Australian Mathematical Olympiad Committee

Exam J1, I1 (Number theory and Combinatorics) 2021 Selection School

Tuesday 30 March, 2021

Junior: Problems 1,2,3,4. (2 hours)

Intermediate: Problems 3,4,5,6. (3 hours)

Problem 1. Find all pairs (x, y) of integers such that

x
x−y = .
y

Problem 2. Find the number of partitions of {1, 2, . . . , 2021} into two sets such that none of the
sets contains two distinct elements whose sum is a power of 2.

Problem 3. Determine all positive integers n ≥ 2 that can be written as

n = k 2 + d2

where k is the smallest divisor of n greater than 1 and d is any divisor of n.

Problem 4. Let ABCD be a square that is partitioned into rectangles such that no point is a
corner of four rectangles. All corner points of rectangles are coloured with two colours such that any
two diagonal corners in a rectangle (of the partition) have different colours.
If A and C have the same colour, prove that B and D also have the same colour.

Problem 5. Alex has coloured each of the positive integers. He had several colours at his disposal.
His colouring satisfies the following requirements:

(a) each odd integer is coloured blue,

(b) each integer n has the same colour as 4n,
(c) each integer n has the same colour as at least one of the integers n + 2 and n + 4.

Prove that Alex has coloured all integers blue.

Problem 6. There are n boys and n girls in a school class, where n is a positive integer. The
heights of all the children in this class are distinct. Every girl determines the number of boys that
are taller than her, subtracts the number of girls that are taller than her, and writes the result on a
piece of paper. Every boy determines the number of girls that are shorter than him, subtracts the
number of boys that are shorter than him, and writes the result on a piece of paper.
Prove that the numbers written down by the girls are the same as the numbers written down by the
boys (up to a permutation).
Exam Instructions

• At the beginning of the exam, turn off your cameras and mute your microphones.
• Any queries must be submitted via Zoom chat privately to Michelle Chen during the first 30
minutes of the exam.
• Rulers and compasses are permitted. No protractors, books, notes, calculators are permitted.
Except for the purpose of asking questions during the first 30 minutes, no computers, tablets
or mobile phones are permitted.
• Write only on one side of each sheet of paper
• Keep your workings for different questions on separate pages.
Clearly label each page with your name and the question number. Indicate if it is a solution
page (S) or a rough work page (R). Hand in all solutions, partial solutions and ideas along with
rough workings. See the picture below.

Name Q1/R3
Name Q1/R2
Name Q1/R1
Name Q1/S2
Name Q1/S1

Name Q2/R3
Name Q2/R2
Name Q2/R1
Name Q2/S2
Name Q2/S1

• Please write a short cover sheet to put on top of everything stating the exam and your name,
making this page 1 of your scan. E.g. “J1 John Smith”, “I1 Amy Jones etc”.
• At the end of the exam, promptly scan (in colour if possible) all your papers and email them
in a single file to Grace He sien0120@gmail.com. Name your file the same as your cover sheet.
(“J1 John Smith” etc.)
• If your file size exceeds 20MB you will need to split your file into smaller pieces before sending
each piece in a separate email. E.g. “I1 John Smith 1 of 3” etc.