Hercules meets the three-headed snake Hydra of Lerna. Every minute, Hercules chops off one head of the snake. Let \(x\) be the survivability of the snake (\(x > 0\)). The probability \(p_s\) of the fact that in the place of the severed head will grow s new heads \((s = 0, 1, 2)\) is equal to \(\frac{x^s}{1 + x + x^2}\).
During the first 10 minutes of the battle, Hercules recorded how many heads grew in place of each chopped off one. The following vector was obtained: \(K = (1, 2, 2, 1, 0, 2, 1, 0, 1, 2)\). Find the value of the survivability of the snake, under which the probability of the vector \(K\) is greatest.
Solve the equation \(2 \sin \pi x / 2 - 2 \cos \pi x = x^5 + 10x - 54\).
Author: A.V. Shapovalov
We call a triangle rational if all of its angles are measured by a rational number of degrees. We call a point inside the triangle rational if, when we join it by segments with vertices, we get three rational triangles. Prove that within any acute-angled rational triangle there are at least three distinct rational points.
The functions \(f\) and \(g\) are defined on the entire number line and are reciprocal. It is known that \(f\) is represented as a sum of a linear and a periodic function: \(f (x) = kx + h (x)\), where \(k\) is a number, and \(h\) is a periodic function. Prove that \(g\) is also represented in this form.
It is known that \(a > 1\). Is it always true that \(\lfloor \sqrt{\lfloor \sqrt{a}\rfloor }\rfloor = \lfloor \sqrt{4}{a}\rfloor\)?
At a contest named “Ah well, monsters!”, 15 dragons stand in a row. Between neighbouring dragons the number of heads differs by 1. If the dragon has more heads than both of his two neighbors, he is considered cunning, if he has less than both of his neighbors – strong, the rest (including those standing at the edges) are considered ordinary. In the row there are exactly four cunning dragons – with 4, 6, 7 and 7 heads and exactly three strong ones – with 3, 3 and 6 heads. The first and last dragons have the same number of heads.
a) Give an example of how this could occur.
b) Prove that the number of heads of the first dragon in all potential examples is the same.
Is there a positive integer \(n\) such that \[\sqrt{n}{17\sqrt{5} + 38} + \sqrt{n}{17\sqrt{5} - 38} = 2\sqrt{5}\,?\]
Does there exist a function \(f (x)\) defined for all real numbers such that \(f(\sin x) + f (\cos x) = \sin x\)?
Author: G. Zhukov
The square trinomial \(f (x) = ax^2 + bx + c\) that does not have roots is such that the coefficient \(b\) is rational, and among the numbers \(c\) and \(f (c)\) there is exactly one irrational.
Can the discriminant of the trinomial \(f (x)\) be rational?
A firm recorded its expenses in pounds for 100 items, creating a list of 100 numbers (with each number having no more than two decimal places). Each accountant took a copy of the list and found an approximate amount of expenses, acting as follows. At first, he arbitrarily chose two numbers from the list, added them, discarded the sum after the decimal point (if there was anything) and recorded the result instead of the selected two numbers. With the resulting list of 99 numbers, he did the same, and so on, until there was one whole number left in the list. It turned out that in the end all the accountants ended up with different results. What is the largest number of accountants that could work in the company?