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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.

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0 replies
jlacosta
May 1, 2025
0 replies
Inequality with abc=1
tenplusten   11
N 10 minutes ago by sqing
Source: JBMO 2011 Shortlist A7
$\boxed{\text{A7}}$ Let $a,b,c$ be positive reals such that $abc=1$.Prove the inequality $\sum\frac{2a^2+\frac{1}{a}}{b+\frac{1}{a}+1}\geq 3$
11 replies
1 viewing
tenplusten
May 15, 2016
sqing
10 minutes ago
Central sequences
EeEeRUT   13
N 21 minutes ago by v_Enhance
Source: EGMO 2025 P2
An infinite increasing sequence $a_1 < a_2 < a_3 < \cdots$ of positive integers is called central if for every positive integer $n$ , the arithmetic mean of the first $a_n$ terms of the sequence is equal to $a_n$.

Show that there exists an infinite sequence $b_1, b_2, b_3, \dots$ of positive integers such that for every central sequence $a_1, a_2, a_3, \dots, $ there are infinitely many positive integers $n$ with $a_n = b_n$.
13 replies
EeEeRUT
Apr 16, 2025
v_Enhance
21 minutes ago
Interesting inequality
sqing   0
28 minutes ago
Source: Own
Let $ a,b,c\geq  0 , a^2+b^2+c^2 =3.$ Prove that
$$ a^4+ b^4+c^4+6abc\leq9$$$$ a^3+ b^3+  c^3+3( \sqrt{3}-1)abc\leq 3\sqrt 3$$
0 replies
sqing
28 minutes ago
0 replies
IMO Shortlist 2014 C7
hajimbrak   19
N 40 minutes ago by quantam13
Let $M$ be a set of $n \ge 4$ points in the plane, no three of which are collinear. Initially these points are connected with $n$ segments so that each point in $M$ is the endpoint of exactly two segments. Then, at each step, one may choose two segments $AB$ and $CD$ sharing a common interior point and replace them by the segments $AC$ and $BD$ if none of them is present at this moment. Prove that it is impossible to perform $n^3 /4$ or more such moves.

Proposed by Vladislav Volkov, Russia
19 replies
hajimbrak
Jul 11, 2015
quantam13
40 minutes ago
No more topics!
3^m*2^n representation
sman96   8
N Apr 27, 2025 by sadat465
Source: BdMO 2023 Secondary National P7
Prove that every positive integer can be represented in the form $$3^{m_1}\cdot 2^{n_1}+3^{m_2}\cdot 2^{n_2} + \dots + 3^{m_k}\cdot 2^{n_k}$$where $m_1 > m_2 > \dots > m_k \geq 0$ and $0 \leq n_1 < n_2 < \dots < n_k$ are integers.
8 replies
sman96
Feb 12, 2023
sadat465
Apr 27, 2025
3^m*2^n representation
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Source: BdMO 2023 Secondary National P7
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sman96
136 posts
#1 • 1 Y
Y by rightways
Prove that every positive integer can be represented in the form $$3^{m_1}\cdot 2^{n_1}+3^{m_2}\cdot 2^{n_2} + \dots + 3^{m_k}\cdot 2^{n_k}$$where $m_1 > m_2 > \dots > m_k \geq 0$ and $0 \leq n_1 < n_2 < \dots < n_k$ are integers.
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gghx
1072 posts
#2
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Induct, If it is even add one to every $n_1$ in the representation of $\frac{n}{2}$, if it is odd remove $3^{\lfloor \log_3(n)\rfloor}$ and add one to every $n_1$ in $\frac{n-3^{\lfloor \log_3(n)\rfloor}}{2}$.
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sman96
136 posts
#3
Y by
gghx wrote:
Induct, If it is even add one to every $n_1$ in the representation of $\frac{n}{2}$, if it is odd remove $3^{\lfloor \log_3(n)\rfloor}$ and add one to every $n_1$ in $\frac{n-3^{\lfloor \log_3(n)\rfloor}}{2}$.

What if there is a $3^{\lfloor \log_3(n)\rfloor}$ in the representation of $\frac{n-3^{\lfloor \log_3(n)\rfloor}}{2}$
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grupyorum
1435 posts
#4
Y by
This is a classic. I prove it by strong induction.

Let $n=2k$ and assume all numbers $1,2,\dots,2k-1$ have such a representation. Letting $k=\textstyle \sum_{1\le i\le k}3^{m_i}2^{n_i}$, we get $2k= \textstyle \sum_{1\le i\le k}3^{m_i}2^{n_i+1}$. Assume now $n$ is odd. If $n$ is a power of $3$, we are done, so assume $a$ is such that $3^a<n<3^{a+1}$. Note that $n-3^a$ is even, less than $3^a$, and admits a form above. Adding $3^a$ to this, we complete the proof.
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gghx
1072 posts
#6
Y by
sman96 wrote:
gghx wrote:
Induct, If it is even add one to every $n_1$ in the representation of $\frac{n}{2}$, if it is odd remove $3^{\lfloor \log_3(n)\rfloor}$ and add one to every $n_1$ in $\frac{n-3^{\lfloor \log_3(n)\rfloor}}{2}$.

What if there is a $3^{\lfloor \log_3(n)\rfloor}$ in the representation of $\frac{n-3^{\lfloor \log_3(n)\rfloor}}{2}$

$3^{\lfloor \log_3(n)\rfloor}$ is strictly more than $\frac{n-3^{\lfloor \log_3(n)\rfloor}}{2}$.
This post has been edited 1 time. Last edited by gghx, Feb 14, 2023, 1:48 PM
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wasikgcrushedbi
52 posts
#7
Y by
grupyorum wrote:
This is a classic. I prove it by strong induction.

Let $n=2k$ and assume all numbers $1,2,\dots,2k-1$ have such a representation. Letting $k=\textstyle \sum_{1\le i\le k}3^{m_i}2^{n_i}$, we get $2k= \textstyle \sum_{1\le i\le k}3^{m_i}2^{n_i+1}$. Assume now $n$ is odd. If $n$ is a power of $3$, we are done, so assume $a$ is such that $3^a<n<3^{a+1}$. Note that $n-3^a$ is even, less than $3^a$, and admits a form above. Adding $3^a$ to this, we complete the proof.

How are you sure that theres no $m_i=a$ or $n_i=0$ in the representation of $n-3^a$
(I dont think that if you just take common when theres some $m_i$ or $n_i$, it will work, at least i wasnt able to take common factors and make it work. So if you would please elaborate this section)
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grey_hat_hacker
12 posts
#8
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Strong induction on n

Base case is obvious

If $n=6k= 2^1 * 3^1 * k $, then k can be represented as the given expression and we have to just add 1 to the power of 2's and 3's

For $n= 6k \pm 2 = 2(3k \pm1)$, $3k \pm1$ can be expressed as the given expression, we just add 1 to the powers of 2 in the expression to get n

Same goes for n=6k+3

Now for $n=6k \pm 1$ we chose $3^m$ s.t. $3^{m+1} > n$ then, $z= n-3^m $ is even, so we can express $\frac{z}{2}$ as above and multiply by 2 and add $3^m$ to get n

I don't know if this is correct :)
This post has been edited 4 times. Last edited by grey_hat_hacker, Apr 15, 2023, 5:52 PM
Reason: Latex
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mathsolver01
5 posts
#9
Y by
Hey solve esay other way. This is very difficult.
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sadat465
16 posts
#10
Y by
grey_hat_hacker wrote:
Strong induction on n

Base case is obvious

If $n=6k= 2^1 * 3^1 * k $, then k can be represented as the given expression and we have to just add 1 to the power of 2's and 3's

For $n= 6k \pm 2 = 2(3k \pm1)$, $3k \pm1$ can be expressed as the given expression, we just add 1 to the powers of 2 in the expression to get n

Same goes for n=6k+3

Now for $n=6k \pm 1$ we chose $3^m$ s.t. $3^{m+1} > n$ then, $z= n-3^m $ is even, so we can express $\frac{z}{2}$ as above and multiply by 2 and add $3^m$ to get n

I don't know if this is correct :)

It is same with my solution.
but I don't know whether it is valid!
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