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k a April Highlights and 2025 AoPS Online Class Information
jlacosta   0
Apr 2, 2025
Spring is in full swing and summer is right around the corner, what are your plans? At AoPS Online our schedule has new classes starting now through July, so be sure to keep your skills sharp and be prepared for the Fall school year! Check out the schedule of upcoming classes below.

WOOT early bird pricing is in effect, don’t miss out! If you took MathWOOT Level 2 last year, no worries, it is all new problems this year! Our Worldwide Online Olympiad Training program is for high school level competitors. AoPS designed these courses to help our top students get the deep focus they need to succeed in their specific competition goals. Check out the details at this link for all our WOOT programs in math, computer science, chemistry, and physics.

Looking for summer camps in math and language arts? Be sure to check out the video-based summer camps offered at the Virtual Campus that are 2- to 4-weeks in duration. 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 events:
[list][*]April 3rd (Webinar), 4pm PT/7:00pm ET, Learning with AoPS: Perspectives from a Parent, Math Camp Instructor, and University Professor
[*]April 8th (Math Jam), 4:30pm PT/7:30pm ET, 2025 MATHCOUNTS State Discussion
April 9th (Webinar), 4:00pm PT/7:00pm ET, Learn about Video-based Summer Camps at the Virtual Campus
[*]April 10th (Math Jam), 4:30pm PT/7:30pm ET, 2025 MathILy and MathILy-Er Math Jam: Multibackwards Numbers
[*]April 22nd (Webinar), 4:00pm PT/7:00pm ET, Competitive Programming at AoPS (USACO).[/list]
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All classes run 7:30pm-8:45pm ET/4:30pm - 5:45pm PT unless otherwise noted.

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0 replies
jlacosta
Apr 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
Problem 3 IMO 2005 (Day 1)
Valentin Vornicu   119
N an hour ago by MTA_2024
Let $x,y,z$ be three positive reals such that $xyz\geq 1$. Prove that
\[ \frac { x^5-x^2 }{x^5+y^2+z^2} + \frac {y^5-y^2}{x^2+y^5+z^2} + \frac {z^5-z^2}{x^2+y^2+z^5} \geq 0 . \]
Hojoo Lee, Korea
119 replies
Valentin Vornicu
Jul 13, 2005
MTA_2024
an hour ago
Rhombus EVAN
62861   71
N an hour ago by ihategeo_1969
Source: USA January TST for IMO 2017, Problem 2
Let $ABC$ be a triangle with altitude $\overline{AE}$. The $A$-excircle touches $\overline{BC}$ at $D$, and intersects the circumcircle at two points $F$ and $G$. Prove that one can select points $V$ and $N$ on lines $DG$ and $DF$ such that quadrilateral $EVAN$ is a rhombus.

Danielle Wang and Evan Chen
71 replies
62861
Feb 23, 2017
ihategeo_1969
an hour ago
NC(SMC)^2 - A free virtual competition for middle schoolers in NC!
Bluedevils   1
N an hour ago by Schintalpati
Hi guys!

Some NCSSM students including myself are hosting the $\text{NC(SMC)}^2$ or the NCSSM Math Club Competition. All middle schoolers in North Carolina can register. (You can have up to a team of 4) It will be held virtually on May 10th. Here is the link to our website for the schedule and the link to register!

Thanks!

-NCSSM math club
1 reply
Bluedevils
5 hours ago
Schintalpati
an hour ago
A and B play a game
EthanWYX2009   3
N an hour ago by nitr4m
Source: 2025 TST 23
Let \( n \geq 2 \) be an integer. Two players, Alice and Bob, play the following game on the complete graph \( K_n \): They take turns to perform operations, where each operation consists of coloring one or two edges that have not been colored yet. The game terminates if at any point there exists a triangle whose three edges are all colored.

Prove that there exists a positive number \(\varepsilon\), Alice has a strategy such that, no matter how Bob colors the edges, the game terminates with the number of colored edges not exceeding
\[
\left( \frac{1}{4} - \varepsilon \right) n^2 + n.
\]
3 replies
EthanWYX2009
Mar 29, 2025
nitr4m
an hour ago
Problem 3
SlovEcience   1
N an hour ago by kokcio
Find all real numbers \( k \) such that the following inequality holds for all \( a, b, c \geq 0 \):

\[
ab + bc + ca \leq \frac{(a + b + c)^2}{3} + k \cdot \max \{ (a - b)^2, (b - c)^2, (c - a)^2 \} \leq a^2 + b^2 + c^2
\]
1 reply
SlovEcience
Apr 9, 2025
kokcio
an hour ago
Inequality with a,b,c
GeoMorocco   8
N an hour ago by GeoMorocco
Source: Morocco Training 2025
Let $   a,b,c   $ be positive real numbers such that : $   ab+bc+ca=3   $ . Prove that : $$\frac{a\sqrt{3+bc}}{b+c}+\frac{b\sqrt{3+ca}}{c+a}+\frac{c\sqrt{3+ab}}{a+b}\ge a+b+c $$
8 replies
GeoMorocco
Thursday at 9:51 PM
GeoMorocco
an hour ago
prove that any quadrilateral satisfying this inequality is a trapezoid
mqoi_KOLA   1
N an hour ago by vgtcross
Prove that any quadrilateral satisfying this inequality is a Trapezoid/trapzium $$
|r - p| < q + s < r + p
$$where $p,r$ are lengths of parallel sides and $q,s$ are other two sides.
1 reply
1 viewing
mqoi_KOLA
Today at 3:48 AM
vgtcross
an hour ago
Prove that there exists a convex 1990-gon
orl   13
N 2 hours ago by akliu
Source: IMO 1990, Day 2, Problem 6, IMO ShortList 1990, Problem 16 (NET 1)
Prove that there exists a convex 1990-gon with the following two properties :

a.) All angles are equal.
b.) The lengths of the 1990 sides are the numbers $ 1^2$, $ 2^2$, $ 3^2$, $ \cdots$, $ 1990^2$ in some order.
13 replies
orl
Nov 11, 2005
akliu
2 hours ago
cricket jumping in dominoes
YLG_123   2
N 2 hours ago by Bonime
Source: Brazil EGMO TST2 2023 #4
A cricket wants to move across a $2n \times 2n$ board that is entirely covered by dominoes, with no overlap. He jumps along the vertical lines of the board, always going from the midpoint of the vertical segment of a $1 \times 1$ square to another midpoint of the vertical segment, according to the rules:

$(i)$ When the domino is horizontal, the cricket jumps to the opposite vertical segment (such as from $P_2$ to $P_3$);

$(ii)$ When the domino is vertical downwards in relation to its position, the cricket jumps diagonally downwards (such as from $P_1$ to $P_2$);

$(iii)$ When the domino is vertically upwards relative to its position, the cricket jumps diagonally upwards (such as from $P_3$ to $P_4$).

The image illustrates a possible covering and path on the $4 \times 4$ board.
Considering that the starting point is on the first vertical line and the finishing point is on the last vertical line, prove that, regardless of the covering of the board and the height at which the cricket starts its path, the path ends at the same initial height.
2 replies
YLG_123
Jan 29, 2024
Bonime
2 hours ago
Inspired by Ruji2018252
sqing   3
N 2 hours ago by kokcio
Source: Own
Let $ a,b,c $ be reals such that $ a^2+b^2+c^2-2a-4b-4c=7. $ Prove that
$$ -4\leq 2a+b+2c\leq 20$$$$5-4\sqrt 3\leq a+b+c\leq 5+4\sqrt 3$$$$ 11-4\sqrt {14}\leq a+2b+3c\leq 11+4\sqrt {14}$$
3 replies
sqing
Apr 10, 2025
kokcio
2 hours ago
Combinatorics game
VicKmath7   3
N 2 hours ago by Topiary
Source: First JBMO TST of France 2020, Problem 1
Players A and B play a game. They are given a box with $n=>1$ candies. A starts first. On a move, if in the box there are $k$ candies, the player chooses positive integer $l$ so that $l<=k$ and $(l, k) =1$, and eats $l$ candies from the box. The player who eats the last candy wins. Who has winning strategy, in terms of $n$.
3 replies
VicKmath7
Mar 4, 2020
Topiary
2 hours ago
How Should I Get Started/Train
ThrowAway23871241   0
3 hours ago
Hi guys so this might not be the place to post this but I was wondering what I should do to start training for Math Olympiads, i.e. what resources to use. I'm in 11th grade right now and don't have any competitive math experience whatsoever, but I'm interested in starting. Any recommendations or tips would be helpful. Thanks!
0 replies
ThrowAway23871241
3 hours ago
0 replies
9 best high school math competitions hosted by a college/university
ethan2011   8
N 4 hours ago by lpieleanu
I only included college-hosted comps since MAA comps are very differently formatted, and IMO would easily beat the rest on quality since mathematicians around the world give questions, and so many problems are shortlisted, so IMO does release the IMO shortlist for people to practice. I also did not include the not as prestigious ones(like BRUMO, CUBRMC, and others), since most comps with very high quality questions are more prestigious(I did include other if you really think those questions are really good).
8 replies
1 viewing
ethan2011
Today at 2:15 AM
lpieleanu
4 hours ago
PROM^2 for Girls 2025
mathisfun17   21
N 4 hours ago by mathisfun17
Hi everyone!

The Princeton International School of Math and Science (PRISMS) Math Team is delighted that $PROM^2$ for Girls, PRISMS Online Math Meet for Girls, is happening this spring! https://www.prismsus.org/events/prom/home/index

We warmly invite all middle school girls to join us! This is a fantastic opportunity for young girls to connect with others interested in math as well as prepare for future math contests.

This contest will take place online from 12:00 pm to 3:00 pm EST on Saturday, April 26th, 2025.

The competition will include a team and individual round as well as activities like origami. You can see a detailed schedule here. https://prismsus.org/events/prom/experience/schedule.

Registration is FREE, there are cash prizes for participants who place in the top 10 and cool gifts for all participants.

1st place individual: $500 cash
2nd place individual: $300 cash
3rd place individual: $100 cash
4th-10th place individual: $50 cash each

Some FAQs:
Q: How difficult are the questions?
A: The problem difficulty is around AMC 8 or Mathcounts level.

Q: Are there any example problems?
A: You can find some archived here: https://www.prismsus.org/events/prom/achieve/achieve

Registration is open now. https://www.prismsus.org/events/prom/register/register. Email us at prom2@prismsus.org with any questions.

The PRISMS Peregrines Math Team welcomes you!
21 replies
mathisfun17
Feb 22, 2025
mathisfun17
4 hours ago
Subset coloring
v_Enhance   72
N Mar 29, 2025 by Mathgloggers
Source: USAMO 2015 Problem 3
Let $S = \left\{ 1,2,\dots,n \right\}$, where $n \ge 1$. Each of the $2^n$ subsets of $S$ is to be colored red or blue. (The subset itself is assigned a color and not its individual elements.) For any set $T \subseteq S$, we then write $f(T)$ for the number of subsets of $T$ that are blue.

Determine the number of colorings that satisfy the following condition: for any subsets $T_1$ and $T_2$ of $S$, \[ f(T_1)f(T_2) = f(T_1 \cup T_2)f(T_1 \cap T_2). \]
72 replies
v_Enhance
Apr 28, 2015
Mathgloggers
Mar 29, 2025
Subset coloring
G H J
G H BBookmark kLocked kLocked NReply
Source: USAMO 2015 Problem 3
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v_Enhance
6872 posts
#1 • 14 Y
Y by dantx5, droid347, 62861, gamjawon, algebra_star1234, daniellionyang, anantmudgal09, fluffyclouds, HamstPan38825, icematrix2, megarnie, DCMaths, Adventure10, MS_asdfgzxcvb
Let $S = \left\{ 1,2,\dots,n \right\}$, where $n \ge 1$. Each of the $2^n$ subsets of $S$ is to be colored red or blue. (The subset itself is assigned a color and not its individual elements.) For any set $T \subseteq S$, we then write $f(T)$ for the number of subsets of $T$ that are blue.

Determine the number of colorings that satisfy the following condition: for any subsets $T_1$ and $T_2$ of $S$, \[ f(T_1)f(T_2) = f(T_1 \cup T_2)f(T_1 \cap T_2). \]
This post has been edited 1 time. Last edited by v_Enhance, May 3, 2015, 11:55 AM
Reason: "colered"
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v_Enhance
6872 posts
#2 • 7 Y
Y by fluffyclouds, HamstPan38825, icematrix2, Adventure10, Mango247, Ritwin, Alex-131
Before I post a solution, I'll comment something about an initial impression:

The outputs of $f$ are integers between $0$ and $2^n$, and have an additive structure. The condition in the problem is of the form $ab = cd$. This was huge motivation for me to actually do the problem during lunch, because it suggests that the possible values of $f$ ought to be very limited -- otherwise, it seems like would have to do nontrivial number theory! For example, it would be kind of surprising if $f(T) = 7$ was possible, since from that you can get statements about divisibility on the other side of the equation.

I think that's the biggest give-away this problem is not as terrifying as it looks. In fact, if combo was my best subject and geo my worst (which is the opposite of true for me), I definitely would have tried #3 before #2.
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v_Enhance
6872 posts
#3 • 11 Y
Y by r31415, dantx5, gamjawon, langkhach11112, fluffyclouds, HamstPan38825, icematrix2, DCMaths, Adventure10, Mango247, Sedro
Alright, solution:

For an $n$-coloring $\mathcal C$ (by which we mean a coloring of the subsets of $\{1,\dots,n\}$), define the support of $\mathcal C$ as \[ \operatorname{supp}(\mathcal C) = 	\left\{ T \mid f(T) \neq 0 \right\}. \]Call a coloring nontrivial if $\operatorname{supp}(\mathcal C) \neq \varnothing$ (equivalently, the coloring is not all red). In that case, notice that
  • the support is closed under unions and intersections: since if $f(T_1) f(T_2) \neq 0$ then necessarily both $f(T_1 \cap T_2)$ and $f(T_1 \cup T_2) \ne 0$ are nonzero; and
  • the support is obviously upwards closed.
Thus, the support must take the form \[ \operatorname{supp}(\mathcal C) 	= [X,S] 	\overset{\text{def}}{=} \left\{ T \mid X \subseteq T \subseteq S \right\} \]for some set $X$ (for example by letting $X$ be the minimal (by size) element of the support).

Say $\mathcal C$ has full support if $X = \varnothing$ (equivalently, $\varnothing$ is blue).

Lemma: For a given $n$ and $B \subseteq \{1,\dots,n\}$, there is exactly one $n$-coloring with full support in which the singletons colored blue are exactly those in $B$. Therefore there are exactly $2^n$ $n$-colorings with full support.

Proof. To see there is at least one coloring, color only the subsets of $B$ blue. In that case \[ f(T) = 2^{\left\lvert T \cap B \right\rvert} \]which satisfies the condition by Inclusion-Exclusion. To see this extension is unique, note that $f(\{b\})$ is determined for each $b$ and we can then determine $f(T)$ inductively on $\left\lvert T \right\rvert$; hence there is at most one way to complete a coloring of the singletons, which completes the proof. $\blacksquare$

For a general nontrivial $n$-coloring $\mathcal C$, note that if $\operatorname{supp}(\mathcal C) = [X,S]$, then we can think of it as an $(n-\left\lvert X \right\rvert)$-coloring with full support. For $\left\lvert X \right\rvert = k$, there are $\binom nk$ possible choices of $X \subseteq S$. Adding back in the trivial coloring, the final answer is \[ 1 + \sum_{k=0}^n \binom nk 2^k = \boxed{1 + 3^n}. \]
This post has been edited 2 times. Last edited by v_Enhance, Aug 6, 2018, 4:41 AM
Reason: Some rewording, use $\mathcal{C}$ instead of $C$ so it doesn't look like a set
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gauss202
4855 posts
#4 • 3 Y
Y by icematrix2, Adventure10, Mango247
Is it wise to post the problems so early? Considering it's not even 2pm in Hawaii yet? Perhaps we should wait a bit longer. I'm surprised they didn't lock the forums today.
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Benq
3396 posts
#5 • 3 Y
Y by icematrix2, Adventure10, Mango247
What do you mean? All testing is done.
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v_Enhance
6872 posts
#6 • 5 Y
Y by HamstPan38825, icematrix2, Adventure10, Mango247, Alex-131
gauss202 wrote:
Is it wise to post the problems so early? Considering it's not even 2pm in Hawaii yet? Perhaps we should wait a bit longer. I'm surprised they didn't lock the forums today.

devenware gave an OK in another thread; otherwise I would have waited until 5:30PM ET as in past years. Note that the contest is given at the same time everywhere in the world.
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gauss202
4855 posts
#7 • 3 Y
Y by icematrix2, Epic_Dabber, Adventure10
I see. I still might advocate for everyone waiting a bit longer just to be sure everyone is done, but if AoPS says okay, then so be it. Carry on then.
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hwl0304
1840 posts
#8 • 3 Y
Y by icematrix2, Adventure10, Mango247
it is taken at the same time all over the world.
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dantx5
1464 posts
#9 • 3 Y
Y by icematrix2, Adventure10, Mango247
I managed to figure out the answer $1+3^n$ with small values of $n$, but my "proof" was almost completely off (basically bs).

Perhaps 1 point?
This post has been edited 1 time. Last edited by dantx5, Apr 28, 2015, 9:58 PM
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colinhy
751 posts
#10 • 3 Y
Y by icematrix2, Adventure10, Mango247
Just wondering, if you leave out the $\binom{n}{k}$ in the summation but prove everything else (also write the 1 in the summation but don't have it added in the final answer - so I ended up with $1 + \sum_{k=0}{n}2^k = 2^{k+1}$ oops), how many points would be deducted?

Also v_Enhance I believe you have a typo in your sum - the $2^n$ should be $2^k$. Nice concise solution though!
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pi37
2079 posts
#11 • 2 Y
Y by icematrix2, Adventure10
Sketch of my solution (it was 11 pages oops):

We claim that every coloring is either trivial or some interval $[R_1,R_2]$. It isn't hard to show that the conditions are satisfied if this is the case. Otherwise, let $R_1$ be the minimal blue set-if there's another minimal blue set we get a contradiction, so all blue sets are supersets of $R_1$. Now we can WLOG assume that $R_1$ is the empty set. Let $A$ be the set of singletons which are blue, $B$ be the set which are not. We take $R_2=A$; to prove that the blue ones are the ones we claim are blue, we just use induction on the size of sets, adding in either something in $A$ or something in $B$ each time.
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msinghal
725 posts
#12 • 6 Y
Y by exmath89, dantx5, math_explorer, icematrix2, Adventure10, Mango247
Sketch of mine (I may post full solution later):

Let $A$ be the smallest blue set. (ignoring the all red case, we'll add one later) Then it's easy to show that all blue sets are supersets of $A$ by contradiction (otherwise, if $T$ were a blue set that is not a superset of $A$, you get $f(T\cap A) > 0$. Now you have:
\[\prod_{i \in S \backslash A}f(A \cup \{i\}) = f(S)\] by the given condition, induction, and the fact that $f(A)=1$. So now you use the fact that $f(A \cup \{i\})$ is always either 1 or 2, and let $B=\{i: f(A \cup \{i\}) = 2\}$. You get that $f(B)=2^{|B|}$ using a similar idea to the large product above. It follows pretty quickly that the set of blue sets is the set of all $T$ such that $A \subseteq T \subseteq A \cup B$. It is easy to show that this always works, so the answer is just the number of ways to pick disjoint $A$ and $B$, which is $3^n$. So you add back in the one for the all red case to get $\boxed{3^n+1}$
This post has been edited 1 time. Last edited by msinghal, Apr 28, 2015, 10:37 PM
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srijon
126 posts
#13 • 3 Y
Y by icematrix2, Adventure10, Mango247
I got till the point that T is a superset of A. But then I messed up due to a mis-proof (I showed that all solutions must be of the kind A, AUB, AUBUC... where A, B, C... are disjoint) Also I handled the cases when the null set is blue and all the subsets are red separately (and correctly). Can I expect a 1-2 one this one?
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raxu
398 posts
#14 • 3 Y
Y by icematrix2, Adventure10, Mango247
v_Enhance wrote:
gauss202 wrote:
Is it wise to post the problems so early? Considering it's not even 2pm in Hawaii yet? Perhaps we should wait a bit longer. I'm surprised they didn't lock the forums today.

devenware gave an OK in another thread; otherwise I would have waited until 5:30PM ET as in past years. Note that the contest is given at the same time everywhere in the world.
When I think about that, it'll be extremely painful for someone living in, say, China, for they have to not sleep and do the problems if they want to participate. Fortunately it's USAMO, so not many people will be outside of US.
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fclvbfm934
759 posts
#15 • 6 Y
Y by mssmath, Benq, JasperL, icematrix2, DCMaths, Adventure10
If $\varnothing$ is blue then we have $f(T_1)f(T_2) = f(T_1 \cup T_2)$. If $T_1$ is a single element subset and is red, then $f(T_2) = f(T_1 \cup T_2)$. This means that any subset containing that element $T_1$ is red. Otherwise, if $T_1$ is blue, then $f(T_2) \cdot 2 = f(T_1 \cup T_2)$ and so that means every subset of $T_2$ + $T_1$. So we can build the coloring of all subsets based on the elemental colorings. It is pre-determined by the coloring so $2^n$ possibles here.

If $\varnothing$ is red then that means for any two disjoint sets $f(T_1)f(T_2) = 0$. This means that for any two disjoint subsets, at least one of them is red. We again look at elemental subsets. Suppose we have an element $v$ that was blue. Then consider any set $S$ that doesn't contain $v$. This tells us that $f(S) = 0$ which means every single subset not containing $v$ is red. In fact, if we have a set that is blue, then any set not containing that set must be red. Suppose we have a blue set $B$ where $|B|$ is minimal. We know that
  • Any set disjoint with $B$ is red.
  • Every subset of $B$ is red by minimality.
  • Suppose there is a set $R$ such that $B \cap R \neq \varnothing$, and $B$ is not a subset of $R$. Then that means $f(B \cap R) = 0$ and so that implies that all subsets of $R$ are red.
  • We can treat supersets of $B$ like $B$ is the null set in the case where the null set is blue.
This gives us $$ 2^n + 1 + \sum_{k = 1}^n \binom{n}{k} 2^{n-k} = 3^n+1$$
This post has been edited 2 times. Last edited by fclvbfm934, Apr 29, 2015, 10:06 PM
Reason: forgot latex
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