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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.

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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
Inequalities
sqing   3
N 37 minutes ago by sqing
Let $ a,b> 0$ and $ a+b=1 . $ Prove that
$$ \frac{1}{a}+\frac{1}{b}\geq \frac{4+\frac{k}{4096}}{1+ ka^7b^7}$$Where $\frac{8192}{3}\geq  k>0 .$
$$ \frac{1}{a}+\frac{1}{b}\geq \frac{\frac{14}{3}}{1+ \frac{8192}{3}a^7b^7}$$
3 replies
sqing
2 hours ago
sqing
37 minutes ago
Number theory question with many (confusing) variables
urfinalopp   0
44 minutes ago
Given m,n,p,q \in \mathbb{N+}, find all solutions to 2^{m}3^{n}+5^{p}=7^{q}$

One of the paths I've found is to boil it down to solving two non-simultaneous equations 2^{m_1}+5^{n_1}=7^{q_1} and
7^{m_1}+5^{n_1}=2^{q_1} but its too hard. Any other approaches/solutions or a continuation of this path?
0 replies
urfinalopp
44 minutes ago
0 replies
Dealing with Multiple Circles
Wildabandon   3
N an hour ago by Wildabandon
Source: PEMNAS Brawijaya University Senior High School Semifinal 2023 P4
A non-isosceles triangle $ABC$ and $\ell$ is tangent to the circumcircle of triangle $ABC$ through point $C$. Points $D$ and $E$ are the midpoints of segments $BC$ and $CA$ respectively, then line $AD$ and line $BE$ intersect $\ell$ at points $A_1$ and $B_1$ respectively. Line $AB_1$ and line $BA_1$ intersect the circumcircle of triangle $ABC$ at points $X$ and $Y$ respectively. Prove that $X$, $Y$, $D$ and $E$ concyclic.
3 replies
Wildabandon
Dec 1, 2024
Wildabandon
an hour ago
Inequalities
sqing   0
an hour ago
Let $ a,b,c\geq 0 $ and $a+b+c=1$. Prove that$$a^3b+b^3c+c^3a+\frac{473}{256}abc\le\frac{27}{256}$$Equality holds when $ a=b=c=\frac{1}{3} $ or $ a=0,b=\frac{3}{4},c=\frac{1}{4} $ or $ a=\frac{1}{4} ,b=0,c=\frac{3}{4} $
or $ a=\frac{3}{4} ,b=\frac{1}{4},c=0. $
0 replies
sqing
an hour ago
0 replies
help title
nguyenvana   0
an hour ago
Source: no from book
An and Binh play a game on a square board of size (2n+1)x(2n+1) with An going first. Initially, all the squares on the board are white. In each turn, An colors a white square blue and Binh colors a white square red. The game ends after both players have colored all the squares on the board. An wins if, for any two blue squares, there exists at least one chain of neighboring blue squares connecting them (two squares are called neighboring if they have at least one vertex in common). Otherwise, Binh wins. Determine the player with the winning strategy in the following cases:
a) with n=1
b) with n>=2
0 replies
nguyenvana
an hour ago
0 replies
funny title
nguyenvana   0
an hour ago
Source: no from book
Find all the functions f: R+ to R+ which satisfy the functional equation:
f(2f(x)+f(y)+xy)=xy+2x+y (x,y R+)
0 replies
nguyenvana
an hour ago
0 replies
Inequalities from SXTX
sqing   11
N an hour ago by byron-aj-tom
T702. Let $ a,b,c>0 $ and $ a+2b+3c=\sqrt{13}. $ Prove that $$ \sqrt{a^2+1} +2\sqrt{b^2+1} +3\sqrt{c^2+1} \geq 7$$S
T703. Let $ a,b $ be real numbers such that $ a+b\neq 0. $. Find the minimum of $ a^2+b^2+(\frac{1-ab}{a+b} )^2.$
T704. Let $ a,b,c>0 $ and $ a+b+c=3. $ Prove that $$ \frac{a^2+7}{(c+a)(a+b)} + \frac{b^2+7}{(a+b)(b+c)} +\frac{c^2+7}{(b+c)(c+a)}  \geq 6$$S
11 replies
sqing
Feb 18, 2025
byron-aj-tom
an hour ago
2018 VNTST Problem 1
gausskarl   6
N an hour ago by cursed_tangent1434
Source: 2018 Vietnam Team Selection Test
Let $ABC$ be a acute, non-isosceles triangle. $D,\ E,\ F$ are the midpoints of sides $AB,\ BC,\ AC$, resp. Denote by $(O),\ (O')$ the circumcircle and Euler circle of $ABC$. An arbitrary point $P$ lies inside triangle $DEF$ and $DP,\ EP,\ FP$ intersect $(O')$ at $D',\ E',\ F'$, resp. Point $A'$ is the point such that $D'$ is the midpoint of $AA'$. Points $B',\ C'$ are defined similarly.
a. Prove that if $PO=PO'$ then $O\in(A'B'C')$;
b. Point $A'$ is mirrored by $OD$, its image is $X$. $Y,\ Z$ are created in the same manner. $H$ is the orthocenter of $ABC$ and $XH,\ YH,\ ZH$ intersect $BC, AC, AB$ at $M,\ N,\ L$ resp. Prove that $M,\ N,\ L$ are collinear.
6 replies
gausskarl
Mar 30, 2018
cursed_tangent1434
an hour ago
Inspired by m4thbl3nd3r
sqing   0
an hour ago
Source: Own
Let $ a,b,c\geq 0 $ and $a+b+c=3$. Prove that$$a^3b+b^3c+c^3a+\frac{1419}{256}abc\le\frac{2187}{256}$$Equality holds when $ a=b=c=1 $ or $ a=0,b=\frac{9}{4},c=\frac{3}{4} $ or $ a=\frac{3}{4} ,b=0,c=\frac{9}{4} $
or $ a=\frac{9}{4} ,b=\frac{3}{4},c=0. $
0 replies
sqing
an hour ago
0 replies
a+b+c=3 inequality
jokehim   1
N an hour ago by teomihai
Source: my problem
Problem. Given non-negative real numbers $a,b,c$ satisfying $a+b+c=3.$ Prove that $$\frac{1}{a+b+1}+\frac{1}{b+c+1}+\frac{1}{c+a+1}\le \frac{9}{ab+bc+ca+6}.$$Proposed by Phan Ngoc Chau
1 reply
jokehim
4 hours ago
teomihai
an hour ago
Interesting inequality
sqing   7
N an hour ago by SunnyEvan
Source: Own
Let $ a,b> 0$ and $ a+b=1 . $ Prove that
$$ \frac{1}{a}+\frac{1}{b}\geq \frac{4+\frac{k}{16}}{1+ ka^3b^3}$$Where $32\geq  k>0 .$
Let $ a,b> 0$ and $ a+b=1 . $ Prove that
$$ \frac{1}{a}+\frac{1}{b}\geq \frac{4+\frac{k}{64}}{1+ ka^4b^4}$$Where $\frac{256}{3}\geq  k>0 .$
$$ \frac{1}{a}+\frac{1}{b}\geq \frac{5}{1+16a^3b^3}$$$$ \frac{1}{a}+\frac{1}{b}\geq \frac{6}{1+32a^3b^3}$$$$ \frac{1}{a}+\frac{1}{b}\geq \frac{5}{1+64a^4b^4}$$$$ \frac{1}{a}+\frac{1}{b}\geq \frac{\frac{16}{3}}{1+\frac{256}{3}a^4b^4}$$
7 replies
sqing
3 hours ago
SunnyEvan
an hour ago
Is this NT?
navi_09220114   1
N an hour ago by mashumaro
Source: Malaysian IMO TST 2025 P11
Let $n$, $d$ be positive integers such that $d>\frac{n}{2}$. Suppose $a_1, a_2,\cdots,a_{d+2}$ is a sequence of integers satisfying $a_{d+1}=a_1$, $a_{d+2}=a_2$, and for all indices $1\le i_1<i_2<\cdots <i_s\le d$, $$a_{i_1}+a_{i_2}+\cdots+a_{i_s}\not\equiv 0\pmod n$$Prove that there exists $1\le i\le d$ such that $$a_{i+1}\equiv a_i \pmod n \quad \text{or} \quad a_{i+1}\equiv a_i+a_{i+2} \pmod n$$
Proposed by Yeoh Zi Song
1 reply
navi_09220114
4 hours ago
mashumaro
an hour ago
Inequality
spiderman0   1
N an hour ago by arqady
given a,b,c are positive real numbers prove that$ \frac{a^4}{a^2+ab+b^2}+ \frac{b^4}{b^2+bc+c^2}+ \frac{c^4}{c^2+ca+a^2}\ge \frac{a^3+b^3+c^3}{a+b+c}$
1 reply
spiderman0
2 hours ago
arqady
an hour ago
Cyclic ine
m4thbl3nd3r   0
2 hours ago
Let $a,b,c>0$ such that $a+b+c=3$. Prove that $$a^3b+b^3c+c^3a+9abc\le 12$$
0 replies
m4thbl3nd3r
2 hours ago
0 replies
Why does the combined equation have two negative solutions?
Luking   1
N Mar 19, 2025 by vanstraelen
It is known that the moving point $G(x,y)$ is on the curve $C_1: y^2 - x^2 = 1$. There is a parabola $C_2: x^2 = 4y$ with focus $F$. Two tangent lines to$C_2$ are drawn through a point $P$ on $C1$, and the tangent points are $A$ and $B$ respectively. The line $l$ parallel to the line $AB$ is tangent to $C_2$ at point $Q$. Question: When the line $l$ and $C_1$ have two intersection points, find the range of $|QF|$.\
This may make some of the information in the question useless, because I deleted the first two questions of this big question in order to avoid making the question too long and get straight to the point.\
According to the calculation, I get the analytical expression of the line $l$ as $y=\frac{x_0}{2} x - \frac{x_0^2}{4}$.\
At first, I thought it only needed to be not parallel to the parabola asymptotes.\
That is, the slope of the straight line $k \neq \frac{a}{b}$ , then $\frac{x_0}{2} \neq \frac{a}{b}$ , so $x_0 \neq \pm \frac{2a}{b} = \pm2$ ,and $x_0^2 \neq 4$.\
$|QF| = y_0 +1 \neq 5$.\
But when I checked the answer, it was wrong.\
It combines the straight line $l$ with the curve $C_1$ to get an equation and then uses Vieta's theorem.
\begin{cases}
y=\frac{x_0}{2} x - \frac{x_0^2}{4}
x^2=4y
\end{cases}
$$( 4 x_{0}^{2}-1 6 ) y^{2}-8 x_{0}^{2} y-x_{0}^{4}-4 x_{0}^{2}=0 $$The answer is that according to the question, the equation has two negative roots. I can't understand this, and this is exactly where my problem lies.\
Then it gets the following system of equations:
\begin{cases}
4x_0-16 \neq 0
\Delta > 0
x_1+x_2 <0
x_1\cdot x_2>0
\end{cases}
Solve, $2\sqrt{5}-2<x_0<4$.
So we get $|QF|=\frac {x_0^2}{4} + 1 \in (\frac {\sqrt{5}+1}{2},2)$.
I hope you can help me figure out why both roots of that equation are negative.
IMAGE
IMAGE
1 reply
Luking
Mar 19, 2025
vanstraelen
Mar 19, 2025
Why does the combined equation have two negative solutions?
G H J
G H BBookmark kLocked kLocked NReply
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Luking
1 post
#1
Y by
It is known that the moving point $G(x,y)$ is on the curve $C_1: y^2 - x^2 = 1$. There is a parabola $C_2: x^2 = 4y$ with focus $F$. Two tangent lines to$C_2$ are drawn through a point $P$ on $C1$, and the tangent points are $A$ and $B$ respectively. The line $l$ parallel to the line $AB$ is tangent to $C_2$ at point $Q$. Question: When the line $l$ and $C_1$ have two intersection points, find the range of $|QF|$.\
This may make some of the information in the question useless, because I deleted the first two questions of this big question in order to avoid making the question too long and get straight to the point.\
According to the calculation, I get the analytical expression of the line $l$ as $y=\frac{x_0}{2} x - \frac{x_0^2}{4}$.\
At first, I thought it only needed to be not parallel to the parabola asymptotes.\
That is, the slope of the straight line $k \neq \frac{a}{b}$ , then $\frac{x_0}{2} \neq \frac{a}{b}$ , so $x_0 \neq \pm \frac{2a}{b} = \pm2$ ,and $x_0^2 \neq 4$.\
$|QF| = y_0 +1 \neq 5$.\
But when I checked the answer, it was wrong.\
It combines the straight line $l$ with the curve $C_1$ to get an equation and then uses Vieta's theorem.
\begin{cases}
y=\frac{x_0}{2} x - \frac{x_0^2}{4}
x^2=4y
\end{cases}
$$( 4 x_{0}^{2}-1 6 ) y^{2}-8 x_{0}^{2} y-x_{0}^{4}-4 x_{0}^{2}=0 $$The answer is that according to the question, the equation has two negative roots. I can't understand this, and this is exactly where my problem lies.\
Then it gets the following system of equations:
\begin{cases}
4x_0-16 \neq 0
\Delta > 0
x_1+x_2 <0
x_1\cdot x_2>0
\end{cases}
Solve, $2\sqrt{5}-2<x_0<4$.
So we get $|QF|=\frac {x_0^2}{4} + 1 \in (\frac {\sqrt{5}+1}{2},2)$.
I hope you can help me figure out why both roots of that equation are negative.
https://cdn.aops.com/images/3/c/e/3cef0ee8d5cffa78fe4009e539e5fa83506a21d0.png
https://cdn.aops.com/images/a/c/6/ac68f3c9d494f36b38c21c112a1030f4252afe42.png
Z K Y
The post below has been deleted. Click to close.
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vanstraelen
8932 posts
#2
Y by
When the line $l$ and $C_1$ have two intersection points: $C$ and $D$, see picture.

It combines the straight line $l$ with the curve $C_1$ to get an equation and then uses Vieta's theorem.
$y=\frac{x_0}{2} x - \frac{x_0^2}{4}$ and $y^2-x^2=1$
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