We have your learning goals covered with Spring and Summer courses available. Enroll today!

Contests & Programs AMC and other contests, summer programs, etc.
AMC and other contests, summer programs, etc.
3 M G
BBookmark  VNew Topic kLocked
Contests & Programs AMC and other contests, summer programs, etc.
AMC and other contests, summer programs, etc.
3 M G
BBookmark  VNew Topic kLocked
G
Topic
First Poster
Last Poster
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.

Introductory: Grades 5-10

Prealgebra 1 Self-Paced

Prealgebra 1
Sunday, Mar 2 - Jun 22
Friday, Mar 28 - Jul 18
Sunday, Apr 13 - Aug 10
Tuesday, May 13 - Aug 26
Thursday, May 29 - Sep 11
Sunday, Jun 15 - Oct 12
Monday, Jun 30 - Oct 20
Wednesday, Jul 16 - Oct 29

Prealgebra 2 Self-Paced

Prealgebra 2
Tuesday, Mar 25 - Jul 8
Sunday, Apr 13 - Aug 10
Wednesday, May 7 - Aug 20
Monday, Jun 2 - Sep 22
Sunday, Jun 29 - Oct 26
Friday, Jul 25 - Nov 21


Introduction to Algebra A Self-Paced

Introduction to Algebra A
Sunday, Mar 23 - Jul 20
Monday, Apr 7 - Jul 28
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 Self-Paced

Introduction to Counting & Probability
Sunday, Mar 16 - Jun 8
Wednesday, Apr 16 - Jul 2
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
Monday, Mar 17 - Jun 9
Thursday, Apr 17 - Jul 3
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 Self-Paced

Introduction to Algebra B
Sunday, Mar 2 - Jun 22
Wednesday, Apr 16 - Jul 30
Tuesday, May 6 - Aug 19
Wednesday, Jun 4 - Sep 17
Sunday, Jun 22 - Oct 19
Friday, Jul 18 - Nov 14

Introduction to Geometry
Tuesday, Mar 4 - Aug 12
Sunday, Mar 23 - Sep 21
Wednesday, Apr 23 - Oct 1
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

Intermediate: Grades 8-12

Intermediate Algebra
Sunday, Mar 16 - Sep 14
Tuesday, Mar 25 - Sep 2
Monday, Apr 21 - Oct 13
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

Intermediate Counting & Probability
Sunday, Mar 23 - Aug 3
Wednesday, May 21 - Sep 17
Sunday, Jun 22 - Nov 2

Intermediate Number Theory
Friday, Apr 11 - Jun 27
Sunday, Jun 1 - Aug 24
Wednesday, Jun 18 - Sep 3

Precalculus
Sunday, Mar 16 - Aug 24
Wednesday, Apr 9 - Sep 3
Friday, May 16 - Oct 24
Sunday, Jun 1 - Nov 9
Monday, Jun 30 - Dec 8

Advanced: Grades 9-12

Olympiad Geometry
Wednesday, Mar 5 - May 21
Tuesday, Jun 10 - Aug 26

Calculus
Sunday, Mar 30 - Oct 5
Tuesday, May 27 - Nov 11
Wednesday, Jun 25 - Dec 17

Group Theory
Thursday, Jun 12 - Sep 11

Contest Preparation: Grades 6-12

MATHCOUNTS/AMC 8 Basics
Sunday, Mar 23 - Jun 15
Wednesday, Apr 16 - Jul 2
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
Friday, Apr 11 - Jun 27
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
Tuesday, Mar 4 - May 20
Monday, Mar 31 - Jun 23
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

AMC 12 Final Fives
Sunday, May 18 - Jun 15

F=ma Problem Series
Wednesday, Jun 11 - Aug 27

WOOT Programs
Visit the pages linked for full schedule details for each of these programs!


MathWOOT Level 1
MathWOOT Level 2
ChemWOOT
CodeWOOT
PhysicsWOOT

Programming

Introduction to Programming with Python
Monday, Mar 24 - Jun 16
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

Intermediate Programming with Python
Sunday, Jun 1 - Aug 24
Monday, Jun 30 - Sep 22

USACO Bronze Problem Series
Tuesday, May 13 - Jul 29
Sunday, Jun 22 - Sep 1

Physics

Introduction to Physics
Sunday, Mar 30 - Jun 22
Wednesday, May 21 - Aug 6
Sunday, Jun 15 - Sep 14
Monday, Jun 23 - Sep 15

Physics 1: Mechanics
Tuesday, Mar 25 - Sep 2
Thursday, May 22 - Oct 30
Monday, Jun 23 - Dec 15

Relativity
Sat & Sun, Apr 26 - Apr 27 (4:00 - 7:00 pm ET/1:00 - 4:00pm PT)
Mon, Tue, Wed & Thurs, Jun 23 - Jun 26 (meets every day of the week!)
0 replies
jlacosta
Mar 2, 2025
0 replies
k i Peer-to-Peer Programs Forum
jwelsh   157
N Dec 11, 2023 by cw357
Many of our AoPS Community members share their knowledge with their peers in a variety of ways, ranging from creating mock contests to creating real contests to writing handouts to hosting sessions as part of our partnership with schoolhouse.world.

To facilitate students in these efforts, we have created a new Peer-to-Peer Programs forum. With the creation of this forum, we are starting a new process for those of you who want to advertise your efforts. These advertisements and ensuing discussions have been cluttering up some of the forums that were meant for other purposes, so we’re gathering these topics in one place. This also allows students to find new peer-to-peer learning opportunities without having to poke around all the other forums.

To announce your program, or to invite others to work with you on it, here’s what to do:

1) Post a new topic in the Peer-to-Peer Programs forum. This will be the discussion thread for your program.

2) Post a single brief post in this thread that links the discussion thread of your program in the Peer-to-Peer Programs forum.

Please note that we’ll move or delete any future advertisement posts that are outside the Peer-to-Peer Programs forum, as well as any posts in this topic that are not brief announcements of new opportunities. In particular, this topic should not be used to discuss specific programs; those discussions should occur in topics in the Peer-to-Peer Programs forum.

Your post in this thread should have what you're sharing (class, session, tutoring, handout, math or coding game/other program) and a link to the thread in the Peer-to-Peer Programs forum, which should have more information (like where to find what you're sharing).
157 replies
jwelsh
Mar 15, 2021
cw357
Dec 11, 2023
k i C&P posting recs by mods
v_Enhance   0
Jun 12, 2020
The purpose of this post is to lay out a few suggestions about what kind of posts work well for the C&P forum. Except in a few cases these are mostly meant to be "suggestions based on historical trends" rather than firm hard rules; we may eventually replace this with an actual list of firm rules but that requires admin approval :) That said, if you post something in the "discouraged" category, you should not be totally surprised if it gets locked; they are discouraged exactly because past experience shows they tend to go badly.
-----------------------------
1. Program discussion: Allowed
If you have questions about specific camps or programs (e.g. which classes are good at X camp?), these questions fit well here. Many camps/programs have specific sub-forums too but we understand a lot of them are not active.
-----------------------------
2. Results discussion: Allowed
You can make threads about e.g. how you did on contests (including AMC), though on AMC day when there is a lot of discussion. Moderators and administrators may do a lot of thread-merging / forum-wrangling to keep things in one place.
-----------------------------
3. Reposting solutions or questions to past AMC/AIME/USAMO problems: Allowed
This forum contains a post for nearly every problem from AMC8, AMC10, AMC12, AIME, USAJMO, USAMO (and these links give you an index of all these posts). It is always permitted to post a full solution to any problem in its own thread (linked above), regardless of how old the problem is, and even if this solution is similar to one that has already been posted. We encourage this type of posting because it is helpful for the user to explain their solution in full to an audience, and for future users who want to see multiple approaches to a problem or even just the frequency distribution of common approaches. We do ask for some explanation; if you just post "the answer is (B); ez" then you are not adding anything useful.

You are also encouraged to post questions about a specific problem in the specific thread for that problem, or about previous user's solutions. It's almost always better to use the existing thread than to start a new one, to keep all the discussion in one place easily searchable for future visitors.
-----------------------------
4. Advice posts: Allowed, but read below first
You can use this forum to ask for advice about how to prepare for math competitions in general. But you should be aware that this question has been asked many many times. Before making a post, you are encouraged to look at the following:
[list]
[*] Stop looking for the right training: A generic post about advice that keeps getting stickied :)
[*] There is an enormous list of links on the Wiki of books / problems / etc for all levels.
[/list]
When you do post, we really encourage you to be as specific as possible in your question. Tell us about your background, what you've tried already, etc.

Actually, the absolute best way to get a helpful response is to take a few examples of problems that you tried to solve but couldn't, and explain what you tried on them / why you couldn't solve them. Here is a great example of a specific question.
-----------------------------
5. Publicity: use P2P forum instead
See https://artofproblemsolving.com/community/c5h2489297_peertopeer_programs_forum.
Some exceptions have been allowed in the past, but these require approval from administrators. (I am not totally sure what the criteria is. I am not an administrator.)
-----------------------------
6. Mock contests: use Mock Contests forum instead
Mock contests should be posted in the dedicated forum instead:
https://artofproblemsolving.com/community/c594864_aops_mock_contests
-----------------------------
7. AMC procedural questions: suggest to contact the AMC HQ instead
If you have a question like "how do I submit a change of venue form for the AIME" or "why is my name not on the qualifiers list even though I have a 300 index", you would be better off calling or emailing the AMC program to ask, they are the ones who can help you :)
-----------------------------
8. Discussion of random math problems: suggest to use MSM/HSM/HSO instead
If you are discussing a specific math problem that isn't from the AMC/AIME/USAMO, it's better to post these in Middle School Math, High School Math, High School Olympiads instead.
-----------------------------
9. Politics: suggest to use Round Table instead
There are important conversations to be had about things like gender diversity in math contests, etc., for sure. However, from experience we think that C&P is historically not a good place to have these conversations, as they go off the rails very quickly. We encourage you to use the Round Table instead, where it is much more clear that all posts need to be serious.
-----------------------------
10. MAA complaints: discouraged
We don't want to pretend that the MAA is perfect or that we agree with everything they do. However, we chose to discourage this sort of behavior because in practice most of the comments we see are not useful and some are frankly offensive.
[list] [*] If you just want to blow off steam, do it on your blog instead.
[*] When you have criticism, it should be reasoned, well-thought and constructive. What we mean by this is, for example, when the AOIME was announced, there was great outrage about potential cheating. Well, do you really think that this is something the organizers didn't think about too? Simply posting that "people will cheat and steal my USAMOO qualification, the MAA are idiots!" is not helpful as it is not bringing any new information to the table.
[*] Even if you do have reasoned, well-thought, constructive criticism, we think it is actually better to email it the MAA instead, rather than post it here. Experience shows that even polite, well-meaning suggestions posted in C&P are often derailed by less mature users who insist on complaining about everything.
[/list]
-----------------------------
11. Memes and joke posts: discouraged
It's fine to make jokes or lighthearted posts every so often. But it should be done with discretion. Ideally, jokes should be done within a longer post that has other content. For example, in my response to one user's question about olympiad combinatorics, I used a silly picture of Sogiita Gunha, but it was done within a context of a much longer post where it was meant to actually make a point.

On the other hand, there are many threads which consist largely of posts whose only content is an attached meme with the word "MAA" in it. When done in excess like this, the jokes reflect poorly on the community, so we explicitly discourage them.
-----------------------------
12. Questions that no one can answer: discouraged
Examples of this: "will MIT ask for AOIME scores?", "what will the AIME 2021 cutoffs be (asked in 2020)", etc. Basically, if you ask a question on this forum, it's better if the question is something that a user can plausibly answer :)
-----------------------------
13. Blind speculation: discouraged
Along these lines, if you do see a question that you don't have an answer to, we discourage "blindly guessing" as it leads to spreading of baseless rumors. For example, if you see some user posting "why are there fewer qualifiers than usual this year?", you should not reply "the MAA must have been worried about online cheating so they took fewer people!!". Was sich überhaupt sagen lässt, lässt sich klar sagen; und wovon man nicht reden kann, darüber muss man schweigen.
-----------------------------
14. Discussion of cheating: strongly discouraged
If you have evidence or reasonable suspicion of cheating, please report this to your Competition Manager or to the AMC HQ; these forums cannot help you.
Otherwise, please avoid public discussion of cheating. That is: no discussion of methods of cheating, no speculation about how cheating affects cutoffs, and so on --- it is not helpful to anyone, and it creates a sour atmosphere. A longer explanation is given in Seriously, please stop discussing how to cheat.
-----------------------------
15. Cutoff jokes: never allowed
Whenever the cutoffs for any major contest are released, it is very obvious when they are official. In the past, this has been achieved by the numbers being posted on the official AMC website (here) or through a post from the AMCDirector account.

You must never post fake cutoffs, even as a joke. You should also refrain from posting cutoffs that you've heard of via email, etc., because it is better to wait for the obvious official announcement. A longer explanation is given in A Treatise on Cutoff Trolling.
-----------------------------
16. Meanness: never allowed
Being mean is worse than being immature and unproductive. If another user does something which you think is inappropriate, use the Report button to bring the post to moderator attention, or if you really must reply, do so in a way that is tactful and constructive rather than inflammatory.
-----------------------------

Finally, we remind you all to sit back and enjoy the problems. :D

-----------------------------
(EDIT 2024-09-13: AoPS has asked to me to add the following item.)

Advertising paid program or service: never allowed

Per the AoPS Terms of Service (rule 5h), general advertisements are not allowed.

While we do allow advertisements of official contests (at the MAA and MATHCOUNTS level) and those run by college students with at least one successful year, any and all advertisements of a paid service or program is not allowed and will be deleted.
0 replies
v_Enhance
Jun 12, 2020
0 replies
k i Stop looking for the "right" training
v_Enhance   50
N Oct 16, 2017 by blawho12
Source: Contest advice
EDIT 2019-02-01: https://blog.evanchen.cc/2019/01/31/math-contest-platitudes-v3/ is the updated version of this.

EDIT 2021-06-09: see also https://web.evanchen.cc/faq-contest.html.

Original 2013 post
50 replies
v_Enhance
Feb 15, 2013
blawho12
Oct 16, 2017
funny title placeholder
pikapika007   46
N 4 hours ago by aliz
Source: USAJMO 2025/6
Let $S$ be a set of integers with the following properties:
[list]
[*] $\{ 1, 2, \dots, 2025 \} \subseteq S$.
[*] If $a, b \in S$ and $\gcd(a, b) = 1$, then $ab \in S$.
[*] If for some $s \in S$, $s + 1$ is composite, then all positive divisors of $s + 1$ are in $S$.
[/list]
Prove that $S$ contains all positive integers.
46 replies
pikapika007
Yesterday at 12:10 PM
aliz
4 hours ago
Scary Binomial Coefficient Sum
EpicBird08   31
N 5 hours ago by john0512
Source: USAMO 2025/5
Determine, with proof, all positive integers $k$ such that $$\frac{1}{n+1} \sum_{i=0}^n \binom{n}{i}^k$$is an integer for every positive integer $n.$
31 replies
EpicBird08
Yesterday at 11:59 AM
john0512
5 hours ago
Mathroots
Ruegerbyrd   0
5 hours ago
Has anyone gotten acceptances from MIT's Mathroots yet? Did they ever say they wouldn't send letters to anyone unless accepted?
0 replies
Ruegerbyrd
5 hours ago
0 replies
[TEST RELEASED] Mock Geometry Test for College Competitions
Bluesoul   16
N 5 hours ago by lord_of_the_rook
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

Leaderboard
16 replies
Bluesoul
Feb 24, 2025
lord_of_the_rook
5 hours ago
usamOOK geometry
KevinYang2.71   62
N 6 hours ago by sepehr2010
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 $XY$.
62 replies
KevinYang2.71
Yesterday at 12:00 PM
sepehr2010
6 hours ago
2025 USA(J)MO Cutoff Predictions
KevinChen_Yay   89
N 6 hours ago by vincentwant
What do y'all think JMO winner and MOP cuts will be?

(Also, to satisfy the USAMO takers; what about the bronze, silver, gold, green mop, blue mop, black mop?)
89 replies
KevinChen_Yay
Yesterday at 12:33 PM
vincentwant
6 hours ago
what the yap
KevinYang2.71   24
N Today at 3:25 AM by awesomeming327.
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 $Z$.
24 replies
KevinYang2.71
Thursday at 12:00 PM
awesomeming327.
Today at 3:25 AM
F-ma exam and math
MathNerdRabbit103   2
N Today at 3:17 AM by happyhippos
Hi guys,
Do I need to know calculus to take the F-ma exam? I am only on the intro to algebra book. Also, I want to do good on the USAPHO exam. So can I skip the waves section of HRK?
Thanks
2 replies
MathNerdRabbit103
Yesterday at 10:05 PM
happyhippos
Today at 3:17 AM
USAPhO Exam
happyhippos   0
Today at 3:14 AM
Every other thread on this forum is for USA(J)MO lol.

Anyways, to other USAPhO students, what are you doing to prepare? It seems too close to the test date (April 10) to learn new content, so I am just going through past USAPhO and BPhO exams to practice (untimed for now). How about you? Any predictions for what will be on the test this year? I'm completely cooked if there are any circuitry questions.
0 replies
happyhippos
Today at 3:14 AM
0 replies
USA Canada math camp
Bread10   24
N Today at 3:09 AM by thoomgus
How difficult is it to get into USA Canada math camp? What should be expected from an accepted applicant in terms of the qualifying quiz, essays and other awards or math context?
24 replies
Bread10
Mar 2, 2025
thoomgus
Today at 3:09 AM
0 on jmo
Rong0625   30
N Today at 3:06 AM by LearnMath_105
How many people actually get a flat 0/42 on jmo? I took it for the first time this year and I had never done oly math before so I really only had 2 weeks to figure it out since I didn’t think I would qual. I went in not expecting much but I didn’t think I wouldn’t be able to get ANYTHING. So I’m pretty sure I got 0/42 (unless i get pity points for writing incorrect solutions). Is that bad, am I sped, and should I be embarrassed? Or do other people actually also get 0?
30 replies
Rong0625
Yesterday at 12:14 PM
LearnMath_105
Today at 3:06 AM
goofy line stuff
Maximilian113   21
N Today at 3:04 AM by megahertz13
Source: 2025 AIME II P1
Six points $A, B, C, D, E,$ and $F$ lie in a straight line in that order. Suppose that $G$ is a point not on the line and that $AC=26, BD=22, CE=31, DF=33, AF=73, CG=40,$ and $DG=30.$ Find the area of $\triangle BGE.$
21 replies
Maximilian113
Feb 13, 2025
megahertz13
Today at 3:04 AM
BOMBARDIRO CROCODILO VS TRALALERO TRALALA
LostDreams   46
N Today at 3:01 AM by LearnMath_105
Source: USAJMO 2025/4
Let $n$ be a positive integer, and let $a_0,\,a_1,\dots,\,a_n$ be nonnegative integers such that $a_0\ge a_1\ge \dots\ge a_n.$ Prove that
\[
\sum_{i=0}^n i\binom{a_i}{2}\le\frac{1}{2}\binom{a_0+a_1+\dots+a_n}{2}.
\]Note: $\binom{k}{2}=\frac{k(k-1)}{2}$ for all nonnegative integers $k$.
46 replies
LostDreams
Yesterday at 12:11 PM
LearnMath_105
Today at 3:01 AM
Prove a polynomial has a nonreal root
KevinYang2.71   37
N Today at 2:58 AM by awesomeming327.
Source: USAMO 2025/2
Let $n$ and $k$ be positive integers with $k<n$. Let $P(x)$ be a polynomial of degree $n$ with real coefficients, nonzero constant term, and no repeated roots. Suppose that for any real numbers $a_0,\,a_1,\,\ldots,\,a_k$ such that the polynomial $a_kx^k+\cdots+a_1x+a_0$ divides $P(x)$, the product $a_0a_1\cdots a_k$ is zero. Prove that $P(x)$ has a nonreal root.
37 replies
KevinYang2.71
Thursday at 12:00 PM
awesomeming327.
Today at 2:58 AM
what the yap
G H J
G H BBookmark kLocked kLocked NReply
Source: USAMO 2025/3
The post below has been deleted. Click to close.
This post has been deleted. Click here to see post.
KevinYang2.71
407 posts
#1 • 4 Y
Y by megarnie, Rounak_iitr, aidan0626, lpieleanu
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:
For every city $C$ distinct from $A$ and $B$, there exists $R\in\mathcal{S}$ such
that $\triangle PQR$ is directly similar to either $\triangle ABC$ or $\triangle BAC$.
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 $Z$.
Z K Y
The post below has been deleted. Click to close.
This post has been deleted. Click here to see post.
bachkieu
130 posts
#2
Y by
Is this G or C lmao
Z K Y
The post below has been deleted. Click to close.
This post has been deleted. Click here to see post.
OronSH
1727 posts
#4 • 9 Y
Y by GrantStar, EpicBird08, megarnie, Ilikeminecraft, ihatemath123, aidan0626, mathfan2020, centslordm, Jack_w
:wallbash_red: :wallbash_red: :wallbash_red:

Alice wins by taking $\mathcal S$ to be the exterior of the circle with diameter $PQ$. No two paths cross because any quadrilateral has one angle $\ge 90^\circ$. Now we show by induction that any two points of distance $<\sqrt n$ are connected by a path. The base case $n=1$ is vacuously true. Now given two cities $A,B$ with distance $<\sqrt{n+1}$, either their circle has no points, so they are connected, or it has a third point $C$. We have $AC,BC>1$, thus from $AC^2+BC^2\le AB^2$ we have $AC,BC<\sqrt n$, thus $A$ is connected to $C$ is connected to $B$, done.
Z K Y
The post below has been deleted. Click to close.
This post has been deleted. Click here to see post.
arfekete
246 posts
#5 • 1 Y
Y by ihatemath123
Can he fix our scores?
Z K Y
The post below has been deleted. Click to close.
This post has been deleted. Click here to see post.
S.Das93
706 posts
#6 • 1 Y
Y by ihatemath123
Guys how many points for saying Alice can take S as the whole plane

(and win of course)
This post has been edited 1 time. Last edited by S.Das93, Thursday at 1:34 PM
Z K Y
The post below has been deleted. Click to close.
This post has been deleted. Click here to see post.
v_Enhance
6866 posts
#7 • 7 Y
Y by MathRook7817, NaturalSelection, OronSH, zoinkers, Photaesthesia, Jack_w, Yrock
The answer is that Alice wins. Let's define a Bob-set $V$ to be a set of points in the plane with no three collinear and with all distances at least $1$. The point of the problem is to prove the following fact.
Claim: Given a Bob-set $V \subseteq {\mathbb R}^2$, consider the Bob-graph with vertex set $V$ defined as follows: draw edge $ab$ if and only if the disk with diameter $\overline{ab}$ contains no other points of $V$ on or inside it. Then the Bob-graph is (i) connected, and (ii) planar.
Proving this claim shows that Alice wins since Alice can specify $\mathcal{S}$ to be the set of points outside the disk of diameter $PQ$.
Proof. [Proof that every Bob-graph is connected] Assume for contradiction the graph is disconnected. Let $p$ and $q$ be two points in different connected components. Since $pq$ is not an edge, there exists a third point $r$ inside the disk with diameter $\overline{pq}$.
Hence, $r$ is in a different connected component from at least one of $p$ or $q$ --- let's say point $p$. Then we repeat the same argument on the disk with diameter $\overline{pr}$ to find a new point $s$, non-adjacent to either $p$ or $r$. See the figure below, where the X'ed out dashed edges indicate points which are not only non-adjacent but in different connected components.
[asy]
size(6cm); pair p = (-1,0); pair q = (1,0); pair r = (0.4,0.7); draw(unitcircle, blue); draw(circle(midpoint(p--r), abs(p-r)/2), red); pair s = (-0.3,0.6); draw(p--q, dashed+blue); draw(p--r, dashed+red); draw(s--r, dashed); dot("$p$", p, dir(p)); dot("$q$", q, dir(q)); dot("$r$", r, dir(r)); dot("$s$", s, dir(s));

picture X; real eps = 0.05; draw(X, (-eps,-eps)--(eps,eps), black+1.4); draw(X, (eps,-eps)--(-eps,eps), black+1.4); add(X); add(shift(midpoint(p--r))*X); add(shift(midpoint(s--r))*X); label("$\delta_1$", (0,0), 2*dir(45), deepgreen); label("$\delta_2$", midpoint(p--r), 2*dir(-10), deepgreen); label("$\delta_3$", midpoint(s--r), 2*dir(100), deepgreen);[/asy]
In this way we generate an infinite sequence of distances $\delta_1$, $\delta_2$, $\delta_3$, \dots\ among the non-edges in the picture above. By the ``Pythagorean theorem'' (or really the inequality for it), we have \[ \delta_i^2 \le \delta_{i-1}^2 - 1 \]and this eventually generates a contradiction for large $i$, since we get $0 \le \delta_i^2 \le \delta_1^2 - (i-1)$. $\blacksquare$
Proof. [Proof that every Bob-graph is planar] Assume for contradiction edges $ac$ and $bd$ meet, meaning $abcd$ is a convex quadrilateral. WLOG assume $\angle bad \ge 90^{\circ}$ (each quadrilateral has an angle at least $90^{\circ}$). Then the disk with diameter $\overline{bd}$ contains $a$, contradiction. $\blacksquare$
Z K Y
The post below has been deleted. Click to close.
This post has been deleted. Click here to see post.
v_Enhance
6866 posts
#8 • 2 Y
Y by OronSH, Yrock
Remark: In real life, the Bob-graph is actually called the Gabriel graph. Note that we never require the Bob-set to be infinite; the solution works unchanged for finite Bob-sets.
However, there are approaches that work for finite Bob-sets that don't work for infinite sets, such as the relative neighbor graph, in which one joins $a$ and $b$ iff there is no $c$ such that $d(a,b) \le \max \{d(a,c), d(b,c)\}$. In other words, edges are blocked by triangles where $ab$ is the longest edge (rather than by triangles where $ab$ is the longest edge of a right or obtuse triangle as in the Gabriel graph).
The relative neighbor graph has fewer edges than the Gabriel graph, so it is planar too. When the Bob-set is finite, the relative distance graph is still connected. The same argument above works where the distances now satisfy \[ \delta_1 > \delta_2 > \dots \]instead, and since there are finitely many distances one arrives at a contradiction.
However for infinite Bob-sets the descending condition is insufficient, and connectedness actually fails altogether. A counterexample (communicated to me by Carl Schildkraut) is to start by taking $A_n \approx (2n,0)$ and $B_n \approx (2n+1, \sqrt3)$ for all $n \ge 1$, then perturb all the points slightly so that \begin{align*} B_1A_1 &> A_1A_2 > A_2B_1 > B_1B_2 > B_2A_2 \\ &> A_2A_3 > A_3B_2 > B_2B_3 > B_3A_3 \\ &> \dotsb. \end{align*}A cartoon of the graph is shown below. [asy]size(8cm);
dotfactor *= 1.5; pair A1 = (0,0); pair A2 = (2,0); pair A3 = (4,0); pair A4 = (6,0); pair B1 = (1,3**0.5); pair B2 = (3,3**0.5); pair B3 = (5,3**0.5); pair B4 = (7,3**0.5); dot("$A_1$", A1, dir(-90), blue); dot("$A_2$", A2, dir(-90), blue); dot("$A_3$", A3, dir(-90), blue); dot("$B_1$", B1, dir(90), blue); dot("$B_2$", B2, dir(90), blue); dot("$B_3$", B3, dir(90), blue); label("$\dots$", A4, blue); label("$\dots$", B4, blue); draw("$2.08$", A1--A2, dir(-90), blue, Margins); draw("$2.04$", A2--A3, dir(-90), blue, Margins); draw(A3--A4, blue, Margins); draw("$2.06$", B1--B2, dir(90), blue, Margins); draw("$2.02$", B2--B3, dir(90), blue, Margins); draw(B3--B4, blue, Margins); draw(rotate(60)*"$2.09$", B1--A1, dotted); draw(rotate(-60)*"$2.07$", B1--A2, dotted); draw(rotate(60)*"$2.05$", B2--A2, dotted); draw(rotate(-60)*"$2.03$", B2--A3, dotted); draw(rotate(60)*"$2.01$", B3--A3, dotted);  [/asy] In that case, $\{A_n\}$ and $\{B_n\}$ will be disconnected from each other: none of the edges $A_nB_n$ or $B_nA_{n+1}$ are formed. In this case the relative neighbor graph consists of the edges $A_1A_2A_3A_4 \dotsm$ and $B_1 B_2 B_3 B_4 \dotsm$. That's why for the present problem, the inequality \[ \delta_i^2 \le \delta_{i-1}^2 - 1 \]plays such an important role, because it causes the (squared) distances to decrease appreciably enough to give the final contradiction.
This post has been edited 2 times. Last edited by v_Enhance, Thursday at 5:00 PM
Z K Y
The post below has been deleted. Click to close.
This post has been deleted. Click here to see post.
ihatemath123
3439 posts
#9
Y by
This problem must've either been written by Gabriel Carroll or some random guy overseas
Z K Y
The post below has been deleted. Click to close.
This post has been deleted. Click here to see post.
KadenC2026
23 posts
#10
Y by
do we get points for saying alice wins for some bogus reason
Z K Y
The post below has been deleted. Click to close.
This post has been deleted. Click here to see post.
awesomeguy856
7263 posts
#11
Y by
Is ~(PQ) the only winning construction? Or at least the only trivial one?
Z K Y
The post below has been deleted. Click to close.
This post has been deleted. Click here to see post.
pomme_de_terre_
25 posts
#12 • 1 Y
Y by Mintylemon66
i didnt even fakesolve the correct answer
Z K Y
The post below has been deleted. Click to close.
This post has been deleted. Click here to see post.
awesomeguy856
7263 posts
#13 • 1 Y
Y by ihatemath123
By some divine blessing the first idea I thought of was the answer, but I still failed the path proof lol
Z K Y
The post below has been deleted. Click to close.
This post has been deleted. Click here to see post.
popop614
266 posts
#14 • 1 Y
Y by OronSH
Alice picks $\mathcal S$ to be the set of points outside of the circle with diameter $PQ$. Note this is equivalent to \[ AB \text{ connected} \iff \forall C \in \mathcal T, \angle ACB< 90^\circ.\]Here $\mathcal T$ is Bob's cities.

Now suppose two roads $AC$ and $BD$ cross. If they do, then quadrilateral $ABCD$ is clearly convex. So one of its angles is at least 90 degrees, but that means the diagonal it subtends cannot be connected.

We will prove by induction that all points $P$ and $Q$ with a distance less than $\sqrt{n}$ are connected. Indeed we start with the base case $n = 2$. If $PQ < \sqrt{2}$ and isn't connected by a road, then there exists some $R \in \mathcal T$ with $\angle PRQ \ge 90^\circ$, whence \[ PR^2 + QR^2 \le PQ^2 < 2. \]But $PR > 1$ and $QR > 1$, contradiction.

Now suppose all points $P$ and $Q$ with a distance less than $\sqrt{n-1}$ are connected. Then if $PQ < \sqrt{n}$ isn't connected directly, there must exist a point $R \in \mathcal T$ where $\angle PRQ \ge 90^\circ$. In particular, \[ PR^2 + QR^2 \le PQ^2 < n, \]which as $PR$ and $QR$ are greater than $1$ implies that $PR < \sqrt{n-1}$ and $QR < \sqrt{n-1}$. Therefore, $P$ is connected to $R$ which is connected to $Q$, so $PQ$ is connected.



v_Enhance wrote:
Remark:
However, there are approaches that work for finite Bob-sets that don't work for infinite sets, such as the relative neighbor graph, in which one joins $a$ and $b$ iff there is no $c$ such that $d(a,b) \le \max_c \{d(a,c), d(b,c)\}$. In other words, edges are blocked by triangles where $ab$ is the longest edge (rather than by triangles where $ab$ is the longest edge of a right or obtuse triangle as in the Gabriel graph).

Secondary remark: This construction is exactly what I had before I switched to the diameter PQ construction. I managed to prove that the graph's connected components were unbounded (great exercise; try it yourself) but I could not do any better. Then I found the same counterexample and I was sad.
This post has been edited 2 times. Last edited by popop614, Thursday at 2:51 PM
Reason: sdfasdfadsf
Z K Y
The post below has been deleted. Click to close.
This post has been deleted. Click here to see post.
Mathandski
720 posts
#15 • 1 Y
Y by OronSH
Subjective Rating (MOHs)

Alice wins by taking everything strictly outside of $PQ$ for $S$. there is a road between A and B iff each city C satisfies $\angle ACB < 90$ I think.

To check $(i)$, if two roads $AB$, $CD$ intersect, then $ACBD$ is convex but $\angle ADB, \angle ACB, ... < 90$ so its angles cannot add up to $360$.

To check $(ii)$, we prove the following lemma.

Lemma: If two cities $A$ and $B$ has no road between each other, exists another city $C$ such that $AC^2, BC^2 \le AB^2 - 1$

Proof: $A$ and $B$ has no road between each other so exists another city $C$ such that $\angle ACB \ge 90$. By law of cosines we have $AC^2 + BC^2 \le AB^2$ but each $AC, BC \ge 1$ so done.

We may now use induction or smth to finish.


Took me a long time to actually construct $(PQ)$.

Motivation for construction
This post has been edited 1 time. Last edited by Mathandski, Thursday at 2:51 PM
Z K Y
The post below has been deleted. Click to close.
This post has been deleted. Click here to see post.
CyclicISLscelesTrapezoid
372 posts
#16 • 7 Y
Y by OronSH, ihatemath123, Leo.Euler, bjump, CT17, Jack_w, Pengu14
Same idea as ELMO SL 2024 C1 :)
Z K Y
The post below has been deleted. Click to close.
This post has been deleted. Click here to see post.
YaoAOPS
1497 posts
#17 • 1 Y
Y by OronSH
I think I'll yap a bit about how I found the standard construction in contest.

Originally I thought Bob could guarentee a win so I tried proving results in that direction. Let $T$ be the complement of $S$. Then you can prove that $T$ must be either a bounded set or be in a finite set of lines, else Bob can transfinite construct a counterexample.

This means that if $AC$ and $BD$ intersect, then they must be their own "witnesses" to not having roads there, else Bob could trans construct the remaining points to lie in the intersection of the spiraled versions of $S_{AC}, S_{BD}$.

We can also prove using parallelograms that for any two points $X Y$ such that $AXBY$ is a cyclic harmonic, at most one lies in $S$ by the above.

As such, Alice's construction must have most points sufficiently far away in $S$, most points sufficiently close in $T$, and must defeat all quadrilaterals by itself. The diameter guess is not that unmotivated now.
This post has been edited 3 times. Last edited by YaoAOPS, Thursday at 3:39 PM
Z K Y
The post below has been deleted. Click to close.
This post has been deleted. Click here to see post.
deduck
169 posts
#18
Y by
yay i accidentally forgot halfway through doing this that config order matters and convinced myself that bob wins before spoiling it while reading aops
Z K Y
The post below has been deleted. Click to close.
This post has been deleted. Click here to see post.
pieater314159
202 posts
#19 • 7 Y
Y by ihatemath123, OronSH, aidan0626, CyclicISLscelesTrapezoid, EpicBird08, A_Humanoid_Figure, tapir1729
ihatemath123 wrote:
This problem must've either been written by Gabriel Carroll or some random guy overseas

Nope, it was me :) Hope y'all enjoyed the problem, and that the statement wasn't too scary.
awesomeguy856 wrote:
Is ~(PQ) the only winning construction? Or at least the only trivial one?

I'm not aware of a fundamentally different construction, say wherein $\mathcal S$ is allowed to intersect the interior of $(PQ)$. But I don't have a proof that no such construction exists. Daniel Zhu has pointed out that, for any $\varepsilon>0$, you can take any $\mathcal S$ which satisfies
$$(\text{interior of }\operatorname{disk}(P,Q))\subset\mathbb R^2\setminus\mathcal S\subset\operatorname{disk}(P,Q)\cup \big\{X : \max(d(X,P),d(X,Q))<d(P,Q)-\varepsilon\big\};$$that is, interpolate between the $(PQ)$ construction and the relative neighbor construction, but ensure you eat off a bit near the boundary of the relative neighbor sliver. The avoidance of $(PQ)$ ensures that the resulting graph is planar, while the avoidance of the boundary ensures that the $\delta_i^2$ decrease enough to obtain a contradiction (using the notation of Evan's solution).
Z K Y
The post below has been deleted. Click to close.
This post has been deleted. Click here to see post.
OronSH
1727 posts
#20
Y by
pieater314159 wrote:
Hope y'all enjoyed the problem, and that the statement wasn't too scary.

:(
Z K Y
The post below has been deleted. Click to close.
This post has been deleted. Click here to see post.
MathLuis
1457 posts
#21 • 2 Y
Y by KevinYang2.71, Pengu14
Last one. This is yap indeed.
We claim that Alice wins by taking $\mathcal S$ to be set of points outside $(PQ)$, indeed notice now that $A,B$ connect if and only if for every city $C$ distinct from them we have that $\angle ACB<90$.
Now suppose that there is roads $ST, UV$ that meet, then $SUTV$ is a convex quadrilateral but internal sum of angles is strictly less than $360$, contradiction!. To prove the connected part we use indooks on the claim that if two cities are no more than $\sqrt{n}$ distance apart then they are connected (not necesarily directly by a road).
Base case being $n=2$, notice that if there was points $AB<\sqrt{2}$ not connected directly by a road then it means there exists a city $C$ with $\angle ACB \ge 90$ but then this means $AB^2 \ge CA^2+BC^2 \ge 2$ which is a contradiction, now suppose it was true for $n=\ell-1$, we prove it for $\ell$ like this:
Say $AB<\sqrt{\ell}$ wasn't connected by a road then then there exists a city $C$ such that $\angle ACB \ge 90$, except that here we have that $n>AB^2 \ge CA^2+BC^2>CA^2+1$ and thus $\sqrt{\ell-1}>CA, BC$ (similar for the 2nd) then the $BC, AC$ are connected thus so if $AB$ and. the induction step is complete, therefore having every city connected as desired thus we are done :cool:.
This post has been edited 1 time. Last edited by MathLuis, Yesterday at 5:55 AM
Z K Y
The post below has been deleted. Click to close.
This post has been deleted. Click here to see post.
S.Das93
706 posts
#22 • 1 Y
Y by ihatemath123
pieater314159 wrote:
ihatemath123 wrote:
This problem must've either been written by Gabriel Carroll or some random guy overseas

Nope, it was me :) Hope y'all enjoyed the problem, and that the statement wasn't too scary.
awesomeguy856 wrote:
Is ~(PQ) the only winning construction? Or at least the only trivial one?

I'm not aware of a fundamentally different construction, say wherein $\mathcal S$ is allowed to intersect the interior of $(PQ)$. But I don't have a proof that no such construction exists. Daniel Zhu has pointed out that, for any $\varepsilon>0$, you can take any $\mathcal S$ which satisfies
$$(\text{interior of }\operatorname{disk}(P,Q))\subset\mathbb R^2\setminus\mathcal S\subset\operatorname{disk}(P,Q)\cup \big\{X : \max(d(X,P),d(X,Q))<d(P,Q)-\varepsilon\big\};$$that is, interpolate between the $(PQ)$ construction and the relative neighbor construction, but ensure you eat off a bit near the boundary of the relative neighbor sliver. The avoidance of $(PQ)$ ensures that the resulting graph is planar, while the avoidance of the boundary ensures that the $\delta_i^2$ decrease enough to obtain a contradiction (using the notation of Evan's solution).

hello problem writer my good sir,

can you please care to explain why S cannot be the whole plane
Z K Y
The post below has been deleted. Click to close.
This post has been deleted. Click here to see post.
dkedu
180 posts
#23 • 1 Y
Y by pieater314159
S.Das93 wrote:
pieater314159 wrote:
ihatemath123 wrote:
This problem must've either been written by Gabriel Carroll or some random guy overseas

Nope, it was me :) Hope y'all enjoyed the problem, and that the statement wasn't too scary.
awesomeguy856 wrote:
Is ~(PQ) the only winning construction? Or at least the only trivial one?

I'm not aware of a fundamentally different construction, say wherein $\mathcal S$ is allowed to intersect the interior of $(PQ)$. But I don't have a proof that no such construction exists. Daniel Zhu has pointed out that, for any $\varepsilon>0$, you can take any $\mathcal S$ which satisfies
$$(\text{interior of }\operatorname{disk}(P,Q))\subset\mathbb R^2\setminus\mathcal S\subset\operatorname{disk}(P,Q)\cup \big\{X : \max(d(X,P),d(X,Q))<d(P,Q)-\varepsilon\big\};$$that is, interpolate between the $(PQ)$ construction and the relative neighbor construction, but ensure you eat off a bit near the boundary of the relative neighbor sliver. The avoidance of $(PQ)$ ensures that the resulting graph is planar, while the avoidance of the boundary ensures that the $\delta_i^2$ decrease enough to obtain a contradiction (using the notation of Evan's solution).

hello problem writer my good sir,

can you please care to explain why S cannot be the whole plane

no two roads cross
Z K Y
The post below has been deleted. Click to close.
This post has been deleted. Click here to see post.
S.Das93
706 posts
#24
Y by
yeah but then she jut doesnt draw the line cuz she wins anyway
Z K Y
The post below has been deleted. Click to close.
This post has been deleted. Click here to see post.
Jack_w
107 posts
#25
Y by
you can’t just not draw the line :sob:
Z K Y
The post below has been deleted. Click to close.
This post has been deleted. Click here to see post.
awesomeming327.
1668 posts
#26
Y by
Alice wins by selecting any $P$, $Q$, and letting $\mathcal{S}$ to be the entire plane, except the closed disk with diameter $PQ$. Then, for all cities $A$, $B$, there is a road if and only if for all cities $C$, we have $\angle ACB<90^\circ$.

First, we show that no two roads can cross. Note that if $AC$ and $BD$ cross then $ABCD$ is a convex quadrilateral for which $\angle A$, $\angle B$, $\angle C$, $\angle D$ are all less than $90^\circ$ which is a clear contradiction.

Second, we show that all two cities are connected by a finite series of roads. We proceed by induction on the following statement: for all cities whose distance is at most $\sqrt{n}$, they are connected by a finite series of roads. Note that the base cases of $n=1$ is clearly true because if the diameter $AB=1$ then any point in the circle is distance less than one to both $A$ and $B$. If $n=k-1$ is true, then consider $AB=\sqrt{n}$. Let $C$ be a point in the semicircle, then
\[AC^2=AB^2-BC^2+2AB\cdot BC\cos(\angle ACB)<AB^2-1=k-1\]so $A$ and $C$ are connected, and so are $B$ and $C$ similarly. Terefore, $A$ and $B$ are connected. We are done.
Z K Y
N Quick Reply
G
H
=
a