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k a May Highlights and 2025 AoPS Online Class Information
jlacosta   0
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]
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0 replies
jlacosta
May 1, 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
NT problem
toanrathay   1
N 26 minutes ago by orange0707
Let $p$ be a prime and $m,n$ be positive integers such that $m>1$ and $\dfrac{m^{pn}-1}{m^n-1}$ is prime. Prove that $pn\mid (p-1)^n+1.$
1 reply
toanrathay
Yesterday at 11:57 AM
orange0707
26 minutes ago
not obvious trig identity!
mathmax001   2
N 30 minutes ago by mathmax001
Problem ( trigonometry )
Let $ x \in \mathbb{R} $ and n a positive integer $ n >=1 $, Show that : $$ \tan\left({\frac{(n+1)x}{2}}\right)= \frac{\sum_{k=1}^n{\sin kx}}{\sum_{k=1}^n{\cos kx}} $$
Here is my take in this video: https://youtu.be/DBPyHNqk0GI?si=9r-YDuwv794AGe1p
2 replies
mathmax001
Today at 1:43 AM
mathmax001
30 minutes ago
Polynomial Application Sequences and GCDs
pieater314159   46
N an hour ago by cursed_tangent1434
Source: ELMO 2019 Problem 1, 2019 ELMO Shortlist N1
Let $P(x)$ be a polynomial with integer coefficients such that $P(0)=1$, and let $c > 1$ be an integer. Define $x_0=0$ and $x_{i+1} = P(x_i)$ for all integers $i \ge 0$. Show that there are infinitely many positive integers $n$ such that $\gcd (x_n, n+c)=1$.

Proposed by Milan Haiman and Carl Schildkraut
46 replies
pieater314159
Jun 19, 2019
cursed_tangent1434
an hour ago
c^a + a = 2^b
Havu   10
N an hour ago by Havu
Find $a, b, c\in\mathbb{Z}^+$ such that $a,b,c$ coprime, $a + b = 2c$ and $c^a + a = 2^b$.
10 replies
1 viewing
Havu
May 10, 2025
Havu
an hour ago
confused
greenplanet2050   4
N 2 hours ago by greenplanet2050
um something weird happened today

I was doing the 2002 aime ii and i tried #9

I used PIE with $(2^{10}-1)-(\text{Number of times there are n same elements})$

so for like 1 same element i did $2^9 \cdot \dbinom{10}{1}$ cause there are 10 ways to choose 1 element that will be repeated. Similarly for 2 same elements it would be $2^8 \cdot \dbinom{10}{2}$

So if $A_n=2^{10-n} \cdot \dbinom{10}{n},$ the answer would be $(2^{10}-1)-([A_1+A_3+A_5+A_7+A_9]-[A_2+A_4+A_6+A_8+A_{10}].$ But this number turned out to be $0.$

Later when looking at the solution, i found out that the correct number was $28501.$ But I realized that $A_2+A_4+A_6+A_8+A_{10}=28501.$ So I was really confused of why i got the right answer somehow in my calculations.

Can someone explain why this happened? Thanks! :)
4 replies
greenplanet2050
Yesterday at 6:29 PM
greenplanet2050
2 hours ago
Own made functional equation
JARP091   0
2 hours ago
Source: Own (Maybe?)
\[
\text{Find all functions } f : \mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R} \text{ such that:} \\
f(a^4 + a^2b^2 + b^4) = f\left((a^2 - f(ab) + b^2)(a^2 + f(ab) + b^2)\right)
\]
0 replies
1 viewing
JARP091
2 hours ago
0 replies
[15th PMO] National Orals, Part 1, #9
LilKirb   1
N 2 hours ago by pingpongmerrily
If $x^2+2x+5$ is a factor of $x^4 +ax^2 + b$, find the sum of $a+b.$
1 reply
LilKirb
2 hours ago
pingpongmerrily
2 hours ago
Serbian selection contest for the IMO 2025 - P6
OgnjenTesic   16
N 2 hours ago by JARP091
Source: Serbian selection contest for the IMO 2025
For an $n \times n$ table filled with natural numbers, we say it is a divisor table if:
- the numbers in the $i$-th row are exactly all the divisors of some natural number $r_i$,
- the numbers in the $j$-th column are exactly all the divisors of some natural number $c_j$,
- $r_i \ne r_j$ for every $i \ne j$.

A prime number $p$ is given. Determine the smallest natural number $n$, divisible by $p$, such that there exists an $n \times n$ divisor table, or prove that such $n$ does not exist.

Proposed by Pavle Martinović
16 replies
OgnjenTesic
May 22, 2025
JARP091
2 hours ago
equal segments on radiuses
danepale   8
N 2 hours ago by zuat.e
Source: Croatia TST 2016
Let $ABC$ be an acute triangle with circumcenter $O$. Points $E$ and $F$ are chosen on segments $OB$ and $OC$ such that $BE = OF$. If $M$ is the midpoint of the arc $EOA$ and $N$ is the midpoint of the arc $AOF$, prove that $\sphericalangle ENO + \sphericalangle OMF = 2 \sphericalangle BAC$.
8 replies
danepale
Apr 25, 2016
zuat.e
2 hours ago
Inequality
SunnyEvan   8
N 2 hours ago by arqady
Let $a$, $b$, $c$ be non-negative real numbers, no two of which are zero. Prove that :
$$ \sum \frac{3ab-2bc+3ca}{3b^2+bc+3c^2} \geq \frac{12}{7}$$
8 replies
SunnyEvan
Apr 1, 2025
arqady
2 hours ago
Inequality conjecture
RainbowNeos   2
N 2 hours ago by RainbowNeos
Show (or deny) that there exists an absolute constant $C>0$ that, for all $n$ and $n$ positive real numbers $x_i ,1\leq i \leq n$, there is
\[\sum_{i=1}^n \frac{x_i^2}{\sum_{j=1}^i x_j}\geq C \ln n\left(\prod_{i=1}^n x_i\right)^{\frac{1}{n}}\]
2 replies
RainbowNeos
May 29, 2025
RainbowNeos
2 hours ago
2- player game on a strip of n squares with two game pieces
parmenides51   2
N 2 hours ago by Gggvds1
Source: 2023 Austrian Mathematical Olympiad, Junior Regional Competition , Problem 3
Alice and Bob play a game on a strip of $n \ge  3$ squares with two game pieces. At the beginning, Alice’s piece is on the first square while Bob’s piece is on the last square. The figure shows the starting position for a strip of $ n = 7$ squares.
IMAGE
The players alternate. In each move, they advance their own game piece by one or two squares in the direction of the opponent’s piece. The piece has to land on an empty square without jumping over the opponent’s piece. Alice makes the first move with her own piece. If a player cannot move, they lose.

For which $n$ can Bob ensure a win no matter how Alice plays?
For which $n$ can Alice ensure a win no matter how Bob plays?

(Karl Czakler)
2 replies
parmenides51
Mar 26, 2024
Gggvds1
2 hours ago
Incenters and Circles
rkm0959   6
N 2 hours ago by happypi31415
Source: Korean National Junior Olympiad Problem 1
In a triangle $\triangle ABC$ with incenter $I$,
Let $D$ = $AI$ $\cap$ $BC$
$E$ = incenter of $\triangle ABD$
$F$ = incenter of $\triangle ACD$
$P$ = intersection of $\odot BCE$ and $\overline {ED}$
$Q$ = intersection of $\odot BCF$ and $\overline {FD}$
$M$ = midpoint of $\overline {BC}$

Prove that $D, M, P, Q$ concycle
6 replies
rkm0959
Nov 2, 2014
happypi31415
2 hours ago
Reflected point lies on radical axis
Mahdi_Mashayekhi   6
N 2 hours ago by khanhnx
Source: Iran 2025 second round P4
Given is an acute and scalene triangle $ABC$ with circumcenter $O$. $BO$ and $CO$ intersect the altitude from $A$ to $BC$ at points $P$ and $Q$ respectively. $X$ is the circumcenter of triangle $OPQ$ and $O'$ is the reflection of $O$ over $BC$. $Y$ is the second intersection of circumcircles of triangles $BXP$ and $CXQ$. Show that $X,Y,O'$ are collinear.
6 replies
Mahdi_Mashayekhi
Apr 19, 2025
khanhnx
2 hours ago
Pythagorean triples vs sine ratio?
Miranda2829   6
N Apr 10, 2025 by anticodon
I'm a bit confused about the

right angle 3 4 5 have a sine ratio of 0.6 and cosine of 0.8,

Do different lengths of right-angle triangles have different ratios?

how to get an actual angle of sine ?

thanks

6 replies
Miranda2829
Feb 27, 2025
anticodon
Apr 10, 2025
Pythagorean triples vs sine ratio?
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Miranda2829
207 posts
#1
Y by
I'm a bit confused about the

right angle 3 4 5 have a sine ratio of 0.6 and cosine of 0.8,

Do different lengths of right-angle triangles have different ratios?

how to get an actual angle of sine ?

thanks
Z K Y
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aBaoZi
14 posts
#2
Y by
In a right triangle, the sine value of an angle is equal to the length of the side opposite of the angle divided by the length of the hypotenuse. The cosine value of an angle is the length of the side adjacent to the angle divided by the length of the hypotenuse.

Let’s say that this triangle with sides 3, 4, 5 has angles A, B, C; where A is the angle opposite of 3, B is the angle opposite of 4, and C is the right angle. The sine value for angle A would be the side opposite of angle A (which is 3) divided by the hypotenuse (which is 5), which is $3/5$, or $0.6$.

To get the actual angle value of angle A for this problem, you can type in sin^-1 (0.6) on the calculator.

Hope this helps!
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Miranda2829
207 posts
#3
Y by
thanks, so what does the unit of circle's number do?

in what kind of question you need unit of circle? and what does it get for you ?
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char0221
150 posts
#4
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A unit circle is required to find values of $\sin$ and $\cos$ that are greater than or even equal to $90^\circ$.
Z K Y
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williamxiao
2517 posts
#5
Y by
Miranda2829 wrote:
thanks, so what does the unit of circle's number do?

in what kind of question you need unit of circle? and what does it get for you ?

The unit circle is useful for:
1. Telling you the exact cos/sin relations of angles that are multiples of 30 degrees or 45 degrees
2. Visualizing the relationship between (cos, sin) and (x,y) on a cartesian plane or an imaginary number on the complex plane
3. Relationships between angles and their rotations and reflections (like 150 degrees being the reflection of 30 degrees over the y axis)
This post has been edited 1 time. Last edited by williamxiao, Feb 28, 2025, 2:35 AM
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Miranda2829
207 posts
#6
Y by
thank u, how often we will see questions of sine angle not in unit of circle? like 38.67 or some other number which is not in unit of circle?
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anticodon
201 posts
#7
Y by
on AMCs/contest problems not very often.
Usually just denote it as inverse sine or something and it should work
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