IMO 1976 LongList

IMO1976-Longlisted Problems
1. (BUL 1) (SL76-1).
2. (BUL 2) Let P be a set of n points and S a set of l segments. It is
known that:
(i) No four points of P are coplanar.
(ii) Any segment from S has its endpoints at P .
(iii) There is a point, say g, in P that is the endpoint of a maximal number
of segments from S and that is not a vertex of a tetrahedron having
all its edges in S.
2
Prove that l ≤ n3 .
3. (BUL 3) (SL76-2).
4. (BUL 4) Find all pairs of natural numbers (m, n) for which 2m · 3n + 1
is the square of some integer.
5. (BUL 5) Let ABCDS be a pyramid with four faces and with ABCD
as a base, and let a plane α through the vertex A meet its edges SB and
SD at points M and N , respectively. Prove that if the intersection of the
plane α with the pyramid ABCDS is a parallelogram, then
SM · SN > BM · DN.
6. (CZS 1) For each point X of a given polytope, denote by f (X) the sum
of the distances of the point X from all the planes of the faces of the
polytope.
Prove that if f attains its maximum at an interior point of the polytope,
then f is constant.
7. (CZS 2) Let P be a fixed point and T a given triangle that contains the
point P . Translate the triangle T by a given vector v and denote by T
this new triangle. Let r, R, respectively, be the radii of the smallest disks
centered at P that contain the triangles T , T , respectively.
Prove that
r + |v| ≤ 3R
and find an example to show that equality can occur.
8. (CZS 3) (SL76-3).
9. (CZS 4) Find all (real) solutions of the system
3x1 − x2 − x3 − x5 = 0,
−x1 + 3x2 − x4 − x6 = 0,
−x1 + 3x3 − x4 − x7 = 0,
−x2 − x3 + 3x4 − x8 = 0,
−x1 + 3x5 − x6 − x7 = 0,
−x2 − x5 + 3x6 − x8 = 0,
−x3 − x5 + 3x7 − x8 = 0,
−x4 − x6 − x7 + 3x8 = 0.
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10. (FIN 1) Show that the reciprocal of any number of the form 2(m2 +
m + 1), where m is a positive integer, can be represented as a sum of
consecutive terms in the sequence (aj )∞
j=1 ,
1
aj = .
j(j + 1)(j + 2)
11. (FIN 2) (SL76-9).

12. (FIN 3) Five points lie on the surface of a ball of unit radius. Find the
maximum of the smallest distance between any two of them.
13. (GBR 1a) (SL76-4).
14. (GBR 1b) A sequence {un } of integers is defined by
u1 = 2, u2 = u3 = 7,
un+1 = un un−1 − un−2 , for n ≥ 3.
Prove that for each n ≥ 1, un differs by 2 from an integral square.

15. (GBR 2) Let ABC and A B C be any two coplanar triangles. Let L be
a point such that ALBC, A LB C , and M, N similarly defined. The
line BC meets B C at P , and similarly defined are Q and R. Prove that
P L, QM , RN are concurrent.
16. (GBR 3) Prove that there is a positive integer n such that the decimal
representation of 7n contains a block of at least m consecutive zeros, where
m is any given positive integer.
17. (GBR 4) Show that there exists a convex polyhedron with all its vertices
on the surface of a sphere√and √
with all its faces congruent isosceles triangles
whose ratio of sides are 3 : 3 : 2.
18. (GDR 1) Prove that the number 191976 + 761976 :
4
(a) is divisible by the (Fermat) prime number F4 = 22 + 1;
(b) is divisible by at least four distinct primes other than F4 .
19. (GDR 2) For a positive integer n, let 6(n) be the natural number whose
decimal representation consists of n digits 6. Let us define, for all natural
numbers m, k with 1 ≤ k ≤ m,

m 6(m) · 6(m−1) · · · 6(m−k+1)
= .
k 6(1) · 6(2) · · · 6(k)

m
Prove that for all m, k, is a natural number whose decimal repre-
k
sentation consists of exactly k(m + k − 1) − 1 digits.
20. (GDR 3) Let (an ), n = 0, 1, . . ., be a sequence of real numbers such that
a0 = 0 and
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1 2
a3n+1 =a − 1, n = 0, 1, . . . .
2 n
Prove that there exists a positive number q, q < 1, such that for all
n = 1, 2, . . . ,
|an+1 − an | ≤ q|an − an−1 |,
and give one such q explicitly.
21. (GDR 4) Find the largest positive real number p (if it exists) such that
the inequality
x21 + x22 + · · · + x2n ≥ p(x1 x2 + x2 x3 + · · · + xn−1 xn ) (1)
is satisfied for all real numbers xi , and (a) n = 2; (b) n = 5.

Find the largest positive real number p (if it exists) such that the inequal-
ity (1) holds for all real numbers xi and all natural numbers n, n ≥ 2.
22. (GDR 5) A regular pentagon A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 with side length s is given.
At each point Ai a sphere Ki of radius s/2 is constructed. There are two
spheres K1 and K2 eah of radius s/2 touching all the five spheres Ki .
Decide whether K1 and K2 intersect each other, touch each other, or
have no common points.
23. (NET 1) Prove that in a Euclidean plane there are infinitely many
concentric circles C such that all triangles inscribed in C have at least
one irrational side.
24. (NET 2) Let 0 ≤ x1 ≤ x2 ≤ · · · ≤ √ xn ≤ 1. Prove that for all A ≥ 1
there exists an interval I of length 2 n A such that for all x ∈ I,
|(x − x1 )(x − x2 ) · · · (x − xn )| ≤ A.
25. (NET 3) (SL76-5).

26. (NET 4) (SL76-6).
27. (NET 5) In a plane three points P, Q, R, not on a line, are given. Let
k, l, m be positive numbers. Construct a triangle ABC whose sides pass
through P , Q, and R such that
P divides the segment AB in the ratio 1 : k,
Q divides the segment BC in the ratio 1 : l, and
R divides the segment CA in the ratio 1 : m.
28. (POL 1a) Let Q be a unit square in the plane: Q = [0, 1] × [0, 1]. Let
T : Q → Q be defined as follows:
.
(2x, y/2) if 0 ≤ x ≤ 1/2;
T (x, y) =
(2x − 1, y/2 + 1/2) if 1/2 < x ≤ 1.
Show that for every disk D ⊂ Q there exists an integer n > 0 such that
T n (D) ∩ D = ∅.
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29. (POL 1b) (SL76-7).
30. (POL 2) Prove that if P (x) = (x−a)k Q(x), where k is a positive integer,
a is a nonzero real number, Q(x) is a nonzero polynomial, then P (x) has
at least k + 1 nonzero coefficients.
31. (POL 3) Into every lateral face of a quadrangular pyramid a circle is
inscribed. The circles inscribed into adjacent faces are tangent (have one
point in common). Prove that the points of contact of the circles with the
base of the pyramid lie on a circle.
32. (POL 4) We consider the infinite chessboard covering the whole plane.
In every field of the chessboard there is a nonnegative real number. Every
number is the arithmetic mean of the numbers in the four adjacent fields
of the chessboard. Prove that the numbers occurring in the fields of the
chessboard are all equal.
33. (SWE 1) A finite set of points P in the plane has the following prop-
erty: Every line through two points in P contains at least one more point
belonging to P . Prove that all points in P lie on a straight line.
34. (SWE 2) Let {an }∞ ∞
0 and {bn }0 be two sequences determined by the
recursion formulas
an+1 = an + bn ,
bn+1 = 3an + bn , n = 0, 1, 2, . . . ,
and the initial values a0 = b0 = 1. Prove that there exists a uniquely
determined constant c such that n|can −bn | < 2 for all nonnegative integers
n.
35. (SWE 3) (SL76-8).
36. (USA 1) Three concentric circles with common center O are cut by a
common chord in successive points A, B, C. Tangents drawn to the circles
at the points A, B, C enclose a triangular region. If the distance from point
O to the common chord is equal to p, prove that the area of the region
enclosed by the tangents is equal to
AB · BC · CA
.
2p
37. (USA 2) From a square board 11 squares long and 11 squares wide, the
central square is removed. Prove that the remaining 120 squares cannot
be covered by 15 strips each 8 units long and one unit wide.
√ √
38. (USA 3) Let x = a + b, where a and b are natural numbers, x is
not an integer, and x < 1976. Prove that the fractional part of x exceeds
10−19.76 .
39. (USA 4) In ABC, the inscribed circle is tangent to side BC at X.
Segment AX is drawn. Prove that the line joining the midpoint of segment
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AX to the midpoint of side BC passes through the center I of the inscribed
circle.
40. (USA 5) Let g(x) be a fixed polynomial and define f (x) by f (x) =
x2 + xg(x3 ). Show that f (x) is not divisible by x2 − x + 1.
41. (USA 6) (SL76-10).
42. (USS 1) For a point O inside a triangle ABC, denote by A1 , B1 , C1
the respective intersection points of AO, BO, CO with the corresponding
sides. Let n1 = AAO 1O
, n2 = BBO 1O
, n3 = CCO
1O
. What possible values of
n1 , n2 , n3 can all be positive integers?
43. (USS 2) Prove that if for a polynomial P (x, y) we have
P (x − 1, y − 2x + 1) = P (x, y),
then there exists a polynomial Φ(x) with P (x, y) = Φ(y − x2 ).

√
44. (USS 3) A circle of radius 1 rolls around a circle of radius 2. Initially,
the tangent point is colored red. Afterwards, the red points map from one
circle to another by contact. How many red points will be on the bigger
circle when the center of the smaller one has made n circuits around the
bigger one?
45. (USS 4) We are given n (n ≥ 5) circles in a plane. Suppose that every
three of them have a common point. Prove that all n circles have a common
point.
46. (USS 5) For a ≥ 0, b ≥ 0, c ≥ 0, d ≥ 0, prove the inequality
a4 + b4 + c4 + d4 + 2abcd ≥ a2 b2 + a2 c2 + a2 d2 + b2 c2 + b2 d2 + c2 d2 .
47. (VIE 1) (SL76-11).

48. (VIE 2) (SL76-12).
49. (VIE 3) Determine whether there exist 1976 nonsimilar triangles with
angles α, β, γ, each of them satisfying the relations
sin α + sin β + sin γ 12 12
= and sin α sin β sin γ = .
cos α + cos β + cos γ 7 25
50. (VIE 4) Find a function f (x) defined for all real values of x such that
for all x,
f (x + 2) − f (x) = x2 + 2x + 4,
and if x ∈ [0, 2), then f (x) = x2 .
51. (YUG 1) Four swallows are catching a fly. At first, the swallows are
at the four vertices of a tetrahedron, and the fly is in its interior. Their
maximal speeds are equal. Prove that the swallows can catch the fly.
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IMO1976-Longlisted Problems

11. (FIN 2) (SL76-9).

Prove that for each n ≥ 1, un diﬀers by 2 from an integral square.

x21 + x22 + · · · + x2n ≥ p(x1 x2 + x2 x3 + · · · + xn−1 xn ) (1)

is satisﬁed for all real numbers xi , and (a) n = 2; (b) n = 5.

25. (NET 3) (SL76-5).

then there exists a polynomial Φ(x) with P (x, y) = Φ(y − x2 ).

47. (VIE 1) (SL76-11).

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