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Contests & Programs AMC and other contests, summer programs, etc.
AMC and other contests, summer programs, etc.
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Contests & Programs AMC and other contests, summer programs, etc.
AMC and other contests, summer programs, etc.
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a My Retirement & New Leadership at AoPS
rrusczyk   1321
N a minute ago by Yihangzh
I write today to announce my retirement as CEO from Art of Problem Solving. When I founded AoPS 22 years ago, I never imagined that we would reach so many students and families, or that we would find so many channels through which we discover, inspire, and train the great problem solvers of the next generation. I am very proud of all we have accomplished and I’m thankful for the many supporters who provided inspiration and encouragement along the way. I'm particularly grateful to all of the wonderful members of the AoPS Community!

I’m delighted to introduce our new leaders - Ben Kornell and Andrew Sutherland. Ben has extensive experience in education and edtech prior to joining AoPS as my successor as CEO, including starting like I did as a classroom teacher. He has a deep understanding of the value of our work because he’s an AoPS parent! Meanwhile, Andrew and I have common roots as founders of education companies; he launched Quizlet at age 15! His journey from founder to MIT to technology and product leader as our Chief Product Officer traces a pathway many of our students will follow in the years to come.

Thank you again for your support for Art of Problem Solving and we look forward to working with millions more wonderful problem solvers in the years to come.

And special thanks to all of the amazing AoPS team members who have helped build AoPS. We’ve come a long way from here:IMAGE
1321 replies
+2 w
rrusczyk
Monday at 6:37 PM
Yihangzh
a minute ago
k a March Highlights and 2025 AoPS Online Class Information
jlacosta   0
Mar 2, 2025
March is the month for State MATHCOUNTS competitions! Kudos to everyone who participated in their local chapter competitions and best of luck to all going to State! Join us on March 11th for a Math Jam devoted to our favorite Chapter competition problems! Are you interested in training for MATHCOUNTS? Be sure to check out our AMC 8/MATHCOUNTS Basics and Advanced courses.

Are you ready to level up with Olympiad training? Registration is open with early bird pricing available for our WOOT programs: MathWOOT (Levels 1 and 2), CodeWOOT, PhysicsWOOT, and ChemWOOT. What is WOOT? WOOT stands for Worldwide Online Olympiad Training and is a 7-month high school math Olympiad preparation and testing program that brings together many of the best students from around the world to learn Olympiad problem solving skills. Classes begin in September!

Do you have plans this summer? There are so many options to fit your schedule and goals whether attending a summer camp or taking online classes, it can be a great break from the routine of the school year. Check out our summer courses at AoPS Online, or if you want a math or language arts class that doesn’t have homework, but is an enriching summer experience, our AoPS Virtual Campus summer camps may be just the ticket! We are expanding our locations for our AoPS Academies across the country with 15 locations so far and new campuses opening in Saratoga CA, Johns Creek GA, and the Upper West Side NY. Check out this page for summer camp information.

Be sure to mark your calendars for the following events:
[list][*]March 5th (Wednesday), 4:30pm PT/7:30pm ET, HCSSiM Math Jam 2025. Amber Verser, Assistant Director of the Hampshire College Summer Studies in Mathematics, will host an information session about HCSSiM, a summer program for high school students.
[*]March 6th (Thursday), 4:00pm PT/7:00pm ET, Free Webinar on Math Competitions from elementary through high school. Join us for an enlightening session that demystifies the world of math competitions and helps you make informed decisions about your contest journey.
[*]March 11th (Tuesday), 4:30pm PT/7:30pm ET, 2025 MATHCOUNTS Chapter Discussion MATH JAM. AoPS instructors will discuss some of their favorite problems from the MATHCOUNTS Chapter Competition. All are welcome!
[*]March 13th (Thursday), 4:00pm PT/7:00pm ET, Free Webinar about Summer Camps at the Virtual Campus. Transform your summer into an unforgettable learning adventure! From elementary through high school, we offer dynamic summer camps featuring topics in mathematics, language arts, and competition preparation - all designed to fit your schedule and ignite your passion for learning.[/list]
Our full course list for upcoming classes is below:
All classes run 7:30pm-8:45pm ET/4:30pm - 5:45pm PT unless otherwise noted.

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0 replies
jlacosta
Mar 2, 2025
0 replies
k i Adding contests to the Contest Collections
dcouchman   1
N Apr 5, 2023 by v_Enhance
Want to help AoPS remain a valuable Olympiad resource? Help us add contests to AoPS's Contest Collections.

Find instructions and a list of contests to add here: https://artofproblemsolving.com/community/c40244h1064480_contests_to_add
1 reply
dcouchman
Sep 9, 2019
v_Enhance
Apr 5, 2023
k i Zero tolerance
ZetaX   49
N May 4, 2019 by NoDealsHere
Source: Use your common sense! (enough is enough)
Some users don't want to learn, some other simply ignore advises.
But please follow the following guideline:


To make it short: ALWAYS USE YOUR COMMON SENSE IF POSTING!
If you don't have common sense, don't post.


More specifically:

For new threads:


a) Good, meaningful title:
The title has to say what the problem is about in best way possible.
If that title occured already, it's definitely bad. And contest names aren't good either.
That's in fact a requirement for being able to search old problems.

Examples:
Bad titles:
- "Hard"/"Medium"/"Easy" (if you find it so cool how hard/easy it is, tell it in the post and use a title that tells us the problem)
- "Number Theory" (hey guy, guess why this forum's named that way¿ and is it the only such problem on earth¿)
- "Fibonacci" (there are millions of Fibonacci problems out there, all posted and named the same...)
- "Chinese TST 2003" (does this say anything about the problem¿)
Good titles:
- "On divisors of a³+2b³+4c³-6abc"
- "Number of solutions to x²+y²=6z²"
- "Fibonacci numbers are never squares"


b) Use search function:
Before posting a "new" problem spend at least two, better five, minutes to look if this problem was posted before. If it was, don't repost it. If you have anything important to say on topic, post it in one of the older threads.
If the thread is locked cause of this, use search function.

Update (by Amir Hossein). The best way to search for two keywords in AoPS is to input
[code]+"first keyword" +"second keyword"[/code]
so that any post containing both strings "first word" and "second form".


c) Good problem statement:
Some recent really bad post was:
[quote]$lim_{n\to 1}^{+\infty}\frac{1}{n}-lnn$[/quote]
It contains no question and no answer.
If you do this, too, you are on the best way to get your thread deleted. Write everything clearly, define where your variables come from (and define the "natural" numbers if used). Additionally read your post at least twice before submitting. After you sent it, read it again and use the Edit-Button if necessary to correct errors.


For answers to already existing threads:


d) Of any interest and with content:
Don't post things that are more trivial than completely obvious. For example, if the question is to solve $x^{3}+y^{3}=z^{3}$, do not answer with "$x=y=z=0$ is a solution" only. Either you post any kind of proof or at least something unexpected (like "$x=1337, y=481, z=42$ is the smallest solution). Someone that does not see that $x=y=z=0$ is a solution of the above without your post is completely wrong here, this is an IMO-level forum.
Similar, posting "I have solved this problem" but not posting anything else is not welcome; it even looks that you just want to show off what a genius you are.

e) Well written and checked answers:
Like c) for new threads, check your solutions at least twice for mistakes. And after sending, read it again and use the Edit-Button if necessary to correct errors.



To repeat it: ALWAYS USE YOUR COMMON SENSE IF POSTING!


Everything definitely out of range of common sense will be locked or deleted (exept for new users having less than about 42 posts, they are newbies and need/get some time to learn).

The above rules will be applied from next monday (5. march of 2007).
Feel free to discuss on this here.
49 replies
ZetaX
Feb 27, 2007
NoDealsHere
May 4, 2019
usamOOK geometry
KevinYang2.71   85
N 10 minutes ago by Mathandski
Source: USAMO 2025/4, USAJMO 2025/5
Let $H$ be the orthocenter of acute triangle $ABC$, let $F$ be the foot of the altitude from $C$ to $AB$, and let $P$ be the reflection of $H$ across $BC$. Suppose that the circumcircle of triangle $AFP$ intersects line $BC$ at two distinct points $X$ and $Y$. Prove that $C$ is the midpoint of $XY$.
85 replies
+2 w
KevinYang2.71
Mar 21, 2025
Mathandski
10 minutes ago
Good AIME/Olympiad Level Number Theory Books
MathRook7817   1
N 24 minutes ago by rbcubed13
Hey guys, do you guys have any good AIME/USAJMO Level Number Theory book suggestions?
I'm trying to get 10+ on next year's AIME and hopefully qual for USAJMO.
1 reply
+1 w
MathRook7817
29 minutes ago
rbcubed13
24 minutes ago
[TEST RELEASED] Mock Geometry Test for College Competitions
Bluesoul   22
N 27 minutes ago by QuestionSourcer
Hi AOPSers,

I have finished writing a mock geometry test for fun and practice for the real college competitions like HMMT/PUMaC/CMIMC... There would be 10 questions and you should finish the test in 60 minutes, the test would be close to the actual test (hopefully). You could sign up under this thread, PM me your answers!. The submission would close on March 31st at 11:59PM PST.

I would create a private discussion forum so everyone could discuss after finishing the test. This is the first mock I've written, please sign up and enjoy geometry!!

~Bluesoul

Discussion forum: Discussion forum

Leaderboard
22 replies
1 viewing
Bluesoul
Feb 24, 2025
QuestionSourcer
27 minutes ago
Operating on lamps in a circle
anantmudgal09   7
N 29 minutes ago by hectorleo123
Source: India Practice TST 2017 D2 P3
There are $n$ lamps $L_1, L_2, \dots, L_n$ arranged in a circle in that order. At any given time, each lamp is either on or off. Every second, each lamp undergoes a change according to the following rule:

(a) For each lamp $L_i$, if $L_{i-1}, L_i, L_{i+1}$ have the same state in the previous second, then $L_i$ is off right now. (Indices taken mod $n$.)

(b) Otherwise, $L_i$ is on right now.

Initially, all the lamps are off, except for $L_1$ which is on. Prove that for infinitely many integers $n$ all the lamps will be off eventually, after a finite amount of time.
7 replies
1 viewing
anantmudgal09
Dec 9, 2017
hectorleo123
29 minutes ago
2025 Caucasus MO Seniors P1
BR1F1SZ   3
N 34 minutes ago by Mathdreams
Source: Caucasus MO
For given positive integers $a$ and $b$, let us consider the equation$$a + \gcd(b, x) = b + \gcd(a, x).$$[list=a]
[*]For $a = 20$ and $b = 25$, find the least positive integer $x$ satisfying this equation.
[*]Prove that for any positive integers $a$ and $b$, there exist infinitely many positive integers $x$ satisfying this equation.
[/list]
(Here, $\gcd(m, n)$ denotes the greatest common divisor of positive integers $m$ and $n$.)
3 replies
BR1F1SZ
3 hours ago
Mathdreams
34 minutes ago
what the yap
KevinYang2.71   25
N 35 minutes ago by Mathandski
Source: USAMO 2025/3
Alice the architect and Bob the builder play a game. First, Alice chooses two points $P$ and $Q$ in the plane and a subset $\mathcal{S}$ of the plane, which are announced to Bob. Next, Bob marks infinitely many points in the plane, designating each a city. He may not place two cities within distance at most one unit of each other, and no three cities he places may be collinear. Finally, roads are constructed between the cities as follows: for each pair $A,\,B$ of cities, they are connected with a road along the line segment $AB$ if and only if the following condition holds:
[center]For every city $C$ distinct from $A$ and $B$, there exists $R\in\mathcal{S}$ such[/center]
[center]that $\triangle PQR$ is directly similar to either $\triangle ABC$ or $\triangle BAC$.[/center]
Alice wins the game if (i) the resulting roads allow for travel between any pair of cities via a finite sequence of roads and (ii) no two roads cross. Otherwise, Bob wins. Determine, with proof, which player has a winning strategy.

Note: $\triangle UVW$ is directly similar to $\triangle XYZ$ if there exists a sequence of rotations, translations, and dilations sending $U$ to $X$, $V$ to $Y$, and $W$ to $Z$.
25 replies
KevinYang2.71
Mar 20, 2025
Mathandski
35 minutes ago
IMO 2018 Problem 2
juckter   95
N 37 minutes ago by Marcus_Zhang
Find all integers $n \geq 3$ for which there exist real numbers $a_1, a_2, \dots a_{n + 2}$ satisfying $a_{n + 1} = a_1$, $a_{n + 2} = a_2$ and
$$a_ia_{i + 1} + 1 = a_{i + 2},$$for $i = 1, 2, \dots, n$.

Proposed by Patrik Bak, Slovakia
95 replies
juckter
Jul 9, 2018
Marcus_Zhang
37 minutes ago
Long condition for the beginning
wassupevery1   2
N an hour ago by wassupevery1
Source: 2025 Vietnam IMO TST - Problem 1
Find all functions $f: \mathbb{Q}^+ \to \mathbb{Q}^+$ such that $$\dfrac{f(x)f(y)}{f(xy)} = \dfrac{\left( \sqrt{f(x)} + \sqrt{f(y)} \right)^2}{f(x+y)}$$holds for all positive rational numbers $x, y$.
2 replies
wassupevery1
Yesterday at 1:49 PM
wassupevery1
an hour ago
Inspired by IMO 1984
sqing   0
an hour ago
Source: Own
Let $ a,b,c\geq 0 $ and $a+b+c=1$. Prove that
$$a^2+b^2+ ab +24abc\leq\frac{81}{64}$$Equality holds when $a=b=\frac{3}{8},c=\frac{1}{4}.$
$$a^2+b^2+ ab +18abc\leq\frac{343}{324}$$Equality holds when $a=b=\frac{7}{18},c=\frac{2}{9}.$
0 replies
1 viewing
sqing
an hour ago
0 replies
Prime-related integers [CMO 2018 - P3]
Amir Hossein   15
N 2 hours ago by Ilikeminecraft
Source: 2018 Canadian Mathematical Olympiad - P3
Two positive integers $a$ and $b$ are prime-related if $a = pb$ or $b = pa$ for some prime $p$. Find all positive integers $n$, such that $n$ has at least three divisors, and all the divisors can be arranged without repetition in a circle so that any two adjacent divisors are prime-related.

Note that $1$ and $n$ are included as divisors.
15 replies
Amir Hossein
Mar 31, 2018
Ilikeminecraft
2 hours ago
Inspired by IMO 1984
sqing   2
N 2 hours ago by sqing
Source: Own
Let $ a,b,c\geq 0 $ and $a+b+c=1$. Prove that
$$a^2+b^2+ ab +17abc\leq\frac{8000}{7803}$$$$a^2+b^2+ ab +\frac{163}{10}abc\leq\frac{7189057}{7173630}$$$$a^2+b^2+ ab +16.23442238abc\le1$$
2 replies
sqing
Yesterday at 3:04 PM
sqing
2 hours ago
2025 Caucasus MO Juniors P6
BR1F1SZ   1
N 2 hours ago by maromex
Source: Caucasus MO
A point $P$ is chosen inside a convex quadrilateral $ABCD$. Could it happen that$$PA = AB, \quad PB = BC, \quad PC = CD \quad \text{and} \quad PD = DA?$$
1 reply
BR1F1SZ
3 hours ago
maromex
2 hours ago
2025 Caucasus MO Juniors P7
BR1F1SZ   2
N 2 hours ago by doongus
Source: Caucasus MO
It is known that from segments of lengths $a$, $b$ and $c$, a triangle can be formed. Could it happen that from segments of lengths $$\sqrt{a^2 + \frac{2}{3} bc},\quad \sqrt{b^2 + \frac{2}{3} ca}\quad \text{and} \quad \sqrt{c^2 + \frac{2}{3} ab},$$a right-angled triangle can be formed?
2 replies
BR1F1SZ
3 hours ago
doongus
2 hours ago
divisors on a circle
Valentin Vornicu   46
N 2 hours ago by doongus
Source: USAMO 2005, problem 1, Zuming Feng
Determine all composite positive integers $n$ for which it is possible to arrange all divisors of $n$ that are greater than 1 in a circle so that no two adjacent divisors are relatively prime.
46 replies
Valentin Vornicu
Apr 21, 2005
doongus
2 hours ago
A parabolic triangle-USAJMO Problem 4
BarbieRocks   74
N Mar 23, 2025 by zuat.e
A triangle is called a parabolic triangle if its vertices lie on a parabola $y = x^2$. Prove that for every nonnegative integer $n$, there is an odd number $m$ and a parabolic triangle with vertices at three distinct points with integer coordinates with area $(2^nm)^2$.
74 replies
BarbieRocks
Apr 29, 2010
zuat.e
Mar 23, 2025
A parabolic triangle-USAJMO Problem 4
G H J
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BarbieRocks
1102 posts
#1 • 4 Y
Y by jhu08, HWenslawski, Adventure10, Mango247
A triangle is called a parabolic triangle if its vertices lie on a parabola $y = x^2$. Prove that for every nonnegative integer $n$, there is an odd number $m$ and a parabolic triangle with vertices at three distinct points with integer coordinates with area $(2^nm)^2$.
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AIME15
7892 posts
#2 • 26 Y
Y by mihirb, ishankhare, R2002W, Wizard_32, Ultroid999OCPN, MathPassionForever, Williamgolly, mathleticguyyy, myh2910, ihatemath123, Mathematicsislovely, jhu08, asdf334, centslordm, megarnie, suvamkonar, HWenslawski, aidan0626, Adventure10, Mango247, Sagnik123Biswas, Yrock, and 4 other users
You want...an EASIER way?

Click to reveal hidden text
Z K Y
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BarbieRocks
1102 posts
#3 • 4 Y
Y by Wizard_32, jhu08, Adventure10, Mango247
Ya I knew there was something easy like that...
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mgao
1599 posts
#4 • 4 Y
Y by jhu08, Adventure10, Mango247, and 1 other user
AIME15 wrote:
You want...an EASIER way?

Click to reveal hidden text
DUDE THATS WHAT I GOT
like down to the EXACT vertices
even the 0 case is the same
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simof
78 posts
#5 • 3 Y
Y by jhu08, Adventure10, Mango247
Basically what I did, except slightly differently:

Solution
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Mewto55555
4210 posts
#6 • 3 Y
Y by jkmmm3, Adventure10, Mango247
a_0=1
b_0=1
a_n=a_n-1 ^2 + 2b_n-1 ^2
b_n=2a_n-1b_n-1
(0,0),(1,1),(a_n,a_n^2)


However that is not what I came up with during the test.

What I basically did is (0,0),(1,1),(2,4); (0,0),(1,1),(9,81); (0,0),(1,1),(289,289^2) gives one for n=0,1,2.

Multiply all x-coords by 4 to multiply area by 64 WIN
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Goldey
333 posts
#7 • 2 Y
Y by Adventure10, Mango247
I only found the lame inductive solution..
I figured the inductive step out like instantly but took over 1/2 hour to find one for the case n=1... =/
Z K Y
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BarbieRocks
1102 posts
#8 • 3 Y
Y by Adventure10, Mango247, Sagnik123Biswas
For me n=0,1 were easy but it took me an hour to find a solution for n=2, using my definition of a "nice parabolic triangle"
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Math Geek
817 posts
#9 • 2 Y
Y by Adventure10, Mango247
AIME15 wrote:
You want...an EASIER way?

Click to reveal hidden text

Hmm, this is what I got. Yay.
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number.sense
136 posts
#10 • 2 Y
Y by Adventure10, Mango247
This actually makes the problem really nice:

the area of a triangle with vertices (a,a^2), (b,b^2), and (c,c^2) where a<b<c is 1/2*(b-a)(c-a)(c-b)

(U can either use shoelace and factor or use the cross-product of the two vectors)

It's a slightly stronger result
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SnowEverywhere
801 posts
#11 • 2 Y
Y by Adventure10, Mango247
I did the same thing as numbersense.

From there, I substituted that $c-b = 2^{2n+1} +1$ and $b-a=2^{2n+1}(2^{2n+1}+1)$. This reduces the area to the following.

$A = \frac{1}{2}(2^{2n+1})(2^{2n+1}+1)^{4} = [2^{n}(2^{2n+1}+1)^{2}]^{2}$
Z K Y
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OneShotSniper
28 posts
#12 • 1 Y
Y by Adventure10
Mewto55555 wrote:
a_0=1
b_0=1
a_n=a_n-1 ^2 + 2b_n-1 ^2
b_n=2a_n-1b_n-1
(0,0),(1,1),(a_n,a_n^2)


However that is not what I came up with during the test.

What I basically did is (0,0),(1,1),(2,4); (0,0),(1,1),(9,81); (0,0),(1,1),(289,289^2) gives one for n=0,1,2.

Multiply all x-coords by 4 to multiply area by 64 WIN


I did the exact same thing except I wasn't able to find initial value when n=2
How did you find (0,1,289)??
When I set one variable for 0 or 1, I kept disproved the problem :(
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ksun48
1514 posts
#13 • 1 Y
Y by Adventure10
Then set b=0, because you the factorized version makes it invariant. That's what I did.
My solution:
We factor like number.sense. Because it is invariant when we decrease each variable by any real number, we decrease it by b, to get:
$\dfrac{ac(a-c)}{2}=2^{(2n)}m^2$.
The coordinates of b are (0,0).
To get it, let $a=a_1^2, c=c_1^2$, and let $a_1=2^{2n-1}+1$, and $c_1=2^{2n-1}-1$.
Then $a_1^2c_1^2(a_1^2-c^2_1)=(2^{4n-2}-1)^2*2^{2n+1}$. (After bashing)
This is always of that form, so it works. (Except for n=0, which is done by the case (9,9) (6,6) (0,0))
This problem was okay, pretty good.
This post has been edited 1 time. Last edited by ksun48, Apr 29, 2010, 10:52 PM
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v_Enhance
6870 posts
#14 • 4 Y
Y by AlastorMoody, HamstPan38825, Adventure10, Mango247
AIME15 wrote:
You want...an EASIER way?

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Yay that was my solution too, except I used $4^n$ instead of $2^{2n}$ because it looks nicer :P
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SnowEverywhere
801 posts
#15 • 2 Y
Y by Adventure10, Mango247
Does mine work? (Several posts above; I think/hope it does)
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