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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.

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[*]April 22nd (Webinar), 4:00pm PT/7:00pm ET, Competitive Programming at AoPS (USACO).[/list]
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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
Circumcircle excircle chaos
CyclicISLscelesTrapezoid   25
N 5 minutes ago by bin_sherlo
Source: ISL 2021 G8
Let $ABC$ be a triangle with circumcircle $\omega$ and let $\Omega_A$ be the $A$-excircle. Let $X$ and $Y$ be the intersection points of $\omega$ and $\Omega_A$. Let $P$ and $Q$ be the projections of $A$ onto the tangent lines to $\Omega_A$ at $X$ and $Y$ respectively. The tangent line at $P$ to the circumcircle of the triangle $APX$ intersects the tangent line at $Q$ to the circumcircle of the triangle $AQY$ at a point $R$. Prove that $\overline{AR} \perp \overline{BC}$.
25 replies
+1 w
CyclicISLscelesTrapezoid
Jul 12, 2022
bin_sherlo
5 minutes ago
hard problem
Cobedangiu   7
N 11 minutes ago by arqady
Let $x,y,z>0$ and $xy+yz+zx=3$ : Prove that :
$\sum  \ \frac{x}{y+z}\ge\sum  \frac{1}{\sqrt{x+3}}$
7 replies
Cobedangiu
Apr 2, 2025
arqady
11 minutes ago
Combo problem
soryn   2
N 26 minutes ago by Anulick
The school A has m1 boys and m2 girls, and ,the school B has n1 boys and n2 girls. Each school is represented by one team formed by p students,boys and girls. If f(k) is the number of cases for which,the twice schools has,togheter k girls, fund f(k) and the valute of k, for which f(k) is maximum.
2 replies
1 viewing
soryn
Today at 6:33 AM
Anulick
26 minutes ago
Calculate the distance of chess king!!
egxa   4
N 35 minutes ago by Primeniyazidayi
Source: All Russian 2025 9.4
A chess king was placed on a square of an \(8 \times 8\) board and made $64$ moves so that it visited all squares and returned to the starting square. At every moment, the distance from the center of the square the king was on to the center of the board was calculated. A move is called $\emph{pleasant}$ if this distance becomes smaller after the move. Find the maximum possible number of pleasant moves. (The chess king moves to a square adjacent either by side or by corner.)
4 replies
egxa
Apr 18, 2025
Primeniyazidayi
35 minutes ago
As some nations like to say "Heavy theorems mostly do not help"
Assassino9931   9
N an hour ago by EVKV
Source: European Mathematical Cup 2022, Senior Division, Problem 2
We say that a positive integer $n$ is lovely if there exist a positive integer $k$ and (not necessarily distinct) positive integers $d_1$, $d_2$, $\ldots$, $d_k$ such that $n = d_1d_2\cdots d_k$ and $d_i^2 \mid n + d_i$ for $i=1,2,\ldots,k$.

a) Are there infinitely many lovely numbers?

b) Is there a lovely number, greater than $1$, which is a perfect square of an integer?
9 replies
Assassino9931
Dec 20, 2022
EVKV
an hour ago
congruence
moldovan   5
N 2 hours ago by EVKV
Source: Canada 2004
Let $p$ be an odd prime. Prove that:
\[\displaystyle\sum_{k=1}^{p-1}k^{2p-1} \equiv \frac{p(p+1)}{2} \pmod{p^2}\]
5 replies
moldovan
Jun 26, 2009
EVKV
2 hours ago
Checking a summand property for integers sufficiently large.
DinDean   1
N 2 hours ago by Double07
For any fixed integer $m\geqslant 2$, prove that there exists a positive integer $f(m)$, such that for any integer $n\geqslant f(m)$, $n$ can be expressed by a sum of positive integers $a_i$'s as
\[n=a_1+a_2+\dots+a_m,\]where $a_1\mid a_2$, $a_2\mid a_3$, $\dots$, $a_{m-1}\mid a_m$.
1 reply
DinDean
3 hours ago
Double07
2 hours ago
Equations
Jackson0423   1
N 2 hours ago by Maxklark
Solve the system of equations
\[
\begin{cases}
x - y z = 1,\\[2pt]
y - z x = 2,\\[2pt]
z - x y = 4.
\end{cases}
\]
1 reply
Jackson0423
3 hours ago
Maxklark
2 hours ago
real+ FE
pomodor_ap   4
N 2 hours ago by jasperE3
Source: Own, PDC001-P7
Let $f : \mathbb{R}^+ \to \mathbb{R}^+$ be a function such that
$$f(x)f(x^2 + y f(y)) = f(x)f(y^2) + x^3$$for all $x, y \in \mathbb{R}^+$. Determine all such functions $f$.
4 replies
pomodor_ap
Yesterday at 11:24 AM
jasperE3
2 hours ago
FE solution too simple?
Yiyj1   8
N 2 hours ago by lksb
Source: 101 Algebra Problems from the AMSP
Find all functions $f: \mathbb{R} \rightarrow \mathbb{R}$ such that the equality $$f(f(x)+y) = f(x^2-y)+4f(x)y$$holds for all pairs of real numbers $(x,y)$.

My solution

I feel like my solution is too simple. Is there something I did wrong or something I missed?
8 replies
Yiyj1
Apr 9, 2025
lksb
2 hours ago
Polynomials in Z[x]
BartSimpsons   16
N 2 hours ago by bin_sherlo
Source: European Mathematical Cup 2017 Problem 4
Find all polynomials $P$ with integer coefficients such that $P (0)\ne  0$ and $$P^n(m)\cdot P^m(n)$$is a square of an integer for all nonnegative integers $n, m$.

Remark: For a nonnegative integer $k$ and an integer $n$, $P^k(n)$ is defined as follows: $P^k(n) = n$ if $k = 0$ and $P^k(n)=P(P(^{k-1}(n))$ if $k >0$.

Proposed by Adrian Beker.
16 replies
BartSimpsons
Dec 27, 2017
bin_sherlo
2 hours ago
Why is the old one deleted?
EeEeRUT   13
N 2 hours ago by EVKV
Source: EGMO 2025 P1
For a positive integer $N$, let $c_1 < c_2 < \cdots < c_m$ be all positive integers smaller than $N$ that are coprime to $N$. Find all $N \geqslant 3$ such that $$\gcd( N, c_i + c_{i+1}) \neq 1$$for all $1 \leqslant i \leqslant m-1$

Here $\gcd(a, b)$ is the largest positive integer that divides both $a$ and $b$. Integers $a$ and $b$ are coprime if $\gcd(a, b) = 1$.

Proposed by Paulius Aleknavičius, Lithuania
13 replies
EeEeRUT
Apr 16, 2025
EVKV
2 hours ago
Factor sums of integers
Aopamy   2
N 3 hours ago by cadaeibf
Let $n$ be a positive integer. A positive integer $k$ is called a benefactor of $n$ if the positive divisors of $k$ can be partitioned into two sets $A$ and $B$ such that $n$ is equal to the sum of elements in $A$ minus the sum of the elements in $B$. Note that $A$ or $B$ could be empty, and that the sum of the elements of the empty set is $0$.

For example, $15$ is a benefactor of $18$ because $1+5+15-3=18$.

Show that every positive integer $n$ has at least $2023$ benefactors.
2 replies
Aopamy
Feb 23, 2023
cadaeibf
3 hours ago
Least integer T_m such that m divides gauss sum
Al3jandro0000   33
N 3 hours ago by NerdyNashville
Source: 2020 Iberoamerican P2
Let $T_n$ denotes the least natural such that
$$n\mid 1+2+3+\cdots +T_n=\sum_{i=1}^{T_n} i$$Find all naturals $m$ such that $m\ge T_m$.

Proposed by Nicolás De la Hoz
33 replies
Al3jandro0000
Nov 17, 2020
NerdyNashville
3 hours ago
IMO 2017 Problem 3
fattypiggy123   77
N Dec 25, 2023 by awesomeming327.
A hunter and an invisible rabbit play a game in the Euclidean plane. The rabbit's starting point, $A_0,$ and the hunter's starting point, $B_0$ are the same. After $n-1$ rounds of the game, the rabbit is at point $A_{n-1}$ and the hunter is at point $B_{n-1}.$ In the $n^{\text{th}}$ round of the game, three things occur in order:

[list=i]
[*]The rabbit moves invisibly to a point $A_n$ such that the distance between $A_{n-1}$ and $A_n$ is exactly $1.$

[*]A tracking device reports a point $P_n$ to the hunter. The only guarantee provided by the tracking device to the hunter is that the distance between $P_n$ and $A_n$ is at most $1.$

[*]The hunter moves visibly to a point $B_n$ such that the distance between $B_{n-1}$ and $B_n$ is exactly $1.$
[/list]
Is it always possible, no matter how the rabbit moves, and no matter what points are reported by the tracking device, for the hunter to choose her moves so that after $10^9$ rounds, she can ensure that the distance between her and the rabbit is at most $100?$

Proposed by Gerhard Woeginger, Austria
77 replies
fattypiggy123
Jul 18, 2017
awesomeming327.
Dec 25, 2023
IMO 2017 Problem 3
G H J
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dgrozev
2460 posts
#75 • 3 Y
Y by L567, sabkx, Adventure10
Reef334 wrote:
Claim: the hunter's best strategy should be to move directly towards the tracker.
Of course, no! All the posts above based on that assumption are..., ok, at leats do not understand well what should be proved.

The best strategy for the hunter is to move directly towards the real position of the rabbit!! :) Suppose she has a secret Oracle, who somehow knows everything, including the rabbit's affairs. So, the hunter calls the Oracle and he tells her where exactly the animal is.
But even so, the hunter will lose! Because the rabbit will cheat, but in such a way no one can prove it and there is a positive probability, rabbit plays decently. So, the hunter and the rabbit know they both cheating, but the hunter cannot prove anything without revealing herself of doing the same.

Seriously, this problem is a philosophical one. (every one can make that easy calculations).
There are two possible answers - yes or no. And before starting of thinking of the best strategies, one should clear up what exactly every answer means, and what type of arguments should be used in either case.
I've written some thoughts in the same spirit here.
This post has been edited 2 times. Last edited by dgrozev, Sep 26, 2019, 4:02 PM
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TheUltimate123
1740 posts
#77 • 1 Y
Y by sabkx
The answer is no. Consider the following process, occurring over $m$ rounds. For convenience, we will refer to this as an $m$-move.
  • The rabbit moves from point $A$ to the point $A'$ such that $AA'=m$, one unit each round, and if $P'$ is the projection of $A'$ onto line $AB$, then $A'P'=1$.
  • During each round, let the dog report the projection of the rabbit's location onto line $AB$. This is always possible since the distance from the rabbit to line $AB$ never exceeds $1$.
  • Because the hunter doesn't know which half-plane the rabbit is on, he must move along $\overline{AB}$. Otherwise, it is possible that the rabbit is on the other side of the line as he moves, and he moves farther away from the rabbit.
  • For convenience, assume the hunter is magically able to deduce the exact location of the rabbit at the end of the process.


[asy]
        size(8cm); defaultpen(fontsize(10pt));
        pair B, Bp, A, Ap, P;
        B=(0,0);
        Bp=(2,0);
        A=(5,0);
        Ap=(5,0)+2*dir(20);
        P=foot(Ap,B,A);

        draw(B--P);
        draw(Bp--Ap--P,dashed);
        draw(B--Bp,linewidth(1.5));
        draw(A--Ap,linewidth(1.5));

        dot("$B$",B,S);
        dot("$B'$",Bp,S);
        dot("$A$",A,S);
        dot("$A'$",Ap,NE);
        dot("$P'$",P,SE);
    [/asy]



Claim: Suppose that at some point in time, the rabbit is at point $A$ and the hunter is at point $B$, and furthermore $AB=x$. After a $101$-move, if the rabbit moves to $A'$ and the hunter moves to $B'$, then the rabbit can guarentee that $\textstyle A'B'\ge\sqrt{x^2+1/101}$.

Proof. Recall that $A'P'=1$, whence $B'P'=x+\sqrt{m^2-1}-m$. It follows that
\begin{align*}
        A'B'^2&\ge1+\left(x+\sqrt{m^2-1}-m\right)^2\\
        &=1+x^2+(m^2-1)+m^2+2x\sqrt{m^2-1}-2m\sqrt{m^2-1}-2xm\\
        &=x^2+2m^2-2xm+2x\sqrt{m^2-1}-2m\sqrt{m^2-1}\\
        &=x^2+2(m-x)\left(m-\sqrt{m^2-1}\right).
    \end{align*}Let $m=101$ above. Check that \[A'B'^2\ge x^2+\frac{2(m-x)}{m+\sqrt{m^2-1}}\ge x^2+\frac{m-x}m\ge x^2+\frac1{101},\]as desired. $\blacksquare$


Finally, we can perform a $101$-move $\lfloor10^9/101\rfloor$ times; that is, \[A_NB_N^2\ge\left\lfloor\frac{10^9}{101}\right\rfloor\cdot\frac1{101}\ge\frac{10^9-100}{101^2}>100^2,\]so $A_NB_N>100$, as desired.
This post has been edited 3 times. Last edited by TheUltimate123, Mar 24, 2020, 4:59 PM
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william122
1576 posts
#79
Y by
The answer is no. Suppose at some point that the rabbit is $d$ away from the hunter, and the hunter, who is at $B$, knows exactly where the rabbit is, which is point $A$. Then, we claim that we can increase the square of the distance by $O\left(\frac{1}{d}\right)$ in at most $\lceil d\rceil+1$ moves. For convenience, denote $d_0=\lceil d\rceil$

To do this, the rabbit moves in a straight line for $d_0+1$ moves, such that the angle from the ray $\overrightarrow{BA}$ to the line is at most $2\sin^{-1}\frac{1}{2d_0}$. As the chord determined by the intersections of this line and $\overrightarrow{BA}$ on the circle of radius $r\le d_0$ centered about $A$ always has length less than 1, on the rth turn of the rabbit, the tracker can always ping on the intersection of $\overrightarrow{BA}$ with the circle of radius $r$. Thus, even if the hunter were able to deduce the rabbit's strategy, he would have no way of narrowing down which line the rabbit was moving along until the $d_0+1$st turn.

Now, after $d_0+1$ turns, the hunter is somewhere within the circle of radius $d_0+1$ centered about $B$, let's say $B'$, while the rabbit is at $A'$, a point on the circle of radius $d_0+1$ centered about $A$. If $B'$ is on one side of $BA$, we suppose that the rabbit actually decided to go on the line with angle $2\sin^{-1}\frac{1}{2d_0}$ from $BA$ on the other side of $BA$. Then, if $X$ is the point $d_0-d+1$ unit above $A$ on $\overrightarrow{BA}$, we have $XA'\ge B'A'$, and by Law of Cosines, $$A'X=(d_0+1)^2+(d_0-d+1)^2-2(d_0+1)(d_0-d+1)\cos^{-1}\left(2\sin^{-1}\frac{1}{2d_0+2}\right)=d^2+(d_0+1)(d_0-d+1)\frac{4(d_0+1)^2-1}{(d_0+1)^4}$$$$\ge d^2+\frac{3}{d_0+1}$$
So, the rabbit can get from distance $n$ to $n+1$ by using this process to increase by $\frac{3}{d+1}$ and then leaking his location to start again. As the distance squared increase by at least $\frac{3}{n+3}$ each time, this takes at most $\frac{(2n+1)(n+3)}{3}\cdot (n+2)$ moves.

Now, note that at the beginning the rabbit can immediately get a distance $2$ away from the hunter if they happen to choose antipodal points, so we need at least $$1+\sum_{n=2}^{100}\left\lceil\frac{(2n+1)(n+3)(n+2)}{3}\right\rceil<100+\sum_{n=2}^{100}n^3=25502559<10^9$$
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jj_ca888
2726 posts
#80
Y by
We start the proof with a claim.

Claim: Suppose that at some time, the distance between hunter and rabbit is $d \geq 1$. Then, in $2\lceil d\rceil$ moves, it is possible for the distance between hunter and rabbit to increase to at least $\sqrt{d^2 + \tfrac12}$.

Proof: Suppose that initially, the hunter is at $A$ and the rabbit is at $B$, where $\overline{AB} = d$. Let $k = \lceil d\rceil > d$. Suppose that the rabbit moves in a straight line toward some point $P$ closer to $B$ than $A$ such that $\delta(P, \overrightarrow{AB}) = 1$ and $\overline{PB} = 2k$. We may assume a sub-optimal case for the hunter, that the tracker always reports some position on ray $\overrightarrow{AB}$ as the rabbit moves. This is clearly possible because as the rabbit moves on a straight line from $B$ to $P$, its distance to $\overrightarrow{AB}$ is strictly less than $1$ since $\delta(P, \overrightarrow{AB}) = 1$.

Hence, since the hunter only has access to the tracker, in this case, the hunter moves at a pace of $1$ unit per turn along the line formed by $A$ and $B$ while starting at $A$. This goes on for $2k$ turns, when the rabbit reaches point $P$ and the hunter is at some point $H \neq A$ where $HB = 2k - d > k$. Now consider triangle $PBH$.

Note that if we let $\theta = \angle PBH$, we can find\[PH^2 = 5k^2 - 2k\sqrt{4k^2 - 1}\]since $\cos{\theta} = \tfrac{\sqrt{4k^2 - 1}}{2k}$ so therefore, we actually have $PH > \sqrt{5k^2 - 2k\sqrt{4k^2 - 1}}$. This expression is not very nice, so in fact we can make the argument that\[4k^2 - 2k\sqrt{4k^2 - 1} \geq \frac12\]which can be easily proven by expanding, hence $PH > \sqrt{k^2 + \frac12} \geq \sqrt{d^2 + \frac12}$ as desired. $\square$

After the first turn, it is clearly possible for $AB = 2$. Suppose that under the strategy outlined by the claim above, after $10^9$ moves, the distance $AB \leq 100$. Since the distance never exceeds $100$, it never takes over $200$ moves to increase the square of the distance by $\tfrac12$, hence the square of the distance must increase by at least $\tfrac{10^9}{200} \cdot \tfrac12 > 10^6$, which is a clear contradiction due to size.

We are done. $\blacksquare$
This post has been edited 1 time. Last edited by jj_ca888, Jun 17, 2020, 9:56 PM
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mathlogician
1051 posts
#81
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The answer is $\boxed{\text{no}}$. The main claim to this problem is the following:

Claim: Let the distance between the hunter and the rabbit be $d$. After $\lfloor 500d \rfloor$ turns, the hunter cannot guarantee being within distance $\sqrt{d^2+\frac{1}{2}}$ from the rabbit.

Proof: Let the hunter initially be at point $H$ and the rabbit at point $R$. Let $\ell$ be line $HR$. Let $A$ and $B$ be reflections across $\ell$ such that the projection from $A$ and $B$ to $\ell$ has length $1$ and $RA = RB = \lfloor 500d \rfloor$.

Let the rabbit move across line $RA$, and suppose that the tracking device reports a point $P$ on $\ell$ every time. (We can safely assume this happens because we are asked if, regardless of where the tracking device reports, the hunter can still win). Note that if this happens, the hunter has no way of knowing which side of $\ell$ the rabbit is on, so if the hunter wants to guarantee the win, she must move along line $\ell$.

After $\lfloor 500d \rfloor$ moves, the rabbit will arrive at point $A$. Suppose that the hunter is at point $X$ on line $\ell$, where $HX = \lfloor 500d \rfloor$. Now this is a simple computation using the Pythagorean Theorem, with details left to the interested reader. $\square$

Note that applying this claim $2 \cdot 10^4$ times, we can extend the distance $d$ to $100$ in under $10^9$ moves, as desired.
This post has been edited 3 times. Last edited by mathlogician, Jul 20, 2020, 3:36 AM
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Pluto1708
1107 posts
#82 • 3 Y
Y by centslordm, Mango247, Mango247
fattypiggy123 wrote:
A hunter and an invisible rabbit play a game in the Euclidean plane. The rabbit's starting point, $A_0,$ and the hunter's starting point, $B_0$ are the same. After $n-1$ rounds of the game, the rabbit is at point $A_{n-1}$ and the hunter is at point $B_{n-1}.$ In the $n^{\text{th}}$ round of the game, three things occur in order:
  1. The rabbit moves invisibly to a point $A_n$ such that the distance between $A_{n-1}$ and $A_n$ is exactly $1.$
  2. A tracking device reports a point $P_n$ to the hunter. The only guarantee provided by the tracking device to the hunter is that the distance between $P_n$ and $A_n$ is at most $1.$
  3. The hunter moves visibly to a point $B_n$ such that the distance between $B_{n-1}$ and $B_n$ is exactly $1.$
Is it always possible, no matter how the rabbit moves, and no matter what points are reported by the tracking device, for the hunter to choose her moves so that after $10^9$ rounds, she can ensure that the distance between her and the rabbit is at most $100?$

Proposed by Gerhard Woeginger, Austria

The answer is NO the hunter cannot ensure the required conditions.

Let $d_n$ be distance between hunter($H_n$) and rabbit($R_n$) are $n$ rounds.Let $\epsilon=0.0025$.If at any point $d_n\geq 100$ then the rabbit can keeping moving in the same straight line as the hunter and so will never be caught.Hence assume $d_n<100$ for all $n\leq 10^9$.Let $H'$ be a point $200$ units from $H_n$ and $Y_1,Y_2$ be point such that $Y_1Z=1=Y_2Z$ and $R_nZ=200$ .
Keep in mind that $$(400\epsilon-2\epsilon d_n)>(400\cdot 0.0025-2\cdot 0.0025\cdot 100)=\tfrac{1}{2}$$ed);


Claim : The rabbit has a way of increasing $d_n^2$ by $\tfrac{1}{2}$ every $200$ rounds.
Proof : Now if the rabbit goes either to $R_n\to Y_1$ or $R_n\to Y_2$ then note that the rightmost that the hunter can go is $H'$ and if he doesnt go to this point then he will definitely end up to the left of $H'$.If he went above $H_nH'$ then if the rabbit chose $Y_2$ the distance $d_n$ between would increase.
[asy]
size(8cm); defaultpen(fontsize(10pt));
pair B, Bp, A, Ap, P,Ap2;
B=(0,0);
Bp=(2,0);
A=(5,0);
Ap=(5,0)+2*dir(20);
Ap2=(5,0)-2*dir(160);
P=foot(Ap,B,A);

draw(B--P);
draw(Bp--Ap--P,dashed);
draw(Bp--Ap2--P,dashed);
draw(B--Bp,linewidth(1.5));
draw(A--Ap,linewidth(1.5));
draw(A--Ap2,linewidth(1.5));

dot("$H_n$",B,S);
dot("$R_n$",Bp,S);
dot("$H'$",A,S);
dot("$Y_1$",Ap,NE);
dot("$Y_2$",Ap2,SE);
dot("$Z$",P,SE);
[/asy]

Therefore the best bet for the hunter is to go from $H_n\to H'$ wherein the rabbit ends up either at $Y_1/Y_2$.Hence \begin{align*}d_{n+1}^2&=1+(H'Z)^2 \\ &= 1+(d_n-(200-R_nZ)^2 \\ &\approx 1+(d_n-\epsilon)^2  \\ &= d_n^2+(1+\epsilon^2-2\epsilon d_n) \\ &\approx d_n^2+(400\epsilon-2\epsilon d_n)\\ &> d_n^2+\tfrac{1}{2}\end{align*}hence proving the claim .$\square$

Back to the original problem by our claim the rabbit can increase $d_n^2$ by $\tfrac{1}{2}$ in every $200$ rounds,Hence $d_n^2$ reaches $100^2$ in $<2\cdot 10^4\cdot 200=4\cdot 10^6<10^9$ rounds so the rabbit wins and we are done.$\blacksquare$
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MathForesterCycle1
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#83
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dame dame
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DottedCaculator
7338 posts
#84 • 15 Y
Y by tigerzhang, sagayao, Bole, aa1024, centslordm, HamstPan38825, math31415926535, OlympusHero, rayfish, megarnie, Lamboreghini, sabkx, aidan0626, EpicBird08, Sedro
Solution
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kbh12
53 posts
#85
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We present instead the claim that after $4d$ moves, the hunter cannot guarantee being within distance $\sqrt{d^2+\frac{1}{2}}$ of the rabbit.
Let the hunter start at $H$ and the rabbit start at $R$.
Assume that the rabbit reveals its location R, which renders all previous information about it unnecessary to solving the problem.

The rabbit can choose $2$ points $A,B$ with $A$ above and $B$ below line $RH$ such that $AB=2$ and $k=RA=RB$. Let the midpoint between $A,B$ be $N$
Now, the rabbit will go to either $X$ or $Y$ which will take $k$ hops, and he will report the location of point $P_n$ on the line $RH$.

For all points $I$ that the hunter can now go to, clearly it is optimal for $HI=k$ and $I$ is on line $RH$, so $IA=IB$.
Because of this, you can now get:


\[IA^2=1+IN^2=1+(\sqrt{RA^2-1}-RI)^2\]\[IA^2=1+(\sqrt{k^2-1})-(k-d))^2\]\[IA^2\geq 1+((k-\frac{1}{k})-(k-d))^2=1+(\frac{(d-1)^2}{k^2})\]

So for this problem it remains to show that this is greater than $d^2+0.5$ if $k=4d$, and this is true if $d\geq1$ which it is.
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Bratin_Dasgupta
598 posts
#86 • 1 Y
Y by Bgmi
Can someone check this please?
The answer is $\boxed{\text{no}}$. Assume that at some point the rabbit is $d$ units away from the hunter and the hunter is aware of the rabbit's decision, which let us label as point $A$. We now make the following claim:


Claim: The square of the distance can be increased by $O \left( \frac{1}{d}\right)$ keeping the number of moves to $\lceil d \rceil + 1$ at most.

To achieve this, the rabbit moves in a straight line for $\lceil d\rceil +1$ moves in such a way that the angle formed by $\overrightarrow{BA}$ to the line does not exceed $2 \sin^{-1} \frac{1}{2 \lceil d\rceil}$. Since the chord that is formed by the intersections of the this line and $\overrightarrow{BA}$ on the circle having a radius $p$ ($p \le \lceil d \rceil$) and a center $A$ always has length that does not exceed $1$. Hence, on the $r^{\text{th}}$ turn of the rabbit, the tracker can always ping on the intersection of $\overrightarrow{BA}$ with the circle of radius $p$. Therefore, even if the hunter was able to deduce the rabbit's strategy, there is no way for him to find out the line along which the rabbit is moving until the $\lceil d \rceil + 1^{\text{st}}$ turn.
After the $\lceil d \rceil + 1^{\text{st}}$ turn, the hunter is in an arbitrary position inside the circle of radius $\lceil d \rceil + 1$ that is centered about the point $B$. Let's say the hunter is at the point $B_1$ and the rabbit is at the point $A_1$ a point on the circle having radius of $\lceil d \rceil + 1$ having a center $A$. If the point $B_1$ is on one side of $BA$, let's assume that the rabbit is moving along the line with an angle of $2 \sin^{-1} \frac{1}{2 \lceil d\rceil}$ from $BA$ on the other side if $BA$. Then let's say if $P_1$ is the point $\lceil d\rceil - d + 1$ units above $A$ on the line $\overrightarrow{BA}$ we get that $P_1A_1 \ge B_1A_1$ and then Law of Cosines yields the folloiwing
\begin{align*}
A_1P_1 &= (+1)^2+(\lceil d \rceil-d+1)^2-2(\lceil d \rceil+1)(\lceil d \rceil-d+1)\cos^{-1}\left(2\sin^{-1}\frac{1}{2\lceil d \rceil+2}\right) \\ 
&= d^2+(\lceil d \rceil+1)(\lceil d \rceil-d+1)\frac{4(\lceil d \rceil+1)^2-1}{(\lceil d \rceil+1)^4} \\ 
&\ge \frac{3}{\lceil d \rceil + 1}
\end{align*}Hence, the rabbit can get from distance $k$ to $k+1$ by using the process to increase by $\frac{3}{(d+1)}$ and then revealing it's location to start all over again. As the squared distance increases by a minimum of $\frac{3}{(n+3)}$ every time, this takes at most of \[ \frac{(2n+1)(n+3)}{3} \cdot (n+2)\]moves.
Observe that at the beginning, the rabbit can get away by a distance of $2m$ from the hunter if the hunter chooses antipodal points, hence we need a minimum of \[1+ \sum_{n = 1}^{100}\frac{(2n+1)(n+3)(n+2)}{3} < 100 + \sum_{n = 2}^{100} n^3 = 25502559 < 10^9\]hence the rabbit wins, which finishes the problem.
This post has been edited 1 time. Last edited by Bratin_Dasgupta, May 7, 2022, 6:59 AM
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ALM_04
85 posts
#87 • 1 Y
Y by Lamboreghini
Thanks to L567 for explaining me the motive of this problem!

Claim - Let the distance between the rabbit and the hunter be some non zero number $d$ at some instant. The hunter cannot guarantee being within $\sqrt{d^2+\frac{1}{2}}$ of the rabbit after $\lfloor 500d \rfloor$ moves.

Proof - At an instant, let the hunter be at $A$ and the rabbit is at $B$. After $n=\lfloor 500d \rfloor$ turns, let the rabbit goes to either $X$ or $Y$ such that $X$ and $Y$ are symmetric while the hunter goes to a point $A'$ which lies on the line $AB$.

[asy]
size(8cm); defaultpen(fontsize(10pt));
pair B, Bp, A, Ap, P,Ap2;
B=(0,0);
Bp=(3,0);
A=(6,0);
Ap=(6,0)+2*dir(40);
Ap2=(6,0)-2*dir(140);
P=foot(Ap,B,A);

draw(B--P);
draw(Bp--Ap--P,dashed);
draw(Bp--Ap2--P,dashed);
draw(B--Bp,linewidth(1.5));
draw(A--Ap,linewidth(1.5));
draw(A--Ap2,linewidth(1.5));

dot("$A$",B,S);
dot("$B$",Bp,S);
dot("$A'$",A,S);
dot("$X$",Ap,NE);
dot("$Y$",Ap2,SE);
dot("$M$",P,SE);
[/asy]

$A'X=A'Y=\sqrt{(\sqrt{n^2-1}-(n-d))^2+1}=\sqrt{d^2+2(n-d)(n-\sqrt{n^2-1})}=\sqrt{d^2+\frac{2(n-d)}{n+\sqrt{n^2-1}}}\geq \sqrt{d^2+\frac{n-d}{n}}>\sqrt{d^2+\frac{1}{2}}$

Now, applying this claim $2\cdot 10^4$ times we get that in at most $10^9$ moves, the distance between rabbit and the hunter is more than $100$.

So, the answer is $\boxed{\text{No}}$
This post has been edited 1 time. Last edited by ALM_04, Jun 22, 2022, 3:21 PM
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dgrozev
2460 posts
#88
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Could I pose a question for all those guys that argue like: "the rabbit goes to this or that direction and the hunter goes in another direction (in between)..." . What if the hunter cheats and mounts another device on the rabbit, but this time a real one that shows its exact position. So, what if the hunter goes straight after the rabbit?
I mean, leave alone the real position of the rabbit. It doesn't matter what direction it heads on. It may sit in a chair and manipulating the pointing device. What matters is only the position this device reveals. The real position of the rabbit does not exist, until the moment he claims - I am here - and if it's consistent with the rules, that is, if he could present a list of moves, not contradicting with the rules, that lead to this imaginary position, then it's a proof that the rabbit's location is exactly there.
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dgrozev
2460 posts
#89
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The point of this post is to show another wording of the problem. I am sure that if this had been the text given at 2017 IMO, the results could have been much, much better. I will not do the exact calculations, but rather just show that the rabbit may escape.

(Same problem, different wording) A hunter and a phantom play a game in the Euclidean plane. The phantom's starting point, $ P_0,$ and the hunter's starting point, $ B_0$ are the same. After $ n-1$ rounds of the game, the phantom is at point $ P_{n-1}$ and the hunter is at point $ B_{n-1}.$ In the $ n$-th round of the game, two things occur in order:
(i) The phantom moves visibly to a point $ P_n$ such that there exist points $ A_0,A_1,A_2,\dots,A_n$ satisfying $ A_0\equiv P_0\,,\, |A_{j-1}A_j|=1\,,\,|P_jA_j|\le 1, j=1,2,\dots,n.$
(ii) The hunter moves visibly to a point $ B_n$ such that $ |B_{n-1}B_n|=1.$
Is it always possible, no matter how the phantom moves, for the hunter to choose his moves so that after $ 10^9$ rounds, he can ensure that the distance between him and the phantom is at most $ 100$?

Let's first see that this is the same problem, although there is no rabbit in it. The rabbit is hidden behind the words. In fact, the points $ A_0=P_0, A_1,A_2,\dots$ are the successive positions of the rabbit. Note that in this formulation we explicitly allow the points $ A_1,A_2,\dots, A_n$ to be different at each round. Whenever we want to calculate where the phantom might go, given its previous positions $ P_0,P_1,\dots,P_{n-1},$ we search for possible points $ A_j, j=1,2,\dots,n$ that satisfy the given condition. You may not agree with this, you may say - Why? The positions $ A_1,A_2,\dots,A_{n-1}$ are already selected, because they represent the positions the rabbit has already been to! We only need to choose the last position $ A_n$ of the rabbit!
I would disagree with you! Remember that the rabbit is invisible, no one can see it. So, if at, say, $ n$-th position, the hunter complains that the rabbit is cheating, he has no reasons - there is a possibility the rabbit is a fair player. Indeed, there is a probability the rabbit's positions were indeed $ A_1,A_2,\dots,A_n$ - no one knows, but they meet all the conditions!

We further refer to the point $ A_i$ as the shadow-position of the corresponding point $ P_i.$ Assume at some moment the hunter is at a point $ B$ and the phantom - at a point $ P$ at distance $ d:=|BP|.$ Suppose the phantom has revealed that its last shadow-position $ A$ coincides with $ P.$ Further, the phantoms steps at points $ P_1,P_2,\dots,P_m$ which lie on the ray $ BP$ (see fig 1) with $ PP_1=P_1P_2=\dots=P_{m-1}P_m$ and this distance is a bit less than $ 1.$

https://dgrozev.files.wordpress.com/2023/01/v2-p3.png?w=500

We construct arcs $ A'_iA''_i$ with center $ P$ and radius $ PA'_i=PA''_i=i, i=1,2,\dots,m$ so that $ P_i$ is the projection of $ A'_i$ and $ A''_i$ on the line $ BP.$ The smaller the angle $ \angle A'_1PA''_2,$ the closer $ P_iP_{i+1}$ is to $ 1.$ Suppose for the final arc we have $ A'_mP_m=A''_mP_m=1.$ Note that for the last position $P_m$ of the phantom, any point $ A_m$ that lies on the arc $ A'_mA''_m$ can serve as its shadow-point (fig. 1). Let us estimate the difference between the distances $ |PA'_m|$ and $ |PP_m|.$
\begin{align*}
|PA'_m|-|PP_m|&=|PA'_m|-\sqrt{|PA'_m|^2-1}\\
&=m-\sqrt{m^2-1} =\frac{1}{\sqrt{m^2-1}+m}\\
&\le \frac{1}{m}=\varepsilon.
\end{align*}
Note that $\varepsilon$ at the right hand side can be made as small as we want providing $m$ is large enough. The distance traveled by the hunter is equal to $ PA'_m=m,$ which means the phantom's lead after these $ m$ rounds is eventually a bit smaller than $ d=|BP|.$ That is, $|B'P_m|\ge d-\varepsilon.$ At this moment the phantom looks at the hunter. If he is in the half plane below the line $ BP$ the phantom jumps from $ P_m$ to $ P'= A'_m$ and reveals its last shadow-position as being $ A'=A'_m.$ Otherwise, the phantom jumps to $ P'= A''_m$ and correspondingly reveals its last shadow-position being $ A'=A''_m.$ The distance between the hunter and the phantom now is $ |B'P'|\ge \sqrt{(d-\varepsilon)^2+1},$ and since we can make $ \varepsilon$ as small as we want, the distance $ |B'P'|$ is close to $ \sqrt{d^2+1}.$ Thus

$$ \displaystyle |B'P'|-d \approx \sqrt{d^2+1}-d=\frac{1}{\sqrt{d^2+1}+d}>\frac{1}{3d}\qquad(1).$$
To recap, we started with a distance $ d$ between $ P$ and $ B$ and the phantom last shadow-position being $ P$ and ended up with phantom at a point $ P',$ hunter at $ B',$ and the last shadow-position at $ P'.$ Moreover, we increased the distance $ BP$ from $ d$ to $ \displaystyle d+\frac{1}{3d}.$ Repeating this action several times we can increase the distance $ PB$ from $ 1$ to $ \displaystyle \sum_{i=1}^k\frac{1}{3i}.$ Since the last sum can be made as large as we want, it follows the phantom can escape from the hunter.

In order to get full score on this problem it remains only to make routine estimates and establish that after $10^9$ rounds the phantom makes the distance greater than 100 units. Look again at $(1)$. The precise estimate is
\begin{align*}
|B'P'|-d &\ge \sqrt{(d-\varepsilon)^2+1}-d=\frac{(d-\varepsilon)^2+1=d^2}{\sqrt{(d-\varepsilon)^2+1}+d}\\
&=\frac{1+\varepsilon^2-2d\varepsilon}{\sqrt{(d-\varepsilon)^2+1}+d}\qquad(2).
\end{align*}Now, let us put $\frac{1}{m}=\varepsilon\le \frac{1}{4d}$ which is satisfied when $m\ge 4d.$ In this case, back to $(2),$ it yields
$$|B'P'|-d\ge \frac{1}{2}\cdot \frac{1}{\sqrt{(d-\varepsilon)^2+1}+d}\ge \frac{1}{6d}.$$So, starting from a distance $d$ between $B$ and $P$ we increased this distance to $d+\frac{1}{6d}$ after $m=\left\lceil 4d\right\rceil$ rounds. We repeat this procedure while $d<100.$ This means that after every at most $\left\lceil 4d\right\rceil\le 400$ rounds, we increase the distance by $\frac{1}{6d}>1/600.$ Thus, after at most $400\cdot 600\cdot 100=24\cdot 10^6$ steps, this distance certainly exceeds $100$.

Remark: More details in my blog.
This post has been edited 4 times. Last edited by dgrozev, Jan 15, 2023, 5:20 PM
Reason: typos
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signifance
140 posts
#90
Y by
yayayayayayyayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayyayayayayayayay

Solved with hint 19% from OTIS (for fun, i added 10 but i wonder who added 19\% and 39\% after i asked for help but tried to play it off as if they didn't want to help :thonk:)

The key is that even if the rabbit HAD revealed its location from point B a distance d away from point A the hunter, draw the line AB, oriented horizontally. Then the rabbit can move n times diagonally up right to B', s.t. if C is the foot from B' to AB, B'C=1. Indeed, since the hunter doesn't know which side of the line the rabbit's on, to minimize the risk (this is because he needs to GUARANTEE), he just moves n directly right to some point A'. Now compute $$A'B=n-d\Rightarrow A'C=\sqrt{n^2-1}-(n-d)\Rightarrow A'B'^2= 1 + \left(\sqrt{n^2-1}-(n-d)\right)^2$$$$\ge 1 + \left(n-\tfrac1n) - (n-d) \right)^2= 1 + (d-1/n)^2>d^2 + \frac12\forall n \ge 4d,$$which is a LOCAL change by 1/2 every time (if you only consider distance squared, so we'll just get distance squared is $>100^2$). Simply taking n=400 suffices (this means it takes 400 moves to increase by 1/2): $400 \cdot 2 \cdot 100^2 < 10^9$ moves has >100 distance already.
This post has been edited 1 time. Last edited by signifance, Nov 2, 2023, 11:40 PM
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awesomeming327.
1698 posts
#91
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Suppose the hunter is at $B_{n-1}$ while the rabbit has just moved to $A_n$. If the tracking device reports $P_n$, then consider $A'_n$ which is the reflection of $A_n$ across $B_{n-1}P_n$. Let $B'_n$ be on $B_{n-1}P_n$ such that $B_{n-1}B'_n=1$. If the hunter goes to a point $B_n$ that strays from the direction of $B_{n-1}P_n$ then either $B_nA_n$ or $B_nA'_n$ will be greater than $B'_nA_n$, which is equal to $B'_nA'_n$. Since the hunter cannot determine whether the rabbit is at $A_n$ or $A'_n$, she guarantees the least distance if she goes directly towards $P_n$.

We can use this fact to continuously lead the hunter along a straight line $\ell$, initially containing both the hunter and the rabbit, while the rabbit strays further and further away $\ell$. As long as our tracker continues to report points on $\ell$, the hunter must go along $\ell$. Let $k$ be any number. Suppose in a single move, we move the rabbit away from $\ell$ by $\tfrac{\sqrt{k^2-1}}{k}$ and along $\ell$, but away from the hunter. Any time over the first $k$ moves, the rabbit's distance to $\ell$ is at most $1$ so the tracking device can always find a point on $\ell$ to report.

Let the distance to the hunter initially be $d$. Then, after $k$ moves of this sort, the distance will be
\[\sqrt{((d-k)+\sqrt{k^2-1})^2+1}=\sqrt{d^2+2(k-d)(k-\sqrt{k^2-1})}=\sqrt{d^2+\frac{2(k-d)}{k+\sqrt{k^2-1}}}\]After the first move, the hunter cannot guarantee being less than distance of $2$. After $k$ moves, the hunter cannot guarantee being within a distance of $\sqrt{d^2+\tfrac{k-d}{k}}$. It is evident that if the distance ever becomes greater than $100$ then the rabbit can simply run directly away from the hunter and the hunter will never be able to catch up. Therefore, if the hunter wants to ensure she is at most $100$ away from the rabbit at the end, she must ensure that she is always within $100$ away. Suppose she can do this. Then we can set $k=200$. After $200$ moves, the hunter cannot guarantee being within distance
\[\sqrt{d^2+\frac{1}{2}}\]of the rabbit. Thus, after $4000000=4\cdot 10^6$ moves, the hunter cannot guarantee being within distance
\[\sqrt{d^2+10000}>100\]which is a contradiction! Thus, the hunter cannot guarantee.
This post has been edited 2 times. Last edited by awesomeming327., Dec 25, 2023, 2:46 PM
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