Problems

Age
Difficulty
Found: 16

To each pair of numbers \(x\) and \(y\) some number \(x * y\) is placed in correspondence. Find \(1993 * 1935\) if it is known that for any three numbers \(x, y, z\), the following identities hold: \(x * x = 0\) and \(x * (y * z) = (x * y) + z\).

Prove the following formulae are true: \[\begin{aligned} a^{n + 1} - b^{n + 1} &= (a - b) (a^n + a^{n-1}b + \dots + b^n);\\ a^{2n + 1} + b^{2n + 1} &= (a + b) (a^{2n} - a^{2n-1}b + a^{2n-2}b^2 - \dots + b^{2n}). \end{aligned}\]