4XQY gives XQ =
sin α sin α
XY sin(90+β) = cos β . So, the given is equivalent to

sin β cos(α + β) cos α

sin α
+ sin α
=
sin(α+β) cos β
sin α

which is equivalent to cos α = cos β cos(α + β) + sin β sin(α + β). This is obvious, because
the right-hand side is just cos ((α + β) − β).

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JMO 2013 Solution Notes web.evanchen.cc, updated January 1, 2021

§6 JMO 2013/6, proposed by Titu Andreescu

Find all real numbers x, y, z ≥ 1 satisfying
√ √ √
√ p √
min x + xyz, y + xyz, z + xyz = x − 1 + y − 1 + z − 1.

Set x = 1 + a, y = 1 + b, z = 1 + c which eliminates the x, y, z ≥ 1 condition. Then

the given equation rewrites as
p √ √ √
(1 + a) (1 + (1 + b)(1 + c)) = a + b + c.

In fact, we are going to prove the left-hand side always exceeds the right-hand side, and
then determine the equality cases. We have:

(1 + a) (1 + (1 + b)(1 + c)) = (a + 1) (1 + (b + 1)(1 + c))

 √ √ 2

≤ (a + 1) 1 + b+ c
√ √ √ 
≤ a+ b+ c

by two applications of Cauchy-Schwarz.√

√
Equality holds if bc = 1 and 1/a = b + c. Letting c = t2 for t ≥ 1, we recover
b = t−2 ≤ t2 and a = t+1/t
1
≤ t2 .
Hence the solution set is
 2 !
t 1
(x, y, z) = 1 + 2 , 1 + 2 , 1 + t2
t +1 t

and permutations, for any t > 0.