Problems

Age
Difficulty
Found: 1912

Let \((1 + \sqrt {2} + \sqrt {3})^n = p_n + q_n \sqrt {2} + r_n \sqrt {3} + s_n \sqrt {6}\) for \(n \geq 0\). Find:

a) \(\lim \limits_ {n \to \infty} {\frac {p_n} {q_n}}\); b) \(\lim \limits_ {n \to \infty} {\frac {p_n} {r_n}}\); c) \(\lim \limits_ {n \to \infty} {\frac {p_n} {s_n}}\);

Find the generating functions of the sequences of Chebyshev polynomials of the first and second kind: \[F_T(x,z) = \sum_{n=0}^{\infty}T_n(x)z^n;\quad F_U(x,z) = \sum_{n=0}^{\infty}U_n(X)z^n.\]

Definitions of Chebyshev polynomials can be found in the handbook.

We denote by \(P_{k, l}(n)\) the number of partitions of the number \(n\) into at most \(k\) terms, each of which does not exceed \(l\). Prove the equalities:

a) \(P_{k, l}(n) - P_{k, l-1}(n) = P_{k-1, l}(n-l)\);

b) \(P_{k, l}(n) - P_{k-1, l} (n) = P_{k, l-1}(n-k)\);

c) \(P_{k, l}(n) = P_{l, k} (n)\);

d) \(P_{k, l}(n) = P_{k, l} (kl - n)\).

The following words/sounds are given: look, yar, yell, lean, lease. Determine what will happen if the sounds that make up these words are pronounced in reverse order.

A class contains 33 pupils, who have a combined age of 430 years. Prove that if we picked the 20 oldest pupils they would have a combined age of no less than 260 years. The age of any given pupil is a whole number.

A castle is surrounded by a circular wall with nine towers, at which there are knights on duty. At the end of each hour, they all move to the neighbouring towers, each knight moving either clockwise or counter-clockwise. During the night, each knight stands for some time at each tower. It is known that there was an hour when at least two knights were on duty at each tower, and there was an hour when there was precisely one knight on duty on each of exactly five towers. Prove that there was an hour when there were no knights on duty on one of the towers.

In the entry \({*} + {*} + {*} + {*} + {*} + {*} + {*} + {*} = {*}{*}\) replace the asterisks with different digits so that the equality is correct.

Find the largest value of the expression \(a + b + c + d - ab - bc - cd - da\), if each of the numbers \(a\), \(b\), \(c\) and \(d\) belongs to the interval \([0, 1]\).