User:Cxsmi
About Me
Hi! I'm just another guy who happens to enjoy math. I often pop onto the AOPS wiki and look for problems to solve, and I sometimes even write solutions for them! I've starred ⭐ a few of my favorite solutions below; please feel free to take a look at any of them. Thanks for visiting my user page, and enjoy your stay!
Solutions
AIME
AMC 8
- 2012 AMC 8 Problem 19 Solution 6 ⭐
- 2002 AMC 8 Problem 17 Solution 3
- 2007 AMC 8 Problem 20 Solution 8
- 2018 AMC 8 Problem 23 Solution 5 ⭐
- 2016 AMC 8 Problem 13 Solution 3
- 2017 AMC 8 Problem 9 Solution 2
- 2012 AMC 8 Problem 20 Solution 7 ⭐
- 2010 AMC 8 Problem 25 Solution 3
AJHSME
- 1997 AJHSME Problem 22 Solution 1
- 1985 AJHSME Problem 1 Solution 2
- 1985 AJHSME Problem 24 Solution 2 ⭐
- 1985 AJHSME Problem 2 Solution 5
AHSME
- 1950 AHSME Problem 40 Solution 2
- 1950 AHSME Problem 41 Solution 2
- 1972 AHSME Problem 16 Solution 2 ⭐
- 1950 AHSME Problem 45 Solution 3
AMC 12
Significant Problems
Here are some problems that, to me, have been significant on my math journey. This section is mainly for myself, but please please feel free to look at the problems if you're interested. Any referenced "difficulties" are from this page.
- 2017 AMC 10A Problem 19 - First AMC 10 Solution of Difficulty 2 or Higher
- 2007 AMC 8 Problem 25 - First AMC 8 Final Five Solution
- 1984 AIME Problem 1 - First AIME Solution
- 2005 AMC 12B Problem 16 - First AMC 12 Solution of Difficulty 2.5 or Higher
- 2016 AMC 10A Problem 21 - First AMC 10 Final Five Solution
- 1987 AIME Problem 11 - First AIME Solution of Difficulty 4 or Higher; First AIME Solution of Difficulty 5 or Higher
- 2017 AMC 12A Problem 23 - First AMC 12 Final Five Solution
- 2009 HMMT February Algebra Problem 1 - First February HMMT Solution
- 2001 AIME I Problem 14 - First AIME Solution of Difficulty 6 or Higher
Some Problems I Wrote
I enjoy writing problems when I see concepts that interest me. I've written a few below; please feel free to solve them! Also, feel free to add solutions or change any mistakes you see. The questions should all be roughly low to mid-AIME difficulty; however, I am not a very good judge of difficulty, so they may be easier or harder than they should be. All problems have integer answers with values between and , just like in the AIME.
Problem 1
Find the least positive integer that satisfies the following. The notation represents the greatest integer less than or equal to .
Problem 2
Bob has received a test. He must match a list of words to a list of definitions such that each word matches to exactly one definition and vice versa. He does not know these words, so he will guess randomly. If he does so, he will expect to get matches. Find the remainder when is divided by .
Problem 3
A sequence is defined recursively as and
for . The value of can be written in the form for positive integers and such that is maximized. What is the remainder when is divided by ?
Problem 4
A simple pentagon is created by connecting the points at which a square circumscribed around the incircle of an isosceles right triangle with leg length intersects itself. The perimeter of this pentagon is expressible as , where , , and are integers, and is not divisible by the square of any prime. What is the remainder when is divided by ? Note that a simple polygon is a non-self-intersecting polygon.
Hints
These hints will suggest topics that are relevant to my solutions to these problems. If you get stuck, try thinking along the routes of these concepts.
Problem 1
Remainders
Problem 2
Recursion
Problem 3
Telescoping
Problem 4
Coordinate Bashing
Solutions
These are solutions for the problems above.
Problem 1 Solutions
Solution 1
We split the condition into two separate conditions, as listed below.
Rearranging the conditions, we find that
Recalling that where represents the fractional part of , we rewrite once more.
We now gain some valuable insight. From , we find that must divide . From , we find that cannot divide both and . It is impossible for to divide only of and , as this would make false. It must be that divides neither nor . For both this and to be true simultaneously, we must have that if , then . By inspection, this occurs when .We now test the factors of to see if we can find a smaller value. As both and are congruent to mod , is not a valid solution. However, with , , while . Clearly, , so our final answer is .
Problem 2 Solutions
Solution 1 (Meta-Solving)
We can consider smaller cases. If there is object to match, Bob will always make exactly correct match, so he will expect to make match. If there are objects, Bob can either match both correctly for a total of matches or match both incorrectly for a total of matches. Each of these has a chance of happening, so again Bob will expect to make match. If there are objects, we can list out each combination. Suppose we are matching to itself, and the "solution" is the set of ordered pairs . The possibilities are listed below:
(3 correct matches)
(1 correct match)
(1 correct match)
(1 correct match)
(0 correct matches)
(0 correct matches)
The expected value is . The expected value has remained at 1 for the first three cases, so we can safely assume that it will remain at for any positive integer number of items to match. Then Bob can expect to make match, and the remainder when this is divided by is .
Note: This is indeed the correct answer, and it can be found more rigorously. Maybe that solution will come in the future :)
Problem 3 Solutions
Solution 1
First, we note the statements below.
We notice that most of the terms telescope if we subtract from .
By adding to both sides, we find that . We can verify by finding ; from the original definition, we find that , and . From our definition, we find that . Of course, this doesn't guarantee that our definition is indeed correct, but it gives us additional verification to our algebraic method. From here, we can consider . We note that for all , the second part of our definition (the term) is equal to one. From here, we can list out a few definitions for using our formula.
It appears that on the interval , . ( is the lower bound because if we tried to calculate using our alternate definition, we'd get , and is undefined.) Clearly, to maximize (to maximize in the problem), we choose the lower bound. Then we get , so . The remainder when this is divided by is .
Problem 4 Solutions
We can use coordinate bashing. We may assume the legs of the triangle have side length for ease of computation, and we can multiply by on our final answer to get our result. We place at the origin; in this case, has coordinates , has coordinates , and has coordinates . Then line segment is on the line that has slope and -intercept , so the line's equation is . Using the formula for the coordinates of the incenter of a triangle, we find that the incenter of this triangle is at or . Using the distance formula on and or noting that is a triangle, we find that the length of is . The area of is , and its semiperimeter is . Since or , the inradius of is . Also, because the side length of the square circumscribed around is equal to the length of the diameter of the incircle of , the square has side length . From here, we can find that the vertices of the square are, starting at the bottom left and going clockwise, , , , and . We label the top-right vertex of the square as , the leftmost of the two intersection points of the square with the triangle as , and the other intersection point as . is directly above , so they must share an x-coordinate. Since lies on the line , we take to find that has coordinates or . Using similar logic, has coordinates . The distance from to is just the positive difference in their y-coordinates, which is . Similarly, the distance from to is the same. Since is an isosceles right triangle, the length of is times the length of one of the legs, which happens to be . The perimeter of the pentagon is equal to the perimeter of the square minus the lengths of and plus the length of , which is . We multiply this by to scale the triangle to a side length of , resulting in a perimeter of . Since , , and , , and the remainder when this is divided by is .