2011 USAJMO Problems

Day 1

Problem 1

Find, with proof, all positive integers $n$ for which $2^n + 12^n + 2011^n$ is a perfect square.

Problem 2

Let $a$ , $b$ , $c$ be positive real numbers such that $a^2 + b^2 + c^2 + (a + b + c)^2 \le 4$ . Prove that $\frac{ab + 1}{(a + b)^2} + \frac{bc + 1}{(b + c)^2} + \frac{ca + 1}{(c + a)^2} \ge 3.$

Solution

Problem 3

For a point $P = (a,a^2)$ in the coordinate plane, let $\ell(P)$ denote the line passing through $P$ with slope $2a$ . Consider the set of triangles with vertices of the form $P_1 = (a_1, a_1^2)$ , $P_2 = (a_2, a_2^2)$ , $P_3 = (a_3, a_3^2)$ , such that the intersections of the lines $\ell(P_1)$ , $\ell(P_2)$ , $\ell(P_3)$ form an equilateral triangle $\Delta$ . Find the locus of the center of $\Delta$ as $P_1 P_2 P_3$ ranges over all such triangles.

Solution

Day 2

Problem 4

A word is defined as any finite string of letters. A word is a palindrome if it reads the same backwards as forwards. Let a sequence of words $W_0$ , $W_1$ , $W_2$ , $\dots$ be defined as follows: $W_0 = a$ , $W_1 = b$ , and for $n \ge 2$ , $W_n$ is the word formed by writing $W_{n - 2}$ followed by $W_{n - 1}$ . Prove that for any $n \ge 1$ , the word formed by writing $W_1$ , $W_2$ , $\dots$ , $W_n$ in succession is a palindrome.

Solution

Problem 5

Points $A$ , $B$ , $C$ , $D$ , $E$ lie on a circle $\omega$ and point $P$ lies outside the circle. The given points are such that (i) lines $PB$ and $PD$ are tangent to $\omega$ , (ii) $P$ , $A$ , $C$ are collinear, and (iii) $\overline{DE} \parallel \overline{AC}$ . Prove that $\overline{BE}$ bisects $\overline{AC}$ .

Solution

Problem 6

Consider the assertion that for each positive integer $n \ge 2$ , the remainder upon dividing $2^{2^n}$ by $2^n - 1$ is a power of 4. Either prove the assertion or find (with proof) a counterexample.

Solution

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2011 USAJMO Problems

Contents

Day 1

Problem 1

Problem 2

Problem 3

Day 2

Problem 4

Problem 5

Problem 6

See Also