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S9

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Ahmed Hasib Ittihad
M Ahsan Al Mahir

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March 17, 2021

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1 Pigeon Hole Principle
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Theorem 1.1 (Pigeonhole principle) — If n + 1 objects are arranged in n places, there must be at least
two objects in the same place.
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⌈ ⌉ 1.2 (Pigeonhole principle, strong version) — If n objects are arranged in k places, there are at
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least nk objects in the same place.
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1.1 Practice Problems

Problem 1.1. Given a triangle in the plane, prove that there is no line that does not go through any of its
vertices but intersects all three sides.
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Problem 1.2. Prove that given 13 points with integer coordinates, one can always find 4 of them such that
their center of gravity has integer coordinates.
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Problem 1.3. Prove that in a party of 6 persons there are always three of them who know each other, or three
of them such that no two of them know each other.

Problem 1.4. Show that in a party there are always two persons who have shaken hands with the same number
of persons.

Problem 1.5 (Erd�s, Szekeres 1935). Given any sequence of ab + 1 different numbers, there is always an
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increasing subsequence of at least a + 1 numbers or a decreasing subsequence of at least b + 1 numbers.

2 Inequalities

Theorem 2.1 (AM-GM) — Given n positive real numbers x1 , x2 . . . xn , we define the arithmetic
mean by
x1 + x2 + . . . x n
n

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 and the geometric mean by
√
n
x1 x2 . . . x n
The AM-GM ineqaulity tells us:

x1 + x2 + . . . xn √
≥ n x1 x2 . . . x n
n

Equality happens only when x1 = x2 = · · · = xn .

The version you are most likely to use in BdMO is for n = 2:
x+y √

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≥ xy
2

Theorem 2.2 (Cauchy-Schwarz Inequality) — Let a1 , · · · , an , b1 , · · · , bn be any real numbers. Then

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( )( )

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a21 + · · · + a2n b21 + · · · + b2n ≥ (a1 b1 + · · · + an bn )

Equality holds if and only if ai = kbi for some constant k, for each i ∈ {1, · · · , n}.

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2.1 Practice Problems

Problem 2.1. For positive reals a, b, c prove that

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a2 + b2 + c2 ≥ ab + bc + ca

Problem 2.2. Prove that

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1 1 1 1 1
+ + + ... + + <1
1 × 2013 2 × 2012 3 × 2011 2012 × 2 2013 × 1
Problem 2.3. For positive reals a, b, c, d prove that
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a4 + b4 + c4 ≥ a2 bc + b2 ca + c2 ab

Problem 2.4. For positive reals a, b, c so that abc = 1, prove that

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a2 + b2 + c2 ≥ a + b + c

Problem 2.5. Solve for integers x, y :

x8 + y 8 = 8xy − 6
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Problem 2.6. For pairwise distinct nonnegative reals a, b, c, prove that

a2 b2 c2
+ + >2
(b − c)2 (c − a)2 (b − a)2
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2.2 National Problems

Problem 2.7 (2019 Secondary P1). Prove that, if a, b, c are positive real numbers,
a b c 2 2 2
+ + ≥ + −
bc ca ab a b c

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3 Algorithms

3.1 Practice Problems

Problem 3.1 (Number Guessing Game). A number guessing game is a simple guessing game where a user is
supposed to guess a number between 0 and N . The guesser can ask questions in terms of ”equal to”, ”smaller
than” or ”greater than”, and the answers will be ”yes” or ”no”.

Given the value of N , what is the minimum number of guesses you need to make to guarantee success?

Problem 3.2. Given a positive integer n, give an algorithm to write it in

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1. base 2 2. base 8 3. base 7

Problem 3.3. Given a positive integer n, give an algorithm to write it uniquely as a sum of non consecutive

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Fibonacci numbers.

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Problem 3.4. Let ∆ be the maximum degree of the vertices of a graph. Devise a method to color the verticies
of this graph in at most ∆ + 1 colors such that no vertice of the same color shares an edge.

Problem 3.5 (Russia 2005). In a 2 × n array, we have positive reals such that the sum of the numbers in each

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of the n columns is 1 . Show that we can select one number in each column such that the sum of the selected
numbers in each row is at most n+1
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3.2 National Problems

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Problem 3.6. You have a machine where you can insert a number n, and it will output a number depending
on whether the input was even or not. Call the machine f , and then the relation is given by:
{n
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n is even
f (n) = 2
n + 1 n is odd
You enter a number n to the machine, and recursively keep entering the output as an input. You do this until
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you reach a number that you already received as an output earlier. And then you stop.

Define ord(n) as the number of times you can use the machine starting with a positive integer n. For each n,
what is ord(n)?
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Problem 3.7 (2021 Selection). The previous question, with a slight modification to the machine. It now outputs
n + 3 when n is odd.
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Problem 3.8 (2018 Secondary P7). The vertices of a regular nonagon (9-sided polygon) are labeled with the
digits 1 through 9 in such a way that the sum of the numbers on every three consecutive vertices is a multiple
of 3 . Two acceptable arrangements are considered to be indistinguishable if one can be obtained from the
other by rotating the nonagon in the plane. Find the number of distinguishable acceptable arrangements.

Problem 3.9 (2018 Higher Secondary P8). In a tournament of n players, every pair of players play exactly one
match and there is no draw. A positive integer k is called n -good if there exists a tournament of n players in
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which for any k number of players, there is at least one player other than the k players who beats all of them.

1. Prove that if k is n -good then n ≥ 2k+1 − 1.

2. Find all n so that 2 is n -good.

Problem 3.10 (2016 Higher Secondary P7). Aasma is a mathematician and devised an algorithm to find a
husband. The strategy is:

• Start interviewing a maximum of 1000 prospective husbands. Assign a ranking r to each person that is
a positive integer. No two prospects will have same the rank Γ.

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 • Reject the first k men and let H be highest rank of these k men.

• After rejecting the first k men, select the next prospect with a rank greater than H and then stop the
search immediately. If no candidate is selected after 999 interviews, the 1000th person is selected.

Aasma wants to find the value of k for which she has the highest probability of choosing the highest ranking
prospect among all 1000 candidates without having to interview all 1000 prospects.

a. What is the probability that the highest ranking prospect among all 1000 prospects is the (m + 1)th
prospect?

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b. Assume the highest ranking prospect is the (m + 1)th person to be interviewed. What is the probability
that the highest rank candidate among the first m candidates is one of the first k candidates who were
rejected?

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c. What is the probability that the prospect with the highest rank is the (m + 1)th person and that Aasma
will choose the (m + 1)th boy using this algorithm?

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d. The total probability that Aasma will choose the highest ranking prospect among the 1000 prospects is
the sum of the probability for each possible value of m + 1 with m + 1 ranging between k + 1 and 1000
. Find the sum. To simplify your answer use the formula

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1 1 1 1
ln N ≈ + + ········· + +
N −1 N −2 2 1

e. Find that value of k that maximizes the probability of choosing the highest ranking prospect without
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interviewing all 1000 candidates. You may need to know that the maximum of the function X ln x−1 is
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A+1
approximately e , where A is a constant and e is Euler’s number, e = 2.718 . . . ..k
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