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Contests & Programs AMC and other contests, summer programs, etc.
AMC and other contests, summer programs, etc.
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Contests & Programs AMC and other contests, summer programs, etc.
AMC and other contests, summer programs, etc.
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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.

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0 replies
jlacosta
Mar 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
0 on jmo
Rong0625   42
N 7 minutes ago by llddmmtt1
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?
42 replies
Rong0625
Yesterday at 12:14 PM
llddmmtt1
7 minutes ago
funny title placeholder
pikapika007   50
N 8 minutes ago by llddmmtt1
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.
50 replies
+1 w
pikapika007
Yesterday at 12:10 PM
llddmmtt1
8 minutes ago
Day Before Tips
elasticwealth   74
N 27 minutes ago by awesometriangles
Hi Everyone,

USA(J)MO is tomorrow. I am a Junior, so this is my last chance. I made USAMO by ZERO points but I've actually been studying oly seriously since JMO last year. I am more stressed than I was before AMC/AIME because I feel Olympiad is more unpredictable and harder to prepare for. I am fairly confident in my ability to solve 1/4 but whether I can solve the rest really leans on the topic distribution.

Anyway, I'm just super stressed and not sure what to do. All tips are welcome!

Thanks everyone! Good luck tomorrow!
74 replies
1 viewing
elasticwealth
Mar 19, 2025
awesometriangles
27 minutes ago
Dealing with Multiple Circles
Wildabandon   3
N an hour ago by Wildabandon
Source: PEMNAS Brawijaya University Senior High School Semifinal 2023 P4
A non-isosceles triangle $ABC$ and $\ell$ is tangent to the circumcircle of triangle $ABC$ through point $C$. Points $D$ and $E$ are the midpoints of segments $BC$ and $CA$ respectively, then line $AD$ and line $BE$ intersect $\ell$ at points $A_1$ and $B_1$ respectively. Line $AB_1$ and line $BA_1$ intersect the circumcircle of triangle $ABC$ at points $X$ and $Y$ respectively. Prove that $X$, $Y$, $D$ and $E$ concyclic.
3 replies
Wildabandon
Dec 1, 2024
Wildabandon
an hour ago
help title
nguyenvana   0
an hour ago
Source: no from book
An and Binh play a game on a square board of size (2n+1)x(2n+1) with An going first. Initially, all the squares on the board are white. In each turn, An colors a white square blue and Binh colors a white square red. The game ends after both players have colored all the squares on the board. An wins if, for any two blue squares, there exists at least one chain of neighboring blue squares connecting them (two squares are called neighboring if they have at least one vertex in common). Otherwise, Binh wins. Determine the player with the winning strategy in the following cases:
a) with n=1
b) with n>=2
0 replies
nguyenvana
an hour ago
0 replies
funny title
nguyenvana   0
an hour ago
Source: no from book
Find all the functions f: R+ to R+ which satisfy the functional equation:
f(2f(x)+f(y)+xy)=xy+2x+y (x,y R+)
0 replies
nguyenvana
an hour ago
0 replies
2018 VNTST Problem 1
gausskarl   6
N an hour ago by cursed_tangent1434
Source: 2018 Vietnam Team Selection Test
Let $ABC$ be a acute, non-isosceles triangle. $D,\ E,\ F$ are the midpoints of sides $AB,\ BC,\ AC$, resp. Denote by $(O),\ (O')$ the circumcircle and Euler circle of $ABC$. An arbitrary point $P$ lies inside triangle $DEF$ and $DP,\ EP,\ FP$ intersect $(O')$ at $D',\ E',\ F'$, resp. Point $A'$ is the point such that $D'$ is the midpoint of $AA'$. Points $B',\ C'$ are defined similarly.
a. Prove that if $PO=PO'$ then $O\in(A'B'C')$;
b. Point $A'$ is mirrored by $OD$, its image is $X$. $Y,\ Z$ are created in the same manner. $H$ is the orthocenter of $ABC$ and $XH,\ YH,\ ZH$ intersect $BC, AC, AB$ at $M,\ N,\ L$ resp. Prove that $M,\ N,\ L$ are collinear.
6 replies
gausskarl
Mar 30, 2018
cursed_tangent1434
an hour ago
Tennessee Math Tournament (TMT) Online 2025
TennesseeMathTournament   36
N an hour ago by Cerberusman
Hello everyone! We are excited to announce a new competition, the Tennessee Math Tournament, created by the Tennessee Math Coalition! Anyone can participate in the virtual competition for free.

The testing window is from March 22nd to April 5th, 2025. Virtual competitors may participate in the competition at any time during that window.

The virtual competition consists of three rounds: Individual, Bullet, and Team. The Individual Round is 60 minutes long and consists of 30 questions (AMC 10 level). The Bullet Round is 20 minutes long and consists of 80 questions (Mathcounts Chapter level). The Team Round is 30 minutes long and consists of 16 questions (AMC 12 level). Virtual competitors may compete in teams of four, or choose to not participate in the team round.

To register and see more information, click here!

If you have any questions, please email connect@tnmathcoalition.org or reply to this thread!

Thank you to our lead sponsor, Jane Street!

IMAGE
36 replies
TennesseeMathTournament
Mar 9, 2025
Cerberusman
an hour ago
Inspired by m4thbl3nd3r
sqing   0
an hour ago
Source: Own
Let $ a,b,c\geq 0 $ and $a+b+c=3$. Prove that$$a^3b+b^3c+c^3a+\frac{1419}{256}abc\le\frac{2187}{256}$$Equality holds when $ a=b=c=1 $ or $ a=0,b=\frac{9}{4},c=\frac{3}{4} $ or $ a=\frac{3}{4} ,b=0,c=\frac{9}{4} $
or $ a=\frac{9}{4} ,b=\frac{3}{4},c=0. $
0 replies
sqing
an hour ago
0 replies
a+b+c=3 inequality
jokehim   1
N an hour ago by teomihai
Source: my problem
Problem. Given non-negative real numbers $a,b,c$ satisfying $a+b+c=3.$ Prove that $$\frac{1}{a+b+1}+\frac{1}{b+c+1}+\frac{1}{c+a+1}\le \frac{9}{ab+bc+ca+6}.$$Proposed by Phan Ngoc Chau
1 reply
jokehim
4 hours ago
teomihai
an hour ago
Interesting inequality
sqing   7
N an hour ago by SunnyEvan
Source: Own
Let $ a,b> 0$ and $ a+b=1 . $ Prove that
$$ \frac{1}{a}+\frac{1}{b}\geq \frac{4+\frac{k}{16}}{1+ ka^3b^3}$$Where $32\geq  k>0 .$
Let $ a,b> 0$ and $ a+b=1 . $ Prove that
$$ \frac{1}{a}+\frac{1}{b}\geq \frac{4+\frac{k}{64}}{1+ ka^4b^4}$$Where $\frac{256}{3}\geq  k>0 .$
$$ \frac{1}{a}+\frac{1}{b}\geq \frac{5}{1+16a^3b^3}$$$$ \frac{1}{a}+\frac{1}{b}\geq \frac{6}{1+32a^3b^3}$$$$ \frac{1}{a}+\frac{1}{b}\geq \frac{5}{1+64a^4b^4}$$$$ \frac{1}{a}+\frac{1}{b}\geq \frac{\frac{16}{3}}{1+\frac{256}{3}a^4b^4}$$
7 replies
sqing
3 hours ago
SunnyEvan
an hour ago
Is this NT?
navi_09220114   1
N an hour ago by mashumaro
Source: Malaysian IMO TST 2025 P11
Let $n$, $d$ be positive integers such that $d>\frac{n}{2}$. Suppose $a_1, a_2,\cdots,a_{d+2}$ is a sequence of integers satisfying $a_{d+1}=a_1$, $a_{d+2}=a_2$, and for all indices $1\le i_1<i_2<\cdots <i_s\le d$, $$a_{i_1}+a_{i_2}+\cdots+a_{i_s}\not\equiv 0\pmod n$$Prove that there exists $1\le i\le d$ such that $$a_{i+1}\equiv a_i \pmod n \quad \text{or} \quad a_{i+1}\equiv a_i+a_{i+2} \pmod n$$
Proposed by Yeoh Zi Song
1 reply
navi_09220114
4 hours ago
mashumaro
an hour ago
Inequality
spiderman0   1
N an hour ago by arqady
given a,b,c are positive real numbers prove that$ \frac{a^4}{a^2+ab+b^2}+ \frac{b^4}{b^2+bc+c^2}+ \frac{c^4}{c^2+ca+a^2}\ge \frac{a^3+b^3+c^3}{a+b+c}$
1 reply
spiderman0
2 hours ago
arqady
an hour ago
Cyclic ine
m4thbl3nd3r   0
2 hours ago
Let $a,b,c>0$ such that $a+b+c=3$. Prove that $$a^3b+b^3c+c^3a+9abc\le 12$$
0 replies
m4thbl3nd3r
2 hours ago
0 replies
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
Mar 20, 2025
awesomeming327.
Today at 3:25 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.
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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
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bachkieu
130 posts
#2
Y by
Is this G or C lmao
Z K Y
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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
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arfekete
246 posts
#5 • 1 Y
Y by ihatemath123
Can he fix our scores?
Z K Y
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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, Mar 20, 2025, 1:34 PM
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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. $\blacksquare$
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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
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ihatemath123
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#9
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This problem must've either been written by Gabriel Carroll or some random guy overseas
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KadenC2026
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#10
Y by
do we get points for saying alice wins for some bogus reason
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awesomeguy856
7263 posts
#11
Y by
Is ~(PQ) the only winning construction? Or at least the only trivial one?
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pomme_de_terre_
25 posts
#12 • 1 Y
Y by Mintylemon66
i didnt even fakesolve the correct answer
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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
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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, Mar 20, 2025, 2:51 PM
Reason: sdfasdfadsf
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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, Mar 20, 2025, 2:51 PM
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CyclicISLscelesTrapezoid
372 posts
#16 • 7 Y
Y by OronSH, ihatemath123, Leo.Euler, bjump, CT17, Jack_w, Pengu14
Same idea as ELMO SL 2024 C1 :)
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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, Mar 20, 2025, 3:39 PM
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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
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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).
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OronSH
1727 posts
#20
Y by
pieater314159 wrote:
Hope y'all enjoyed the problem, and that the statement wasn't too scary.

:(
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MathLuis
1460 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
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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
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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
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S.Das93
706 posts
#24
Y by
yeah but then she jut doesnt draw the line cuz she wins anyway
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Jack_w
107 posts
#25
Y by
you can’t just not draw the line :sob:
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awesomeming327.
1668 posts
#26
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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.
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