MEMO

Boris Stanković, Ervin Macić, Haris Imamović

July 2021

§1 Algebra
Problem 1.1. Determine all functions f : R → R such that for all x, y ∈ R:

f (x + yf (x)) = f (xf (y)) − x + f (y + f (x))

Problem 1.2. Cookie Monster says a positive integer n is crunchy if there exist 2n real
numbers x1 , x2 , . . . , x2n , not all equal, such that the sum of any n of the xi ’s is equal
to the product of the other n of the xi ’s. Help Cookie Monster determine all crunchy
integers.

Problem 1.3. Find all functions f : R+ → R+ such that for all x, y ∈ R+ the followings
hold:

1. f (x + y) ≥ f (x) + y

2. f (f (x)) ≤ x

Problem 1.4. Let A denote the set of all polynomials in three variables x, y, z with
integer coefficients. Let B denote the subset of A formed by all polynomials which can
be expressed as

(x + y + z)P (x, y, z) + (xy + yz + zx)Q(x, y, z) + xyzR(x, y, z)

with P, Q, R ∈ A. Find the smallest non-negative integer n such that xi y j z k ∈ B for all
non-negative integers i, j, k satisfying i + j + k ≥ n.

Problem 1.5. Let the real numbers a, b, c, d satisfy the relations a + b + c + d = 6 and
a2 + b2 + c2 + d2 = 12. Prove that

36 ≤ 4 a3 + b3 + c3 + d3 − a4 + b4 + c4 + d4 ≤ 48.

Problem 1.6. Find all functions f : R+ → R+ such that

  
x + f (y) 1 1
=f +f
xf (y) y x

for all positive real numbers x and y.

Problem 1.7. Let a1 , a2 , . . . , an (n ≥ 4) be real numbers such that

a1 + a2 + · · · + an ≥ n and a21 + a22 + · · · + a2n ≥ n2 .

Let M = max(a1 , a2 , . . . , an ). Find the minimal value of M .

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Boris Stanković, Ervin Macić, Haris Imamović (July 2021) MEMO

Problem 1.8. Determine all functions f : R → R satisfying the condition

f (y 2 + 2xf (y) + f (x)2 ) = (y + f (x))(x + f (y))

for all real numbers x and y.

Problem 1.9. Find the smallest constant C > 0 for which the following statement holds:
among any five positive real numbers a1 , a2 , a3 , a4 , a5 (not necessarily distinct), one can
always choose distinct subscripts i, j, k, l such that
 
 ai
 − ak  ≤ C.

 aj al 

Problem 1.10. Consider fractions ab where a and b are positive integers.

a
(a) Prove that
√ for every positive integer n, there exists such a fraction such that
√ √ b
n ≤ ab ≤ n + 1 and b ≤ n + 1.

a
(b) Show that there√are infinitely many positive integers n such that no such fraction
√ √ b
satisfies n ≤ ab ≤ n + 1 and b ≤ n.

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Boris Stanković, Ervin Macić, Haris Imamović (July 2021) MEMO

§2 Combinatorics
Problem 2.1. There are 2018 employees in a bank. All the employees came to celebrate
the bank’s jubilee and were seated around one round table. It is known that the difference
in salaries of any two adjacent employees is 2 or 3 dollars. Find the maximal difference
in salaries of two employees, if it is known all salaries are different.
Problem 2.2. The numbers 0, 1, 2, . . . , n (n ≥ 2) are written on a blackboard. In each
step we erase an integer which is the arithmetic mean of two different numbers which are
still left on the blackboard. We make such steps until no further integer can be erased.
Let g(n) be the smallest possible number of integers left on the blackboard at the end.
Find g(n) for every n.
Problem 2.3. In a 2 × n array we have positive reals such that the sum of the numbers
in each of the n columns is 1. Show that we can select a number in each column such
that the sum of the selected numbers in each row is at most n+1
4 .

Problem 2.4. Each of n students has a positive integer number of pebbles, and in total
they have 2n − 2 pebbles. Prove that for every positive integer l ≤ 2n − 2 there exists a
subset of the students which have exactly l pebbles in total.
Problem 2.5. Let n ≥ 3 be an integer. John and Mary play the following game: First
John labels the sides of a regular n-gon with the numbers 1, 2, . . . , n in whatever order
he wants, using each number exactly once. Then Mary divides this n-gon into triangles
by drawing n − 3 diagonals which do not intersect each other inside the n-gon. All
these diagonals are labeled with number 1. Into each of the triangles the product of the
numbers on its sides is written. Let S be the sum of those n − 2 products.

Determine the value of S if Mary wants the number S to be as small as possible

and John wants S to be as large as possible and if they both make the best possible
choices.
Problem 2.6. Let N be a positive integer. Consider a N × N array of square unit cells.
Two corner cells that lie on the same longest diagonal are colored black, and the rest of
the array is white. A move consists of choosing a row or a column and changing the color
of every cell in the chosen row or column. What is the minimal number of additional
cells that one has to color black such that, after a finite number of moves, a completely
black board can be reached?
Problem 2.7. In the country of Graphia there are 100 towns, each numbered from 1 to
100. Some pairs of towns may be connected by a (direct) road and we call such pairs of
towns adjacent. No two roads connect the same pair of towns.

Peter, a foreign tourist, plans to visit Graphia 100 times. For each i, i = 1, 2, . . . , 100,
Peter starts his i-th trip by arriving in the town numbered i and then each following
day Peter travels from the town he is currently in to an adjacent town with the lowest
assigned number, assuming such that a town exists and that he hasn’t visited it already
on the i-th trip. Otherwise, Peter deems his i-th trip to be complete and returns home.

It turns out that after all 100 trips, Peter has visited each town in Graphia the same
number of times. Find the largest possible number of roads in Graphia.
Problem 2.8. We consider dissections of regular n-gons into n − 2 triangles by n − 3
diagonals which do not intersect inside the n-gon. A bicoloured triangulation is such

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a dissection of an n-gon in which each triangle is coloured black or white and any two
triangles which share an edge have different colours. We call a positive integer n ≥ 4
triangulable if every regular n-gon has a bicoloured triangulation such that for each
vertex A of the n-gon the number of black triangles of which A is a vertex is greater than
the number of white triangles of which A is a vertex.
Find all triangulable numbers.

Problem 2.9. There are n computers in a row, all originally off, and Phoenix wants to
turn all of them on. He will manually turn on computers one at a time. At any point, if
computer i − 1 and computer i + 1 are both on, computer i (2 ≤ i ≤ n − 1) will turn
on automatically if it is not already on. Note that Phoenix cannot manually turn on a
computer that already turned on automatically.

If we only consider the sequence of computers that Phoenix turns on manually, how many
ways can he turn on all the computers?
Remark: This is not a strictly mathematical problem but a problem we want you to
try to solve. Count on having a computer at your disposal, we are only interested in how
you would find the required number with the help of a computer

Problem 2.10. Two squirrels, Bushy and Jumpy, have collected 2021 walnuts for the
winter. Jumpy numbers the walnuts from 1 through 2021, and digs 2021 little holes in
a circular pattern in the ground around their favourite tree. The next morning Jumpy
notices that Bushy had placed one walnut into each hole, but had paid no attention
to the numbering. Unhappy, Jumpy decides to reorder the walnuts by performing a
sequence of 2021 moves. In the k-th move, Jumpy swaps the positions of the two walnuts
adjacent to walnut k.
Prove that there exists a value of k such that, on the k-th move, Jumpy swaps some
walnuts a and b such that a < k < b.

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Boris Stanković, Ervin Macić, Haris Imamović (July 2021) MEMO

§3 Number Theory
Problem 3.1. Let a, n be two positive integers.
a) Prove that there exists an n-tuplet of natural numbers (a1 , a2 , . . . , an ) that satisfy the
following equality.
n  
1 Y 1
1+ = 1+
a ai
i=1

b) Show that there exist only finitely such n-tuplets.

Problem 3.2. Find all pairs of integers x, y for which

x3 + x2 + x = y 2 + y.

Problem 3.3. The numbers 1!, 2!, 3!, ..., 2017! are written on the blackboard. We wish
to erase as few numbers as possible from the board such that the product of all the
remaining numbers is a perfect square. How many numbers must we erase?

Problem 3.4. Let n > 1 be an integer. Prove that there exists a positive integer m > nn
m −mn
such that n m+n is a positive integer.

Problem 3.5. (a) Prove that for every positive integer m there exists an integer n ≥ m
such that jnk jnk j n k n
· ··· = (∗)
1 2 m m
(b) Denote by p(m) the smallest integer n ≥ m such that the equation (∗) holds. For
which positive integers m does p(m + 1) = p(m) hold?
Remark : For a real number x, we denote by bxc the largest integer not larger than x.

Problem 3.6. Determine the smallest positive integer n for which the following statement
holds true: From any n consecutive integers one can select a non-empty set of consecutive
integers such that their sum is divisible by 2019.

Problem 3.7. Two infinite arithmetic sequences with positive integers are given:

a1 < a2 < a3 < · · · ; b1 < b2 < b3 < · · ·

It is known that there are infinitely many pairs of positive integers (i, j) for which
i ≤ j ≤ i + 2021 and ai divides bj . Prove that for every positive integer i there exists a
positive integer j such that ai divides bj .

Problem 3.8. Let n ≥ 2 be an integer. An n-tuple (a1 , a2 , . . . , an ) of not necessarily

different positive integers is expensive if there exists a positive integer k such that

(a1 + a2 )(a2 + a3 ) . . . (an−1 + an )(an + a1 ) = 22k−1 .

a) Find all integers n ≥ 2 for which there exists an expensive n-tuple.

b) Prove that for every odd positive integer m there exists an integer n ≥ 2 such
that m belongs to an expensive n-tuple.

Problem 3.9. Find all functions f : Z>0 → Z>0 such that a + f (b) divides a2 + bf (a)
for all positive integers a and b with a + b > 2019.

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Problem 3.10. Suppose that a0 , a1 , · · · and b0 , b1 , · · · are two sequences of positive

integers such that a0 , b0 ≥ 2 and

an+1 = gcd (an , bn ) + 1, bn+1 = lcm (an , bn ) − 1.

Show that the sequence an is eventually periodic; in other words, there exist integers
N ≥ 0 and t > 0 such that an+t = an for all n ≥ N .

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Boris Stanković, Ervin Macić, Haris Imamović (July 2021) MEMO

§4 Geometry

Problem 4.1. Let O be the circumcenter of triangle ABC. Circle ω is the A-excircle and
has same radius as the circumcircle of triangle ABC. If ω touches the sides AB, BC, CA
in E, D, F respectively, prove that OD and EF are perpendicular.

Problem 4.2. Let ABC be an acute-angled triangle with AB < AC, and let D be the
foot of its altitude from A. Let R and Q be the centroids of triangles ABD and ACD,
respectively. Let P be a point on the line segment BC such that P 6= D and points P ,
Q, R and D are concyclic. Prove that the lines AP , BQ and CR are concurrent.

Problem 4.3. In an acute triangle ABC let AHa and BHb be altitudes. Let Ha Hb
intersect the circumcircle of ABC at P and Q. Let A0 be the reflection of A in BC, and
let B 0 be the reflection of B in CA. Prove that A0 , B 0 , P , Q are concyclic.

Problem 4.4. Suppose that ABCD is a cyclic quadrilateral and CD = DA. Points
E and F belong to the segments AB and BC respectively, and ∠ADC = 2∠EDF .
Segments DK and DM are the altitude and median of triangle DEF , respectively. L
is the point symmetric to K with respect to M . Prove that the lines DM and BL are
parallel.

Problem 4.5. On the sides AB, AC of acute triangle ABC with orthocenter H and
circumcenter O are given points P, Q respectively such that AP HQ is a parallelogram.
Prove that PQA·QO
B·P Q
= 2.

Problem 4.6. In the triangle ABC the orthocenter H is marked and the altitude AK is
drawn. The circle w passes through the points A and K and intersects the sides AB and
AC at the points M and N , respectively. The line passing through the point A parallel
to BC, for the second time intersects the circumscribed circles of triangles AHM and
AHN at the points X and Y , respectively. Prove that XY = BC.

Problem 4.7. Let ABC be a triangle with AB = AC, and let M be the midpoint of
BC. Let P be a point such that P B < P C and P A is parallel to BC. Let X and Y
be points on the lines P B and P C, respectively, so that B lies on the segment P X, C
lies on the segment P Y , and ∠P XM = ∠P Y M . Prove that the quadrilateral AP XY is
cyclic.

Problem 4.8. Let ABCDE be a convex pentagon. Let P be the intersection of the
lines CE and BD. Assume that ∠P AD = ∠ACB and ∠CAP = ∠EDA. Prove that the
circumcentres of the triangles ABC and ADE are collinear with P .

Problem 4.9. The quadrilateral ABCD is given such that ∠BAD + 2∠BCD = 180◦ .
Let E be the intersection of BD and the internal bisector of ∠BAD. The perpendicular
bisector of AE intersects CB, CD at X, Y, respectively. Prove that A, C, X, Y are
concyclic.

Problem 4.10. Let ABC be an acute scalene triangle with circumcircle ω and incenter
I. Suppose the orthocenter H of BIC lies inside ω. Let M be the midpoint of the longer
arc BC of ω. Let N be the midpoint of the shorter arc AM of ω. Prove that there exists
a circle tangent to ω at N and tangent to the circumcircles of BHI and CHI.