Problems

On a board there are the following \(+\) and \(-\) signs drawn:

\[+\; + \; + \; - \; - \; + \; + \; - \; + \; - \; +\]

You can choose any two signs, erase them, and then draw a \(+\) sign if the signs you erased were both equal, and a \(-\) sign if the signs you erased were different. Show that regardless of the order you perform these erasures, the sign that is left at the end is always the same.

\(2025\) lilly pads are placed in a row. Some number of frogs are on top of the pads. Each minute, if there are two frogs on the same lily pad, and this lily pad is not at one of the ends of the row, some two of the frogs will jump: one to the left lily pad, and one to the right lily pad (they will jump in opposite directions) show that this process cannot repeat forever.

You have an \(n\times m\) chocolate bar. You break the bar into two pieces along a line between its squares, then your friend and you take turns (your friend starts) choosing one of the pieces and breaking it again along a line between its squares. The player who cannot make a move loses. For which values of \(n\) and \(m\) do you win?

Darya has made eleven pancakes, each has an area of \(1\), but each pancake can have a different shape. She places them carefully on a plate of area \(6\). Show that if the pancakes fit entirely inside the plate, then there must be two pancakes that overlap by at least an area of \(1/11\).

Four points \(A,B,C,D\) are chosen on the sides of a square of side length \(1\). The quadrilateral with vertices \(A,B,C,D\) has side lengths \(a,b,c,d\) as in the picture below. Show that \(2\leq a^2+b^2+c^2+d^2\leq 4\).

Let \(a, b, c\) be numbers such that \(a^2 + b^2 + c^2 = 1\). Show that \[-\frac12 \leq ab + bc + ac \leq 1.\]

An ordered triple of numbers is given. It is permitted to perform the following operation on the triple: to change two of them, say \(a\) and \(b\), to \(\frac{a+b}{\sqrt{2}}\) and \(\frac{a-b}{\sqrt{2}}\). Is it possible to obtain the triple \((1,\sqrt{2},1+\sqrt{2})\) from the triple \((2,\sqrt{2},\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}})\) using this operation?

(USAMO 1997) Let \(p_1, p_2, p_3,\dots\) be the prime numbers listed in increasing order, and let \(0 < x_0 < 1\) be a real number between 0 and 1. For each positive integer \(k\), define \[x_k = \begin{cases} 0 & \text{ if } x_{k-1} = 0 \\ \left\{\frac{p_k}{x_{k-1}} \right\} & \text{ if } x_{k-1} \neq 0 \end{cases}\] where \(\{x\}\) denotes the fractional part of \(x\). For example, \(\{2.53\} = 0.53\) and \(\{3.1415926...\} = 0.1415926...\). Find, with proof, all \(x_0\) satisfying \(0 <x_0 <1\) for which the sequence \(x_0, x_1, x_2,\dots\) eventually becomes 0.

Take the number \(2026^{2026}\). We remove the leading digit and add it to the remaining number. This action is repeated until there are exactly \(10\) digits left. Show that there must be two digits that are the same in the end.

George is cutting a birthday cake into various numbers of pieces. If he cuts the cake or a piece of cake into only two parts, then those part must have equal weight. However, if he cuts the cake into more than two pieces, then those pieces can be of any weight, but they all must have different integer masses. After some operations he managed to cut the cake into \(N\) pieces. Is it true that for any \(N\geq 10\) it could be that all the pieces are of the same weight?