MOP 2023 Homework Problems

Thug Raiders
May 2023

= 2023
Hello hello hey,
Congratulations on your excellent performance on the USA(J)MO, which has earned you
an invitation to attend the Math Olympiad Summer Program! This program will be an
intense and challenging opportunity for you to learn a tremendous amount of mathematics.
To celebrate your achievement, and give you something to talk about on the way to
Pittsburgh, we invite you to work on the following homework problems. (These are optional
and just for your interest; you are not expected to formally submit any solutions.)
You’re welcome to share these problems with friends as there is nothing confidential in
here. Happy solving!

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Thug Raiders (May 2023) MOP 2023 Homework Problems

§1 Problems
The problems in this section should be approachable for all students.
1. Let P (x, y) be a polynomial with real coefficients. What are the possibilities for the
range of P ?
2. Exhibit a polynomial f (x, y) with integer coefficients satisfying the following proper-
ties:
• For any integers a and b, we have f (a, b) 6= 0.
• For any nonzero integer n, there exist integers a and b satisfying f (a, b) = n.
3. Find all functions f : R → R such that, for all real numbers x, we have f (x + 1) =
f (x) + 1 and f (x2 ) = f (x)2 .
4. For which positive integers n is it possible to split the integers 1, . . . , 2n into n pairs
such that whenever one integer is selected from each pair, the sum of the n chosen
integers is not a multiple of 2n?
5. Let p ≥ 3 be prime. Find the smallest possible degree of a polynomial f with integer
coefficients for which f (0), f (1), …, f (p − 1) leave exactly three distinct remainders
upon division by p.
6. Let f be a function from the set of rational numbers to the set of real numbers.
Suppose that for all rational numbers r and s, the expression f (r + s) − f (r) − f (s)
is an integer. Prove that there is a positive integer q and an integer p such that
 1  1
f − p ≤ .
 
q 2023
7. Prove that a triangle cannot be dissected into finitely many concave quadrilaterals.
8. Let n be a positive integer and consider an n × n square grid. A ribbon is a sequence
of n cells, such that every cell is above or to the right of the previous cell.
How many ways are there to partition the grid into n ribbons? For example, for
n = 5, one such way is shown below.

9. Triangle ABC has incenter I and circumcircle γ. Let D = BI ∩ AC, E = CI ∩ AB.

Ray DE intersects γ at P . Line IP intersects γ again at Q and intersects BC at X.
Prove that IQ = QX.
10. Ten points are given in the plane. Show that they may be simultaneously covered by
non-overlapping unit disks (a disk may cover multiple points).

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Thug Raiders (May 2023) MOP 2023 Homework Problems

§2 Problems for returning students

The problems in this section are targeted at students who have previous MOP experience,
but some of them should be accessible to new students too.

11. Let ABC be a triangle with AB 6= AC. The incircle of triangle ABC is tangent
to BC, CA, AB at D, E, F, respectively. Let IA be the A-excenter of triangle ABC
and let the internal ∠A-bisector meet BC at L. Set G = BE ∩ CF , P = EF ∩ BC,
X = GL ∩ DIA . Let the A-excircle of triangle ABC be tangent to BC at T . Prove
that P X is perpendicular to AT .

12. Let n ≥ 2 be an integer. Construct finite pairwise disjoint sets of integers A1 , . . . ,

An such that whenever σ is any permutation of {1, . . . , n} and elements ak ∈ Ak are
selected uniformly randomly, the probability that

aσ(1) < · · · < aσ(n)

equals n!1
. (Informally, show that we can construct n dice so that whenever they’re
rolled, the n! possible relative orders of the rolls occur equally often.)

13. Given 2d + 1 points in d-dimensional space with no three collinear, show that some
three of them form an obtuse angle.

14. Are there infinitely many integers n ≥ 1 for which (2023n)! is divisible by n! + 1?

15. An ordered pair (a, b) of positive integers is organic if there do not exist positive
integers x and y such that (a2 + 1)x2 + y 2 and (b2 + 1)y 2 + x2 are both perfect squares.
Let j and k be odd positive integers. Prove that there exists an odd positive integer
d with the following property: for any positive integers J and K such that J ≡ j
(mod d) and K ≡ k (mod d), the ordered pair (J, K) is organic.

16. Let n ≥ 2 be an integer. Alice wishes to simulate a fair n-sided die, using a (possibly
unfair) coin, as follows. First, she chooses a positive integer k, and flips the coin k
times. Next, depending on which of the 2k sequences of coin flips she obtains, she
chooses one of the integers 1, . . . , n.
(a) Show that she can choose the bias of the coin, the integer k, and the scheme for
converting coin flip sequences to integers so that each of the integers 1, . . . , n is
chosen with equal probability.
(b) Show that she can do the above under the restriction that the probability of
flipping heads be between 0.499 and 0.501.

17. Let ℵ0 and c = 2ℵ0 denote the cardinalities of Z and R, respectively.

(a) Let A be a set of cardinality ℵ0 . Let P(A) denote the power set of A. Demonstrate
a subset F ⊆ P(A) with |F | = c, such that for any S, T ∈ F , we have either
S ⊆ T or T ⊆ S.
(b) Demonstrate a subset F ⊆ P(A) with |F | = c, such that for each S ∈ F , we
have |S| = ℵ0 , and for each distinct S, T ∈ F , we have that |S ∩ T | is finite.
(c) Let G be the complete graph on c many vertices. Demonstrate a coloring of
the edges of G with the colors red and blue, such that there’s no uncountable
monochromatic clique.

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Thug Raiders (May 2023) MOP 2023 Homework Problems

§3 Advanced problems
The problems in this section are more difficult or may require more background.

18. Let p be a fixed prime. Which integers arise as determinants of p×p circulant matrices
with integer entries?

19. Let p be prime and let A be a
matrix over the integers mod p such that for 0 ≤ j, k ≤
p − 1, the (j, k) entry is j+k
j . Prove that A is the identity matrix.
3

20. Given a positive integer d, and a finite family F of subsets of a finite set S such that
every element of S is in at most d sets of FP, show that there is a function f from S
to {1, −1} such that each set T in F has | s∈T f (s)| ≤ 2d − 1.

21. Let ABC be an acute scalene triangle with orthocenter H and circumcenter O. The
circle with diameter HO intersects circle (BOC) again at P and line AO at Q. Prove
that line P Q passes through the Kosnita point of triangle ABC. (The Kosnita point
is the point at which the line through A and the circumcenter of BOC and the other
two analogous lines concur; it is the isogonal conjugate of the nine-point center.)

22. Is it possible to color the points of the Euclidean plane with countably infinitely many
colors such that there aren’t three vertices of the same color forming the vertices of
an axis-aligned right triangle? What about four vertices of the same color forming
the vertices of an axis-aligned rectangle?

23. Fix positive integers n, d and consider n points p1 , . . . , pn ∈ Rd . What is the maximum
possible number of permutations σ of {1, 2, . . . , n} such that there exists a point q ∈ Rd
with
|q − pσ(1) | < |q − pσ(2) | < · · · < |q − pσ(n) |?
(Here |−| denotes Euclidean distance.)

24. Let m be a positive integer and define n = 4m. We are given real numbers
a1 , a2 , . . . , an ∈ [0, 1]. Show that there exist real numbers y0 , y1 , y2 , . . . , yn ∈ [0, 2 −
1
2m+3
], such that |yi − yi−1 | = ai for each 1 ≤ i ≤ n.

25. Let A1 , . . . , A2n be n × n matrices. Show that

X
sgn σ Aσ(1) Aσ(2) · · · Aσ(2n) = 0.
σ∈S2n

26. Let n and k be positive integers. Given a tournament graph on n vertices, prove that
there are at most n n−1 sequences (v0 , . . . , vk ) of (not necessarily distinct) vertices

k
2
such that there is an edge from vi to vi+1 for all i (in particular, we require vi 6= vi+1 ).

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Thug Raiders (May 2023) MOP 2023 Homework Problems

§4 Miscellaneous
27. Give artistic commentary on the MOP server logo on the first page.

28. In front of you is a single sheet of printer paper (8.5 by 11 inches), a paper clip, a
rubber band, and a single matchstick. Using only these materials, construct the tallest
freestanding structure that you can.

29. Explain and justify the joke in the following.

One day, Eve and Anne were chatting when Anne mentioned that she was
really hungry. Eve suggested that they go out to buy some corn (Anne’s
favorite snack), but Anne proclaimed that she needed all the corn in the
world.
Unbeknownst to Anne, Eve had been waiting for this moment her whole
life. “You know what? I can do better than that. I’ll give you all the corn
in the world, and then some!” she exclaimed. Anne was intrigued, and so
she decided to play along.
Eventually, the pair reached a fenced corn field. “Yeah, this is a lot of corn,
but you said you’ll give me all of the corn in the world. What gives?” Anne
inquired. “Let’s go inside. You’ll see soon enough,” Eve replied, with a
smirk on her face.
They entered the corn field, with Eve pushing open the slightly-ajar door
in the fence. “Are you ready?” she asked. But Anne had already started
munching on raw corn. “Damn. I’ve been waiting so long, and she won’t
even see my trick,” Eve lamented.
Eve shut the door. Suddenly, it was corn as far as one could see, with all
traces of their old world now just a memory. Anne jerked up, her head
spinning. “How!?” “Oh, it was easy, really,” Eve replied. “After all, the
field is now closed, so it’s infinite.”

30. There’s a sloth sleeping in a tree. It’s about to oversleep its morning class, but it
looks really happy. Should you wake it up?