Problems

Age
Difficulty
Found: 725

Work out \(F_3^2-F_0F_6\), \(F_4^2-F_1F_7\), \(F_5^2-F_2F_8\) and \(F_6^2-F_3F_9\). What pattern do you spot?

Can every whole number be written as the sum of two Fibonacci numbers? If yes, then prove it. If not, then give an example of a number that can’t be. The two Fibonacci numbers don’t have to be different.

What’s \(\sum_{i=0}^nF_i^2=F_0^2+F_1^2+F_2^2+...+F_{n-1}^2+F_n^2\) in terms of just \(F_n\) and \(F_{n+1}\)?

What are the ratios \(\frac{F_2}{F_1}\), \(\frac{F_3}{F_2}\), and so on until \(\frac{F_7}{F_6}\)? What do you notice about them?

\(\varphi=\frac{1+\sqrt{5}}{2}\) is the golden ratio. Using the fact that \(\varphi^2=\varphi+1\), can you express \(\varphi^3\) in the form \(a\varphi+b\), where \(a\) and \(b\) are positive integers?

Let \(m\) and \(n\) be positive integers. What positive integers can be written as \(m+n+\gcd(m,n)+\text{lcm}(m,n)\), for some \(m\) and \(n\)?

Let \(n\ge r\) be positive integers. What is \(F_n^2-F_{n-r}F_{n+r}\) in terms of \(F_r\)?

On the questioners’ planet (where everyone can only ask questions. Cricks can only ask questions to which the answer is yes, and Goops can only ask questions to which the answer is no), you meet 4 alien mathematicians.

They’re called Alexander Grothendieck, Bernhard Riemann, Claire Voisin and Daniel Kan (you may like to shorten their names to \(A\), \(B\), \(C\) and \(D\)).
Alexander asks the following question “Am I the kind who could ask whether Bernhard could ask whether Claire could ask whether Daniel is a Goop?"

Amongst the final three (that is, Bernhard, Claire and Daniel), are there an even or an odd number of Goops?

Have you wondered if \(F_{-5}\) is possible? Here is how we can extend the Fibonacci sequence to the negative indices. The relation \(F_{n+1} = F_n + F_{n-1}\) can be rewritten as \(F_{n-1} = F_{n+1} - F_n\). We can simply define the Fibonacci sequence with negative indices with this formula. For example, \(F_{-1} = F_1 - F_0 = 1 - 0 = 1\).

Write out \(F_{-1}, F_{-2},\dots,F_{-10}\). What do you notice about the Fibonacci sequence with negative indices?

On the questioners’ planet, there are two types of aliens, Cricks and Goops. These aliens can only ask questions. Cricks can only ask questions to which the answer is yes, Goops can only ask questions to which the answer is no.

There are 19 aliens standing in a circle. Each of them asks the following question “Do I have a Crick standing next to me on both sides?" Then one of them asks you in private “Is 57 a prime number?" How many Cricks were actually in the circle?