The Fiftieth Annual William Lowell Putnam Competition

Saturday, December 2, 1989

0 "
A–1 How many primes among the positive integers, written 0ec " 0e"
B–2 Let be a non-empty set with an associative opera- 0 " d  
]
as usual in base 10, are alternating 1’s and 0’s, begin-  P 
tion that is left and right cancellative (  0h!3 3 G3 7G7 7ji
implies
ning and ending with 1?

 
   c
, and
f O_g V
implies ). Assume that for B Y
c '`3mC
every in the set is finite.
A–2 Evaluate     where  and Must be a group?

are positive. B–3 Let k be a function on l , differentiable and satis-

! ! "$# ! '()"+* ! ',()".-/!!102'43 fying Cp0q- C C
A %
Y+k A  C Zrk AB 
" 06!7 &% " % ' kon 
A–3 Prove that if

()890 '
-then
:! 5 5 (Here is a complex number and /s C
for A . Assume that 5 k
A '  5ut  for /x (so
.) '=< <>! that k
 tends rapidly to as increases). For V a
 vw
A–4 If ; is an irrational number, ; , is there a
non-negative integer, define
0 z C
y O  O k +  A 
8# game isof; heads
finite game with an honest coin such that the probabil-
ity of one player winning the ? (An honest

(sometimes called the V th moment of k ).

coin is one for which the probability and the
probability of tails are both . A game is finite if with

! C a positive integer and let @ be a regular a) Express y O in terms of y  . i

probability 1 it must end in a finite number of moves.)

A B ?
A–5 Let ? % be
b) Prove that the sequence f y O H O+{ | always con-
' 02'
verges, and that the limit is only if y 
there is a positive constant D , independent of ? , with
-gon inscribed in the unit circle. Show that
.
# any points8 E inside @ there
F and F of! @ such that
the following property. For B–4 Can a countably infinite set have an uncountable collec-
are two distinct - vertices
# - - 8 < - D 7 tion of non-empty subsets such that the intersection of

-5 K 5 E F 5 5 E F 5G5 ? ?IH

any two of them is finite?

K 34~3d€.34
B–5 Label the vertices of a trapezoid (quadrilateral~ } €‚
Here 5 J 5 denotes the distance between the points J 34~D 3d€.3d
and . 0L! #  % 8  8 %NMGM M
with two parallel sides) inscribed in the unit circle
D ƒ
~ d
3 # €‚3  8
D  J J
as so that is parallel to and

A–6 Let ;
%   D
are in counterclockwise order. Let ,
be a formal power series
„‚
and denote the lengths of the line segments ,
! if every block of zeros in the binary
with coefficients in the field of two elements. Let and
0q} ' „
, where E is the point of intersection of the di-
0RT QSS expansion of V has an even number agonals of , and is the center of the circle. Deter-
NŠ
mine the least upper bound of over all such for †ˆ‡ v ‰ †  }
PO S ' of zeros in the block
# 3  8 37 7G7  C
which , and describe all cases, if any, in which it
SU otherwise.
O be a point chosen'‹at< random # <  from 8 3G<!Œ
is attained.
0X! 0[! ''4! '+' 8 B–6 Let <
A 
=
0
8 example,  ' \
' ]
0 ! 4
' ! +
' ' 7
8 Y+Z q
< 
! 7  4
'
MGM M V -dimensional
 !O C0]' Let region 0ea defined
' by 0!
!^0_ '`7 becauseH B W %  ; and% k  # function on l
the
) Prove that ; H
(For because
with k
A . Set 
 be
and O,Ž
continuous
. Show that

‘ - ‘C ‘ C
the expected value of the Riemann sum
B–1 A dart, thrown at random, hits a square target. Assum-
ing that any two parts of the target of equal area are ‘“’ O A  Ž #  k A  Ž #

% b 3 3 3
equally likely to be hit, find the probability that the point
# KˆCˆ• KˆC K  •
`a  , where  b  A A  , where' is• aKˆpolynomial C ! ' of degree K ! V,
hit is nearer to the center than to any edge. Express your
is ”  k A
independent of k , with t t for t t .
answer in the form are inte-
gers.