ka May Highlights and 2025 AoPS Online Class Information
jlacosta0
May 1, 2025
May is an exciting month! National MATHCOUNTS is the second week of May in Washington D.C. and our Founder, Richard Rusczyk will be presenting a seminar, Preparing Strong Math Students for College and Careers, on May 11th.
Are you interested in working towards MATHCOUNTS and don’t know where to start? We have you covered! If you have taken Prealgebra, then you are ready for MATHCOUNTS/AMC 8 Basics. Already aiming for State or National MATHCOUNTS and harder AMC 8 problems? Then our MATHCOUNTS/AMC 8 Advanced course is for you.
Summer camps are starting next month at the Virtual Campus in math and language arts that are 2 - to 4 - weeks in duration. Spaces are still available - don’t miss your chance to have an enriching summer experience. There are middle and high school competition math camps as well as Math Beasts camps that review key topics coupled with fun explorations covering areas such as graph theory (Math Beasts Camp 6), cryptography (Math Beasts Camp 7-8), and topology (Math Beasts Camp 8-9)!
Be sure to mark your calendars for the following upcoming events:
[list][*]May 9th, 4:30pm PT/7:30pm ET, Casework 2: Overwhelming Evidence — A Text Adventure, a game where participants will work together to navigate the map, solve puzzles, and win! All are welcome.
[*]May 19th, 4:30pm PT/7:30pm ET, What's Next After Beast Academy?, designed for students finishing Beast Academy and ready for Prealgebra 1.
[*]May 20th, 4:00pm PT/7:00pm ET, Mathcamp 2025 Qualifying Quiz Part 1 Math Jam, Problems 1 to 4, join the Canada/USA Mathcamp staff for this exciting Math Jam, where they discuss solutions to Problems 1 to 4 of the 2025 Mathcamp Qualifying Quiz!
[*]May 21st, 4:00pm PT/7:00pm ET, Mathcamp 2025 Qualifying Quiz Part 2 Math Jam, Problems 5 and 6, Canada/USA Mathcamp staff will discuss solutions to Problems 5 and 6 of the 2025 Mathcamp Qualifying Quiz![/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.
Introduction to Algebra A
Sunday, May 11 - Sep 14 (1:00 - 2:30 pm ET/10:00 - 11:30 am PT)
Wednesday, May 14 - Aug 27
Friday, May 30 - Sep 26
Monday, Jun 2 - Sep 22
Sunday, Jun 15 - Oct 12
Thursday, Jun 26 - Oct 9
Tuesday, Jul 15 - Oct 28
Introduction to Counting & Probability
Thursday, May 15 - Jul 31
Sunday, Jun 1 - Aug 24
Thursday, Jun 12 - Aug 28
Wednesday, Jul 9 - Sep 24
Sunday, Jul 27 - Oct 19
Introduction to Number Theory
Friday, May 9 - Aug 1
Wednesday, May 21 - Aug 6
Monday, Jun 9 - Aug 25
Sunday, Jun 15 - Sep 14
Tuesday, Jul 15 - Sep 30
Introduction to Algebra B
Tuesday, May 6 - Aug 19
Wednesday, Jun 4 - Sep 17
Sunday, Jun 22 - Oct 19
Friday, Jul 18 - Nov 14
Introduction to Geometry
Sunday, May 11 - Nov 9
Tuesday, May 20 - Oct 28
Monday, Jun 16 - Dec 8
Friday, Jun 20 - Jan 9
Sunday, Jun 29 - Jan 11
Monday, Jul 14 - Jan 19
Paradoxes and Infinity
Mon, Tue, Wed, & Thurs, Jul 14 - Jul 16 (meets every day of the week!)
Intermediate: Grades 8-12
Intermediate Algebra
Sunday, Jun 1 - Nov 23
Tuesday, Jun 10 - Nov 18
Wednesday, Jun 25 - Dec 10
Sunday, Jul 13 - Jan 18
Thursday, Jul 24 - Jan 22
MATHCOUNTS/AMC 8 Basics
Friday, May 23 - Aug 15
Monday, Jun 2 - Aug 18
Thursday, Jun 12 - Aug 28
Sunday, Jun 22 - Sep 21
Tues & Thurs, Jul 8 - Aug 14 (meets twice a week!)
MATHCOUNTS/AMC 8 Advanced
Sunday, May 11 - Aug 10
Tuesday, May 27 - Aug 12
Wednesday, Jun 11 - Aug 27
Sunday, Jun 22 - Sep 21
Tues & Thurs, Jul 8 - Aug 14 (meets twice a week!)
AMC 10 Problem Series
Friday, May 9 - Aug 1
Sunday, Jun 1 - Aug 24
Thursday, Jun 12 - Aug 28
Tuesday, Jun 17 - Sep 2
Sunday, Jun 22 - Sep 21 (1:00 - 2:30 pm ET/10:00 - 11:30 am PT)
Monday, Jun 23 - Sep 15
Tues & Thurs, Jul 8 - Aug 14 (meets twice a week!)
AMC 10 Final Fives
Sunday, May 11 - Jun 8
Tuesday, May 27 - Jun 17
Monday, Jun 30 - Jul 21
AMC 12 Problem Series
Tuesday, May 27 - Aug 12
Thursday, Jun 12 - Aug 28
Sunday, Jun 22 - Sep 21
Wednesday, Aug 6 - Oct 22
Introduction to Programming with Python
Thursday, May 22 - Aug 7
Sunday, Jun 15 - Sep 14 (1:00 - 2:30 pm ET/10:00 - 11:30 am PT)
Tuesday, Jun 17 - Sep 2
Monday, Jun 30 - Sep 22
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][/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 , do not answer with " is a solution" only. Either you post any kind of proof or at least something unexpected (like " is the smallest solution). Someone that does not see that 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.
There are cups labeled , where the -th cup has capacity liters. In total, there are liters of water distributed among these cups such that each cup contains an integer amount of water. In each step, we may transfer water from one cup to another. The process continues until either the source cup becomes empty or the destination cup becomes full.
Prove that from any configuration where each cup contains an integer amount of water, it is possible to reach a configuration in which each cup contains exactly 1 liter of water in at most steps.
Prove that in at most steps, one can go from any configuration with integer water amounts to any other configuration with the same property.
A circle is inscribed in a rhombus. In each corner of the rhombus, a circle is inscribed such that it touches two sides of the rhombus and inscribed circle. These corner circles have radii and and the radius of the inscribed circle is . If and are natural numbers and , find the value of and .
A circle is called a separator for a set of five points in a plane if it passes through three of these points, it contains a fourth point inside and the fifth point is outside the circle. Prove that every set of five points such that no three are collinear and no four are concyclic has exactly four separators.
This is just your average mock AMC 8 on AoPS... nothing sus at all...
Just PM me your answers if you actually want to try it and be on the leaderboard...
Leaderboard
...
This test is for entertainment purposes only...
Also if you all want, I can post the solutions in June.
Hey everyone, here we can post questions with way to many extraneous words, that are actually easy.
Try to solve the one above yours.
I'll start: Click to reveal hidden text
Maya's parents Kim and Richard invented chocolate bars. Each chocolate bar was 1 dollar. They then became billionaires by scamming children. Maya was 8 years old when she found out she can't get sick from eating too many chocolate bars. Richard decided to make a deal with Maya. For every 4 chocolate bars she ate Maya could exchange the wrappers for another candy bar. Maya spent money on the lottery, and somehow won ! If she spends dollars on her parents chocolate bars, she can eat candy bars. Let N & M be positive integers, what is N+M?
Hi! So I was playing Connect4 with my friends the other day and I wondered: how many "legal" arrangements of Connect4 can be reached at the ending position?
We assume that we do not stop the game when there is a four in a row, and we have 21 red pieces and 21 yellow pieces. We also drop the pieces one by one into a standard 7 by 6 board. We can start the game with any color piece.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connect_Four
Initial Thoughts
This problem seems easy at first; the number of arrangments is simply However, I quickly saw that some boards
OOOOOOO
OOOOOOO
OOOOOOO
OOOOOOO
OOOOOOO
OOOOOOO
were impossible to construct by just dropping pieces one by one like a normal game.
Attempt to use one-to-one correspondences
After I realized that my Initial Thoughts weren't going to work, I tried to use one-to-one correspondences. I represented the columns as ABCDEFG from left to right and represented dropping the red/yellow pieces as a string of length 21 of these letters. This seemed to solve my problem, but new roadblocks popped up.
Roadblock 1 There is more than one way to represent a certain configuration using this correspondence. A quick example
red pieces fill all the left 3 columns, yellow pieces fill all the right 3 columns
shows that we overcount some configurations by using this method.
Roadblock 2 Even if we didn't overcount, we still need to account for the fact that the total number of A, B, C... over both of the strings have to each equal 7. The amount of cases (1 A goes to the red pieces, 6 As go to the yellow pieces,...) would be very difficult to calculate, even using a computer.