9th Asian Pacific Mathematics Olympiad 1997 Problems



9th Asian Pacific Mathematics Olympiad 1997 Problems

A1.  Let Tn = 1 + 2 + ... + n = n(n+1)/2. Let Sn= 1/T1 + 1/T2 + ... + 1/Tn. Prove that 1/S1 + 1/S2 + ... + 1/S1996 > 1001.


A2.  Find an n in the range 100, 101, ... , 1997 such that n divides 2n + 2.
A3.  ABC is a triangle. The bisector of A meets the segment BC at X and the circumcircle at Y. Let rA = AX/AY. Define rB and rC similarly. Prove that rA/sin2A + rB/sin2B + rC/sin2C ≥ 3 with equality iff the triangle is equilateral.
A4.  P1 and P3 are fixed points. P2 lies on the line perpendicular to P1P3 through P3. The sequence P4, P5, P6, ... is defined inductively as follows: Pn+1 is the foot of the perpendicular from Pn to Pn-1Pn-2. Show that the sequence converges to a point P (whose position depends on P2). What is the locus of P as P2 varies?
A5.  n people are seated in a circle. A total of nk coins are distributed amongst the people, but not necessarily equally. A move is the transfer of a single coin between two adjacent people. Find an algorithm for making the minimum number of moves which result in everyone ending up with the same number of coins?

Let Tn = 1 + 2 + ... + n = n(n+1)/2. Let Sn= 1/T1 + 1/T2 + ... + 1/Tn. Prove that 1/S1 + 1/S2 + ... + 1/S1996 > 1001.
Solution
1/Tm = 2(1/m - 1/(m+1) ). Hence Sn/2 = 1 - 1/(n+1). So 1/Sn = (1 + 1/n)/2. Hence 1/S1 + 1/S2 + ... + 1/Sn = 1996/2 + (1+ 1/2 + 1/3 + ... + 1/1996)/2.
Now 1 + 1/2 + (1/3 + 1/4) + (1/5 + 1/6 + 1/7 + 1/8) + (1/9 + ... + 1/16) + (1/17 + ... + 1/32) + (1/33 + ... + 1/64) + (1/65 + ... + 1/128) + (1/129 + ... + 1/256) + (1/257 + ... + 1/512) + (1/513 + ... + 1/1024) > 1 + 1/2 + 1/2 + ... + 1/2 = 6. So 1/S1 + 1/S2 + ... + 1/Sn = 1996/2 + 6/2 = 998 + 3 = 1001. 

Find an n in the range 100, 101, ... , 1997 such that n divides 2n + 2.
Solution
Answer: the only such number is 946.
We have 2p-1 = 1 mod p for any prime p, so if we can find h in {1, 2, ... , p-2} for which 2h = -2 mod p, then 2k= -2 mod p for any h = k mod p. Thus we find that 2k = -2 mod 5 for k = 3 mod 4, and 2k = -2 mod 11 for k = 6 mod 10. So we might then hope that 5·11 = 3 mod 4 and = 6 mod 10. Unfortunately, it does not! But we try searching for more examples.
The simplest would be to look at pq. Suppose first that p and q are both odd, so that pq is odd. If k = h mod p-1, then we need h to be odd (otherwise pq would have to be even). So the first step is to get a list of primes p with 2h = -2 mod p for some odd h < p. We always have 2p-1 = 1 mod p, so we sometimes have 2(p-1)/2 = -1 mod p and hence 2(p+1)/2 = -2 mod p. If (p+1)/2 is to be odd then p =1 mod 4. So searching such primes we find 3 mod 5, 7 mod 13, 15 mod 29, 19 mod 37, 27 mod 53, 31 mod 61. We require pq to lie in the range 100-1997, so we check 5·29 (not = 3 mod 4), 5·37 (not = 3 mod 4), 5·53 (not = 3 mod 4), 5·61 (not = 3 mod 4), 13·29 (not = 7 mod 12), 13·37 (not = 7 mod 12), 13.53 (not = 7 mod 12), 13·61 (not = 7 mod 12), 29·37 (not = 15 mod 28), 29·53 (not = 15 mod 28), 29·61 (not = 15 mod 28), 37·53 (not = 19 mod 36). So that does not advance matters much!
2p will not work (at least with h = (p+1)/2) because we cannot have 2p = (p+1)/2 mod p-1. So we try looking at 2pq. This requires that p and q = 3 mod 4. So searching for suitable p we find 6 mod 11, 10 mod 19, 22 mod 43, 30 mod 59, 34 mod 67, 42 mod 83. So we look at 2·11·43 = 946, which works.
Proving that it is unique is harder. The easiest way is to use a computer to search (approx 5 min to write a Maple program or similar and a few seconds to run it). 

ABC is a triangle. The bisector of A meets the segment BC at X and the circumcircle at Y. Let rA = AX/AY. Define rB and rC similarly. Prove that rA/sin2A + rB/sin2B + rC/sin2C >= 3 with equality iff the triangle is equilateral.
Solution
AX/AB = sin B/sin AXB = sin B/sin(180 - B - A/2) =sin B/sin(B + A/2). Similarly, AB/AY = sin AYB/sin ABY = sin C/sin(B + CBY) = sin C/sin(B + A/2). So AX/AY = sin B sin C/sin2(B + A/2). Hence rA/sin2A = sA/sin2(B + A/2), where sA = sin B sin C/sin2A. Similarly for rB and rC. Now sAsBsC = 1, so the arithmetic/geometric mean result gives sA + sB + sC ≥ 3. But 1/sin k ≥ 1 for any k, so rA/sin2A + rB/sin2B + rC/sin2C ≥ 3.
A necessary condition for equality is that sin2(B + A/2) = sin2(B + A/2) = sin2(B + A/2) = 1 and hence A = B = C. But it is easily checked that this is also sufficient.

P1 and P3 are fixed points. P2 lies on the line perpendicular to P1P3 through P3. The sequence P4, P5, P6, ... is defined inductively as follows: Pn+1 is the foot of the perpendicular from Pn to Pn-1Pn-2. Show that the sequence converges to a point P (whose position depends on P2). What is the locus of P as P2 varies?
Solution
PnPn+1Pn+2 lies inside Pn-1PnPn+1. So we have sequence of nested triangles whose size shrinks to zero. Each triangle is a closed set, so there is just one point P in the intersection of all the triangles and it is clear that the sequence Pn converges to it.
Obviously all the triangles PnPn+1Pn+2 are similar (but not necessarily with the vertices in that order). So P must lie in the same position relative to each triangle and we must be able to obtain one triangle from another by rotation and expansion about P. In particular, P5P4P6 is similar (with the vertices in that order) to P1P2P3, and P4P5 is parallel to P1P2, so the rotation to get one from the other must be through π and P must lie on P1P5. Similarly P3P4P5 must be obtained from P1P2P3 by rotation about P through π/2 and expansion. But this takes P1P5 into a perpendicular line through P3. Hence P1P is perpendicular to P3P. Hence P lies on the circle diameter P1P3.
However, not all points on this circle are points of the locus. P3P5 = P3P4 cos P1 = P3P1 sin P1 cos P2 = 1/2 P3P1 sin 2P1, so we can obtain all values of P3P5 up to P1P3/2. [Of course, P2, and hence P5, can be on either side of P3.]. Thus the locus is an arc XP3Y of the circle with XP3 = YP3 and ∠XP1Y = 2 tan-11/2. If O is the midpoint of P1P3, then O is the center of the circle and ∠XOY = 4 tan-11/2 (about 106o).

n people are seated in a circle. A total of nk coins are distributed amongst the people, but not necessarily equally. A move is the transfer of a single coin between two adjacent people. Find an algorithm for making the minimum number of moves which result in everyone ending up with the same number of coins?
Solution
Label the people from 1 to n, with person i next to person i+1, and person n next to person 1. Let person i initially hold ci coins. Let di = ci - k.
It is not obvious how many moves are needed. Clearly at least 1/2 ∑ |di| are needed. But one may need more. For example, suppose the starting values of di are 0, 1, 0, -1, 0. Then one needs at least 2 moves, not 1.
Obviously ∑ di = 0, so not all di can be negative. Relabel if necessary so that d1 ≥= 0. Now consider X = |d1| + |d1 + d2| + |d1 + d2 + d3| + ... + |d1 + d2 + ... + dn-1|. Note first that X is zero iff all di are zero. Any move between i and i+1, except one between n and 1, changes X by 1, because only the term |d1 + d2 + ... + di| is affected. Thus if we do not make any moves between n and 1, then we need at least X moves to reach the desired final position (with all di zero).
Assume X > 1. We show how to find a move which reduces X by 1. This requires a little care to avoid specifying a move which might require a person with no coins to transfer one. We are assuming that d1 ≥ 0. Take the first i for which di+1 < 0. There must be such an i, otherwise all di would be non-negative, but they sum to 0, so they would all have to be zero, contradicting X > 0. If d1 + ... + di > 0, then we take the move to be a transfer from i to i+1. This will reduce |d1 + ... + di| by 1 and leave the other terms in X unchanged, so it will reduce X by 1. If d1 + ... + di is not strictly positive, then by the minimality of i we must have d1 = d2 = ... = di = 0. We know that di+1 < 0. Now find the first j > i+1 such that dj ≥ 0. There must be such a j, otherwise we would have ∑ dm < 0. We have d1 + ... + dj-1 < 0, so a transfer from j to j-1 will reduce |d1 + ... + dj-1| and hence reduce X. Finally note that the move we have chosen leaves d1 ≥ 0. Thus we can repeat the process and reduce X to zero in X moves.
We have proved that this procedure minimises the number of moves if we accept the restriction that we do not make any transfers between 1 and n. Thus the full algorithm is: calculate the effect of the transfers from 1 to n and from n to 1 on X. If either of these transfers reduces X by more than 1, then take the move with the larger reduction; otherwise, find a move as above which reduces X by 1; repeat.


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