Problems

Age
Difficulty
Found: 86

Author: A. Khrabrov

Do there exist integers \(a\) and \(b\) such that

a) the equation \(x^2 + ax + b = 0\) does not have roots, and the equation \(\lfloor x^2\rfloor + ax + b = 0\) does have roots?

b) the equation \(x^2 + 2ax + b = 0\) does not have roots, and the equation \(\lfloor x^2\rfloor + 2ax + b = 0\) does have roots?

Note that here, square brackets represent integers and curly brackets represent non-integer values or 0.

Author: A.K. Tolpygo

12 grasshoppers sit on a circle at various points. These points divide the circle into 12 arcs. Let’s mark the 12 mid-points of the arcs. At the signal the grasshoppers jump simultaneously, each to the nearest clockwise marked point. 12 arcs are formed again, and jumps to the middle of the arcs are repeated, etc. Can at least one grasshopper return to his starting point after he has made a) 12 jumps; b) 13 jumps?

Author: L.N. Vaserstein

For any natural numbers \(a_1, a_2, \dots , a_m\), no two of which are equal to each other and none of which is divisible by the square of a natural number greater than one, and also for any integers and non-zero integers \(b_1, b_2, \dots , b_m\) the sum is not zero. Prove this.

The segment \(OA\) is given. From the end of the segment \(A\) there are 5 segments \(AB_1, AB_2, AB_3, AB_4, AB_5\). From each point \(B_i\) there can be five more new segments or not a single new segment, etc. Can the number of free ends of the constructed segments be 1001? By the free end of a segment we mean a point belonging to only one segment (except point \(O\)).

The numbers \(\lfloor a\rfloor, \lfloor 2a\rfloor, \dots , \lfloor Na\rfloor\) are all different, and the numbers \(\lfloor 1/a\rfloor, \lfloor 2/a\rfloor,\dots , \lfloor M/a\rfloor\) are also all different. Find all such \(a\).

Airlines connect pairs of cities. How can you connect 50 cities with the fewest number of airlines so that from every city you can get to any other city by taking at most two flights?

In a dark room on a shelf there are 4 pairs of socks of two different sizes and two different colours that are not arranged in pairs. What is the minimum number of socks necessary to move from the drawer to the suitcase, without leaving the room, so that there are two pairs of socks of different sizes and colours in the suitcase?