Stanford

University Mathematics Camp (SUMaC) 2022

Admissions Exam
For use by SUMaC 2022 applicants only. Not for distribution.

v Solve as many of the following problems as you can. Your work on these
problems together with your grades in school, teacher recommendations,
and answers to the questions on the application form are all used to evaluate
your SUMaC application. Although SUMaC is very selective with a
competitive applicant pool, correct answers on every problem are not
required for admission.

v There is no time limit for this exam other than the application deadline.

v Please include clear, detailed explanations for all of your solutions;

numerical answers or formulas with no explanation are not useful for
evaluating your application.

v In the event you are unable to solve a problem completely, you are
encouraged to write up any partial progress that you feel captures your
ideas leading toward a solution.

v You will need to create a separate document with your solutions and
explanations. This document may be typed or handwritten, as long as the
final document you upload is legible for our review.

v None of these problems require a calculator or computer, and they are all
designed so that they can be done without computational tools.

v You are expected to do your own work without the use of any outside
source (books, teacher or parent help, internet search, etc). If you recognize
one of the problems from another source, or if you receive any assistance,
please indicate this in your write up.

v Please do not share these problems or your solutions with anyone.

1. Tell us something interesting about the number 2022 or explain why you think it is a completely
uninteresting number. This is a purely subjective open-ended question with no wrong answers.

2. A number 𝑛 has the increasing factor property if it can be uniquely factored into a product of strictly
increasing factors, not including the factorization 𝑛 = 1 ∙ 𝑛. That is, 𝑛 = 𝑛! ∙ 𝑛" ∙ ⋯ ∙ 𝑛# for 𝑘 > 1
and 1 < 𝑛! < 𝑛" < ⋯ < 𝑛# < 𝑛, and there is no other factorization 𝑛 = 𝑚! ∙ 𝑚" ∙ ⋯ ∙ 𝑚$ with
1 < 𝑚! < 𝑚" < ⋯ < 𝑚$ < 𝑛, such that the sequence 𝑚! , 𝑚" , … , 𝑚$ is different than the sequence
𝑛! , 𝑛" , … , 𝑛# . For example, 6 has the increasing factor property since 6 = 2 ∙ 3, and 2 < 3, and there
are no other factorizations of 6 with strictly increasing factors. 12 does not have this property since it
can be factored into strictly increasing factors in two ways, 12 = 3 ∙ 4 and 12 = 2 ∙ 6. Characterize
all positive integers that have the increasing factor property.

3. Find a polynomial 𝑝(𝑥) with integer coefficients for which 2√3 + 3√2 is a root. That is find 𝑝(𝑥)
such that for some positive integer 𝑛, and integers 𝑎% , 𝑎! , 𝑎" , … 𝑎& ,

𝑝(𝑥) = 𝑎% + 𝑎! 𝑥 + 𝑎" 𝑥 " + ⋯ + 𝑎& 𝑥 & , and 𝑝92√3 + 3√2: = 0.

4. Consider a stack of five blocks in the following arrangement:

Suppose you are allowed to rearrange the blocks according to the rule that any three blocks that are
touching each other can be rearranged as follows. If the three blocks x, y, and z all touch each other,
then block x can move to the position of block y, block y can move to the position of block z, and
block z can move to the position of block x. We call this kind of rearrangement a cycle. For example,
in the starting configuration above

we can cycle A, B and D to obtain . Then in a second cycle, we can

rearrange D, B, and C to obtain .

a. Is it possible to obtain from using these cycles? Explain.

b. Is it possible to obtain from using these cycles? Explain.

5. Consider the following game: you are given a sequence of the letters 𝐴, 𝐵, 𝐶 and 𝐷. And you are
given the following replacement rules that allow you to replace some combinations of letters with
different combinations of letters.

(i) Two distinct adjacent letters among 𝐴, 𝐵 and 𝐶 can be replaced with the third. More
formally, 𝑋𝑌 can be replaced with Z where 𝑋, 𝑌 and 𝑍 are distinct elements of the set
{𝐴, 𝐵, 𝐶}. For example, if 𝑋 = 𝐶, 𝑌 = 𝐵 and 𝑍 = 𝐴, this rule allows 𝐶𝐵 to be replaced
with 𝐴.
(ii) 𝐴𝐵𝐶 can be replaced with 𝐷.
(iii) The above rules can be reversed; for example, 𝐶 can be replaced with 𝐴𝐵, and 𝐷 can be
replaced by 𝐴𝐵𝐶.

As an example of a round of play in this game, consider the starting sequence 𝐶𝐵𝐴. In a first move
we can use (iii) in combination with (i) to replace 𝐶 with 𝐴𝐵 and get 𝐴𝐵𝐵𝐴. Then in our next move,
we can use (i) to replace 𝐵𝐴 with 𝐶 to get 𝐴𝐵𝐶, which can be replaced by 𝐷 using (ii) in a third
move.

Prove the following:

a. For 𝑋 = 𝐴, 𝐵, 𝐶 or 𝐷, 𝑋𝑋 can be replaced with 𝐷 in a series of moves.

b. For 𝑋 = 𝐴, 𝐵, 𝐶 or 𝐷, the pairs 𝑋𝐷 and 𝐷𝑋 can each be replaced by 𝑋 in a series of
moves.
c. Show that for any given starting sequence, there is exactly one letter among 𝐴, 𝐵, 𝐶 and 𝐷
that can be reached through a sequence of moves.

6. Consider the following puzzle. You are given a 4 x 4 puzzle board:

with four kinds of tiles to be used as puzzle pieces:

The arrows on these tiles point up-left, up-right, down-right and down-left, respectively. For the
purposes of this problem, we consider each arrow to point toward a corner as well as toward the two
neighboring edges of that corner on the tile. For example, on the first tile above, the arrow is
considered to point to the upper-left corner, the left side, and the top side of the tile.

You are given as many tiles of each type as you may need, and the goal of the puzzle is to fill the
squares on the board with these tiles according to the following conditions:

(i) Arrows on neighboring tiles (that is, tiles that touch each other on an edge or on a corner)
cannot point toward the adjoining (shared) edge or toward the adjoining (shared) corner.
For example, the following are not allowed

(a) (b) (c) (d) (e)

In (a) and (b) there is a common edge where one arrow points up to that edge and the other
arrow points down to that same edge, which is not allowed. In (c) and (d) the arrows point
right and left to the same edge, which is not allowed. And in (a), (d) and (e), the two arrows
point to the same corner, which is not allowed.

(i) Each row is required to have two tiles with arrows pointing up and two tiles with arrows
pointing down, and each column is required to have two tiles with arrows pointing to the
left and two tiles with arrows pointing to the right. For example, the following are not
allowed

(a) (b)

In (a), the first row has all four arrows pointing up and the fourth row has all four arrows
pointing down, neither of which are allowed, and in (b), the first column has all arrows
pointing left and the fourth column has all arrows pointing right, neither of which are
allowed.

 Does this puzzle have a solution satisfying both conditions (i) and (ii)? If so, how many distinct
solutions are possible for this puzzle? Explain carefully how you know the solutions you have
accounted for (if any) are the only ones possible.

7. In this problem we consider sum-two-sequences of numbers; that is, a finite sequence of positive
integers that starts with 1, and where each number that comes later in the sequence is the sum of two
previous numbers, including the possibility of adding a number to itself. For example, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 is
a sum-two-sequence, where each number is obtained by adding the previous number to itself. Also,
1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13 is a sum-two-sequence, where after adding 1 to itself, each number is the sum of the
two previous. The following is also a sum-two-sequence: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, obtained by starting with 1
and adding 1 to get each successive number.

More formally, a sum-two-sequence is a sequence of integers 𝑛! , 𝑛" , … , 𝑛# , for 𝑘 > 0 such that 𝑛! =
1 and for 𝑟 = 2, … , 𝑘, there are 𝑠, 𝑡 such that. 1 ≤ 𝑠 ≤ 𝑡 < 𝑟 . and 𝑛' = 𝑛( + 𝑛) . We call 𝑘 the
length of the sum-two-sequence. For each positive integer 𝑁 we can look for the smallest 𝑘 such that
there is a sum-two-sequence ending in 𝑁.

For example, we can get 𝑁 = 10, in the sequence 1, 2, 4, 8, 10, with 𝑘 = 5, and it is not possible to
get 10 in a shorter sequence, since the maximum value of 𝑁 with 𝑘 = 4 is 8.

a. Note that 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 48, 50 is a sum-two-sequence for 𝑁 = 50. Show that 8 is
the smallest 𝑘 for 𝑁 = 50 by showing no sum-two-sequence of length 7 ends in 50.
b. What is the length of the smallest sum-two-sequence for 𝑁 = 55? In addition to
showing that your value of 𝑘 works for 𝑁 = 55, you need to prove there are no
smaller values of 𝑘 that also work for 𝑁 = 55.

8. For the following sudoku-style puzzle, you are given the following 9-by-9 grid,

and you need to fill it in with zeros and ones satisfying the following conditions:
(i) Each row, each column, and each red or blue 3-by-3 box must contain exactly two ones
and seven zeros.
(ii) No two ones can be in squares that touch horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.
For example, the following is a solution to this puzzle:

However, the following is not a solution. Although it satisfies condition (i), the highlighted ones are in
squares that touch diagonally, so it does not satisfy condition (ii).

a. In the following version of the puzzle, two squares in the center 3-by-3 region have ones on corners
across from each other diagonally. Show that it is impossible to fill in the blank squares on this puzzle
satisfying conditions (i) and (ii).

b. In the following version of the puzzle there are ones on either end of the middle row of the center 3-
by-3 region. How many possible solutions are there for completing the blank squares on this puzzle
satisfying conditions (i) and (ii)?

c. Starting with all blank squares, what is the total number of solutions to this puzzle satisfying
conditions (i) and (ii)?