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k a May Highlights and 2025 AoPS Online Class Information
jlacosta   0
May 1, 2025
May is an exciting month! National MATHCOUNTS is the second week of May in Washington D.C. and our Founder, Richard Rusczyk will be presenting a seminar, Preparing Strong Math Students for College and Careers, on May 11th.

Are you interested in working towards MATHCOUNTS and don’t know where to start? We have you covered! If you have taken Prealgebra, then you are ready for MATHCOUNTS/AMC 8 Basics. Already aiming for State or National MATHCOUNTS and harder AMC 8 problems? Then our MATHCOUNTS/AMC 8 Advanced course is for you.

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[*]May 21st, 4:00pm PT/7:00pm ET, Mathcamp 2025 Qualifying Quiz Part 2 Math Jam, Problems 5 and 6, Canada/USA Mathcamp staff will discuss solutions to Problems 5 and 6 of the 2025 Mathcamp Qualifying Quiz![/list]
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0 replies
jlacosta
May 1, 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
Cauchy like Functional Equation
ZETA_in_olympiad   3
N a minute ago by jasperE3
Find all functions $f:\bf R^{\geq 0}\to R$ such that $$f(x^2)+f(y^2)=f\left (\dfrac{x^2y^2-2xy+1}{x^2+2xy+y^2}\right)$$for all $x,y>0$ and $xy>1.$
3 replies
ZETA_in_olympiad
Aug 20, 2022
jasperE3
a minute ago
special polynomials and probability
harazi   12
N 6 minutes ago by MathLuis
Source: USA TST 2005, Problem 3, created by Harazi and Titu
We choose random a unitary polynomial of degree $n$ and coefficients in the set $1,2,...,n!$. Prove that the probability for this polynomial to be special is between $0.71$ and $0.75$, where a polynomial $g$ is called special if for every $k>1$ in the sequence $f(1), f(2), f(3),...$ there are infinitely many numbers relatively prime with $k$.
12 replies
harazi
Jul 14, 2005
MathLuis
6 minutes ago
Hard to approach it !
BogG   131
N an hour ago by Giant_PT
Source: Swiss Imo Selection 2006
Let $\triangle ABC$ be an acute-angled triangle with $AB \not= AC$. Let $H$ be the orthocenter of triangle $ABC$, and let $M$ be the midpoint of the side $BC$. Let $D$ be a point on the side $AB$ and $E$ a point on the side $AC$ such that $AE=AD$ and the points $D$, $H$, $E$ are on the same line. Prove that the line $HM$ is perpendicular to the common chord of the circumscribed circles of triangle $\triangle ABC$ and triangle $\triangle ADE$.
131 replies
BogG
May 25, 2006
Giant_PT
an hour ago
Inspired by lbh_qys.
sqing   1
N an hour ago by sqing
Source: Own
Let $ a,b>0   $ . Prove that
$$ \frac{a}{a^2+a +b+1}+ \frac{b}{b^2+a +b+1}  \leq  \frac{1}{2} $$$$ \frac{a}{a^2+ab+a+b+1}+ \frac{b}{b^2+ab+a+b+1} \leq   \sqrt 2-1  $$$$\frac{a}{a^2+ab+a+1}+ \frac{b}{b^2+ab+b+1} \leq  \frac{2(2\sqrt 2-1)}{7} $$$$\frac{a}{a^2+ab+b+1}+ \frac{b}{b^2+ab+a+1} \leq  \frac{2(2\sqrt 2-1)}{7} $$
1 reply
sqing
2 hours ago
sqing
an hour ago
3-var inequality
sqing   2
N 2 hours ago by sqing
Source: Own
Let $ a,b,c>0 $ and $\frac{1}{a+1}+ \frac{1}{b+1}+\frac{1}{c+1}   \geq \frac{a+b +c}{2}   $ . Prove that
$$ \frac{1}{a+2}+ \frac{1}{b+2} + \frac{1}{c+2}\geq1$$
2 replies
sqing
2 hours ago
sqing
2 hours ago
2-var inequality
sqing   4
N 2 hours ago by sqing
Source: Own
Let $ a,b>0   $ . Prove that
$$\frac{a}{a^2+b+1}+ \frac{b}{b^2+a+1} \leq  \frac{2}{3} $$Thank lbh_qys.
4 replies
sqing
3 hours ago
sqing
2 hours ago
Combinatorics from EGMO 2018
BarishNamazov   27
N 2 hours ago by HamstPan38825
Source: EGMO 2018 P3
The $n$ contestant of EGMO are named $C_1, C_2, \cdots C_n$. After the competition, they queue in front of the restaurant according to the following rules.
[list]
[*]The Jury chooses the initial order of the contestants in the queue.
[*]Every minute, the Jury chooses an integer $i$ with $1 \leq i \leq n$.
[list]
[*]If contestant $C_i$ has at least $i$ other contestants in front of her, she pays one euro to the Jury and moves forward in the queue by exactly $i$ positions.
[*]If contestant $C_i$ has fewer than $i$ other contestants in front of her, the restaurant opens and process ends.
[/list]
[/list]
[list=a]
[*]Prove that the process cannot continue indefinitely, regardless of the Jury’s choices.
[*]Determine for every $n$ the maximum number of euros that the Jury can collect by cunningly choosing the initial order and the sequence of moves.
[/list]
27 replies
BarishNamazov
Apr 11, 2018
HamstPan38825
2 hours ago
Do you have any idea why they all call their problems' characters "Mykhailo"???
mshtand1   1
N 2 hours ago by sarjinius
Source: Ukrainian Mathematical Olympiad 2025. Day 2, Problem 10.7
In a row, $1000$ numbers \(2\) and $2000$ numbers \(-1\) are written in some order.
Mykhailo counted the number of groups of adjacent numbers, consisting of at least two numbers, whose sum equals \(0\).
(a) Find the smallest possible value of this number.
(b) Find the largest possible value of this number.

Proposed by Anton Trygub
1 reply
mshtand1
Mar 14, 2025
sarjinius
2 hours ago
Polynomial divisible by x^2+1
Miquel-point   2
N 3 hours ago by lksb
Source: Romanian IMO TST 1981, P1 Day 1
Consider the polynomial $P(X)=X^{p-1}+X^{p-2}+\ldots+X+1$, where $p>2$ is a prime number. Show that if $n$ is an even number, then the polynomial \[-1+\prod_{k=0}^{n-1} P\left(X^{p^k}\right)\]is divisible by $X^2+1$.

Mircea Becheanu
2 replies
Miquel-point
Apr 6, 2025
lksb
3 hours ago
D1030 : An inequalitie
Dattier   1
N 3 hours ago by lbh_qys
Source: les dattes à Dattier
Let $0<a<b<c<d$ reals, and $n \in \mathbb N^*$.

Is it true that $a^n(b-a)+b^n(c-b)+c^n(d-c) \leq \dfrac {d^{n+1}}{n+1}$ ?
1 reply
Dattier
Yesterday at 7:17 PM
lbh_qys
3 hours ago
IGO 2021 P1
SPHS1234   14
N 4 hours ago by LeYohan
Source: igo 2021 intermediate p1
Let $ABC$ be a triangle with $AB = AC$. Let $H$ be the orthocenter of $ABC$. Point
$E$ is the midpoint of $AC$ and point $D$ lies on the side $BC$ such that $3CD = BC$. Prove that
$BE \perp HD$.

Proposed by Tran Quang Hung - Vietnam
14 replies
SPHS1234
Dec 30, 2021
LeYohan
4 hours ago
Nationalist Combo
blacksheep2003   16
N 4 hours ago by Martin2001
Source: USEMO 2019 Problem 5
Let $\mathcal{P}$ be a regular polygon, and let $\mathcal{V}$ be its set of vertices. Each point in $\mathcal{V}$ is colored red, white, or blue. A subset of $\mathcal{V}$ is patriotic if it contains an equal number of points of each color, and a side of $\mathcal{P}$ is dazzling if its endpoints are of different colors.

Suppose that $\mathcal{V}$ is patriotic and the number of dazzling edges of $\mathcal{P}$ is even. Prove that there exists a line, not passing through any point in $\mathcal{V}$, dividing $\mathcal{V}$ into two nonempty patriotic subsets.

Ankan Bhattacharya
16 replies
blacksheep2003
May 24, 2020
Martin2001
4 hours ago
subsets of {1,2,...,mn}
N.T.TUAN   10
N 4 hours ago by de-Kirschbaum
Source: USA TST 2005, Problem 1
Let $n$ be an integer greater than $1$. For a positive integer $m$, let $S_{m}= \{ 1,2,\ldots, mn\}$. Suppose that there exists a $2n$-element set $T$ such that
(a) each element of $T$ is an $m$-element subset of $S_{m}$;
(b) each pair of elements of $T$ shares at most one common element;
and
(c) each element of $S_{m}$ is contained in exactly two elements of $T$.

Determine the maximum possible value of $m$ in terms of $n$.
10 replies
N.T.TUAN
May 14, 2007
de-Kirschbaum
4 hours ago
Sum and product of digits
Sadigly   4
N 4 hours ago by jasperE3
Source: Azerbaijan NMO 2018
For a positive integer $n$, define $f(n)=n+P(n)$ and $g(n)=n\cdot S(n)$, where $P(n)$ and $S(n)$ denote the product and sum of the digits of $n$, respectively. Find all solutions to $f(n)=g(n)$
4 replies
Sadigly
Sunday at 9:19 PM
jasperE3
4 hours ago
IMO Shortlist 2009 - Problem C1
April   64
N Feb 11, 2025 by megahertz13
Consider $2009$ cards, each having one gold side and one black side, lying on parallel on a long table. Initially all cards show their gold sides. Two player, standing by the same long side of the table, play a game with alternating moves. Each move consists of choosing a block of $50$ consecutive cards, the leftmost of which is showing gold, and turning them all over, so those which showed gold now show black and vice versa. The last player who can make a legal move wins.
(a) Does the game necessarily end?
(b) Does there exist a winning strategy for the starting player?

Proposed by Michael Albert, Richard Guy, New Zealand
64 replies
April
Jul 5, 2010
megahertz13
Feb 11, 2025
IMO Shortlist 2009 - Problem C1
G H J
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bobthegod78
2982 posts
#53
Y by
Denote the sequence in binary, with $1$ representing a gold card and $0$ representing a black card. Now any move decreases this number, so it eventually must get to a point where no moves are available.
b) Consider the cards at position $50k+10$ for $0\leq k \leq 39$. The game stops when the first $1960$ cards are black. Each move changes one of these cards from gold to black or black to gold. We need them to change an even number of times, so there were an even number of moves. This means player 2 had to win.
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pikapika007
298 posts
#54
Y by
a) Consider the cards as a binary number, with $1$ gold and $0$ black. A move must decrease the value of this number, but it cannot keep decreasing forever, hence the game must end.

b) No; we show that the first player will always lose the game. Consider the cards $10, 60, \cdots, 1960$. On each turn, exactly one card has its status changed, but there are an even number of cards, hence there have to be an even number of turns before all these cards are changed from gold to black. This means that player 2 must win.
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huashiliao2020
1292 posts
#55
Y by
pronouns are used WLOG.

The answer to a and b is that it must always end and player 2 will always win. For a), let each of the cards represent their respective place in a digit of the binary number with 2009 digits, with 1 as gold and 0 as black; it's obvious that each time the number strictly decreases.
For b), we look at the 10th, 60th, ..., 1960th cards; exactly one of the 40 must be flipped each turn; in particular, since there are 40 cards, the 2nd player gets the 40th ``removal" of the card. Then, if the 10th card is left, the second player takes the first card which leaves no gold cards, so he wins. On the other hand, if some other card is left, he takes that one and finishes, since by size reasons we know the union of them have all been covered. $\blacksquare$
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Nguyen
54 posts
#56 • 1 Y
Y by channing421
Well let me say the more essential thing.

The winner is fixed even if the "block" is not a cluster of consecutive cards, as long as it has a fixed "pattern", for example, the cards are numbered from right to left 0, 1, 2, ..., each player can choose an integer N and flip the cards numbered N, N+2, N+5 if the card N+5 has gold side up.

This is just polynomial division with coefficients in Z[2]. In this case the divisor is x^5+x^2+1.
After each move, the remainder polynomial remains unchanged, but the amount of coefficients that are 1 in quotient polynomial changes by 1. So the parity of the amount of 1's in the quotient polynomial determines the winner.
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dolphinday
1326 posts
#57
Y by
($a$)
Yes, the game does end eventually.
We can encode the cards in binary by interpreting gold cards as $1$ and black as $0$(reading left to right). Notice that each legal move decreases the value of the binary interpretation of the current configuration, so we must get to a binary value of $0$ which corresponds to all $2009$ cards being black.
($b$). Consider cards in positions $10$, $60$, $110$, $\dots$, $1960$. Any valid move swaps the color of exactly one of these cards. Since each move changes the number of gold cards in this collection of $40$ cards by $1$, and the second player must have an even number of cards on the turn they lose, this is impossible since by parity the number of gold cards at the beginning of the second player's turn is odd. (hopefully this is correct now)
previous error
This post has been edited 3 times. Last edited by dolphinday, May 16, 2024, 1:42 PM
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scannose
1015 posts
#58
Y by
(a) Yes. Consider the binary number $a_1 a_2 \dots a_{2009}$ in which $a_i$ is $1$ if the $i$th card from left to right is gold, and $0$ otherwise. It is easy to observe that every move causes this binary number to decrease; as a result, at most $2^{2009} - 1$ valid moves are possible.
(b) No; in fact, the starting player loses even if the second player plays randomly. Consider the cards $a_{10}, a_{60}, \dots, a_{1960}$. We note that every move flips exactly one of these cards, and there is always a valid move if at least one of these cards are facing up, or that there is no longer a valid move only when (though not always when) none of these cards are still facing up. Combined with the fact that the game always reaches an end, since there are $40$ such cards, the game only ends when the second player finishes their move.

@above consider a position where there are only 49 cards; the first player obviously loses, but the 24th/34th card still exists.
This post has been edited 3 times. Last edited by scannose, May 16, 2024, 3:20 AM
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dolphinday
1326 posts
#59
Y by
scannose wrote:
@above consider a position where there are only 49 cards; the first player obviously loses, but the 24th/34th card still exists.
thanks, i think i fixed it and figured out my error
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Sagthenik
7 posts
#60
Y by
For the first mark gold as 1 and black cards as 0 then you would see that the value of binary decreases so we can comment that at some point the game would obviously end leading to all cards as black
And for second part consider the cards 10,60,110.....1960 and when the moves reach 1960th card then the game would stop and for even turns it would lead to the winning condition for the second player
Hence irrespective of the winning strategy the second player is always going to win
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blueprimes
355 posts
#61
Y by
Wow, binary is so clever :blush:

Number the cards $1, 2, \dots, n$ from left to right.

(a) Let there be $n \ge 50$ cards, we will prove a stronger statement: That any row of $n$ cards, gold or black face showing, the game must terminate. We induct on $n$, clearly the $n = 50$ case is resolved as the first card must be black at some point. Now assume the claim is true for $n = k$, we will prove for $n = k + 1$. Clearly if the first card is black, the problem reduces to the $n = k$ case. Assume it is gold instead. For the sake of contradiction, assume it is possible that the game continues forever. Then we never change the block of $50$ consecutive cards starting with card $1$ as then it reduces to the $n = k$ problem. But this implies the game continues forever with the cards $2, 3, \dots, k + 1$, which is a contradiction of the $n = k$ problem as well. Hence, the induction is complete and the claim holds. Now $n = 2009$ and all cards gold finishes.

(b) Consider the original problem. We claim the second player always wins. Let $K$ denote the number of cards out of $10, 60, 110, \dots, 2010$ that are gold at any state. Note that if the game ends we have $K=0$. At the beginning of the game, we have $K = 40$. Now any move changes exactly one of the cards mentioned above, so $K$ toggles parity every move. Then clearly the second player wins no matter what moves they make, and we are done.
This post has been edited 1 time. Last edited by blueprimes, Jun 9, 2024, 8:16 PM
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alba_tross1867
44 posts
#62
Y by
Falls easily by induction, but a better idea might be to consider the binary string of $1$ and $0$ ( resp. $1$ for gold $0$ for black ) and the decimal equivalent keeps on decreasing so the game ends of course. Another idea to induct on gold cards and when they turn black.
Second part comes from considering blocks of $50$ cards starting from the right-most one, and considering the first card of each block as representing card and keeping the count of gold representing cards which changes parity everytime which follows a winning strategy for second player.
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ezpotd
1272 posts
#63
Y by
a) Yes, use the standard binary weighting trick, clearly we are always decreasing in value and done.

b) No, the second player always wins. Consider the number of moves that have leftmost cards 50-99 (where cards are in decreasing order from left to right), then the number of moves that have leftmost cards 100-149, so and so forth. Clearly each of these numbers is just the exactly number of moves that affect cards 50, 100, and so on. Each of these must be odd (since we end on all black cards for 50, 100, etc), so summing this quantity for all multiples of 50 grants an even number, so there are an even number of moves total and thus the second player wins.
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eg4334
637 posts
#64 • 1 Y
Y by internationalnick123456
Considering numbering the cards from left to right as $2008, 2007, \dots 1, 0$.

a) Letting card $n$ have value $2^n$ if it is gold and $0$ if it is not, we can see that the sum of the values of the cards is strictly decreasing after every move. Done.

b) Consider all cards numbered $49 \pmod{50}$. Every move must turn exactly one of these over, and in order for there to be no moves remaining they all must become black. (If any are gold, simply move the fifty to the right starting with that one). But by parity reasons it is impossible for all of them to become black after the first persons turn. Done.
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DakshAggarwalRedsurgance
10 posts
#65
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JustKeepRunning wrote:
Just a quick note: I am pretty sure @daniel73’s sol is incorrect for part (a) because for his induction, he only showed that it doesn’t work in the configuration where they all start as golden numbers, while when he inducts upwards, he assumes it hold for all possible configurations of $n-1$ numbers, regardless of whether they are all gold or not. This issue can either be resolved using the strictly decreasing argument, or another way to fix it is to use the following:

Call a card “used” if it serves as the first card in one of the moves. Suppose that the first card is (ever) used. Then this means that the first card can never be used again, so we can effectively ignore it and reduce the problem to the other $2008$ cards. Otherwise, if it is not used, the problem also reduces to the remaining $2008$ cards. Notice that we can make this choice at the $2,3,\cdots, 1969$ cards(numbers interpreted as cardinality here), and after that, we are left with only $50$ cards, which is obviously not possible. Notice that even if there are gold cards remaining in the first $1969$ cards, they cannot be used, because in that specific case we “chose” not to use them. Therefore, the game ends.

Can someone make sure my argument acutally works because none of the other posts in the thread seem to use my approach?

This proof is correct iff you remember to mention that you are not inducting on all the winning states but rather on all game states which would most likely turn into a task in itself so rather you could just use the induction technique to proof for bijection between winning states and loosing states
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Maximilian113
575 posts
#66
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a) Let the $n$th card from the right have value $2^n$ if it is gold and $0$ otherwise. Note that the sum of the values of the cards will then be strictly decreasing, but this sum of always positive, so the game will eventually terminate.

b) Now, consider the cards $50, 100, \cdots, 2000$ (from left to right). Clearly every move alters the state of exactly one of these cards. There are $40$ of these cards, so by parity no matter what the second player can always find a move. Therefore since the game terminates eventually the first player will lose. QED
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megahertz13
3183 posts
#67
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(a) Interpret the cards as a binary number, where black translates into $0$ and gold translates into $1$. Since the number formed is strictly decreasing, we are done.

(b) Assume FTSoC that the starting player has a winning strategy. Consider the cards at positions $50k+1$ for $k\in \{0,1,\dots,39\}$. Notice that the number of these cards that are gold starts at $40$, and it also changes by exactly $1$ every move (since exactly one of these cards is flipped every move). Therefore, after the starting player moves, there are an odd number of these cards (at least one), which the second player can flip. Since the game ends and the starting player cannot win, the second player wins.
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