Problems

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The function \(f(x)\) on the interval \([a, b]\) is equal to the maximum of several functions of the form \(y = C \times 10^{- | x-d |}\) (where \(d\) and \(C\) are different, and all \(C\) are positive). It is given that \(f (a) = f (b)\). Prove that the sum of the lengths of the sections on which the function increases is equal to the sum of the lengths of the sections on which the function decreases.

A village infant school has 20 pupils. If we pick any two pupils they will have a shared granddad.

Prove that one of the granddads has no fewer than 14 grandchildren who are pupils at this school.

Some points with integer co-ordinates are marked on a Cartesian plane. It is known that no four points lie on the same circle. Prove that there will be a circle of radius 1995 in the plane, which does not contain a single marked point.

Let \(n\) numbers are given together with their product \(p\). The difference between \(p\) and each of these numbers is an odd number.

Prove that all \(n\) numbers are irrational.

A group of psychologists developed a test, after which each person gets a mark, the number \(Q\), which is the index of his or her mental abilities (the greater \(Q\), the greater the ability). For the country’s rating, the arithmetic mean of the \(Q\) values of all of the inhabitants of this country is taken.

a) A group of citizens of country \(A\) emigrated to country \(B\). Show that both countries could grow in rating.

b) After that, a group of citizens from country \(B\) (including former ex-migrants from \(A\)) emigrated to country \(A\). Is it possible that the ratings of both countries have grown again?

c) A group of citizens from country \(A\) emigrated to country \(B\), and group of citizens from country \(B\) emigrated to country \(C\). As a result, each country’s ratings was higher than the original ones. After that, the direction of migration flows changed to the opposite direction – part of the residents of \(C\) moved to \(B\), and part of the residents of \(B\) migrated to \(A\). It turned out that as a result, the ratings of all three countries increased again (compared to those that were after the first move, but before the second). (This is, in any case, what the news agencies of these countries say). Can this be so (if so, how, if not, why)?

(It is assumed that during the considered time, the number of citizens \(Q\) did not change, no one died and no one was born).

Daniel has drawn on a sheet of paper a circle and a dot inside it. Show that he can cut a circle into two parts which can be used to make a circle in which the marked point would be the center.

Elon is studying the Twitter server. Inside the software he found two integer variables \(a\) and \(b\) which change their values when special search queries “RED”, “GREEN”, and “BLUE” are processed. More precisely the pair \((a, b)\) changes into \((a + 18b, 18a - b)\) when processing the query “RED”, to \((17a + 6b, -6a + 17b)\) when processing “GREEN”, and to \((-10a - 15b, 15a - 10b)\) when processing “BLUE”. When any of \(a\) or \(b\) reaches a multiple of \(324\), it resets to \(0\). If \((a, b) = (0, 0)\) the server crashes. On the server startup, the variables \((a, b)\) are set to \((20, 20)\). Prove that the server will never crash with these initial values, regardless of the search queries processed.