Chapter 5

Mathematics

We all use math every day; to predict weather, to tell time, to handle money.
Math is more than formulas or equations; it’s logic, it’s rationality,
it’s using your mind to solve the biggest mysteries we know.
— TV show NUMB3RS

Recent ICPCs (especially in Asia) usually contain one or two mathematics problems. This chapter aims to
prepare contestants in dealing with them.

5.1 Overview and Motivation

As with the topic of graph in previous chapter, there exist mathematics problems in recent ICPC
problem sets – at least one, and can be two per problem set (see Table 5.1)!

LA Problem Name Source Mathematics Problem (Algorithm)

2194 The Luncheon Dhaka06
2195 Counting Zeroes Dhaka06 Prime Numbers
2953 Sum of Factorials Guangzhou03
2955 Vivian’s Problem Guangzhou03
3172 Period of an Infinite ... Manila06
3399 Sum of Consecutive ... Japan05 Prime Numbers
3904 Tile Code Seoul07 Combinatorics
3997 Numerical surprises Danang07
4104 MODEX Singapore07 Modular Exponentiation (Java BigInteger)
4203 Puzzles of Triangles Dhaka08
4209 Stopping Doom’s Day Dhaka08 Formula Simplification + BigInt
4270 Discrete Square Roots Hefei08
4340 Find Terrorists Amrita08
4406 Irreducible Fractions KLumpur08
4715 Rating Hazard Phuket09 Farey Sequence
4721 Nowhere Money Phuket09 Fibonacci, Zeckendorf Theorem

Table 5.1: Some Mathematics Problems in Recent ACM ICPC Asia Regional

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