Problems from the 1976 USAMO.

Problem 1

$[asy] void fillsq(int x, int y){ fill((x,y)--(x+1,y)--(x+1,y+1)--(x,y+1)--cycle, mediumgray); } int i; fillsq(1,0);fillsq(4,0);fillsq(6,0); fillsq(0,1);fillsq(1,1);fillsq(2,1);fillsq(4,1);fillsq(5,1); fillsq(0,2);fillsq(2,2);fillsq(4,2); fillsq(0,3);fillsq(1,3);fillsq(4,3);fillsq(5,3); for(i=0; i<=7; ++i){draw((i,0)--(i,4),black+0.5);} for(i=0; i<=4; ++i){draw((0,i)--(7,i),black+0.5);} draw((3,1)--(3,3)--(7,3)--(7,1)--cycle,black+1); [/asy]$

(a) Suppose that each square of a $4\times 7$ chessboard, as shown above, is colored either black or white. Prove that with any such coloring, the board must contain a rectangle (formed by the horizontal and vertical lines of the board such as the one outlined in the figure) whose four distinct unit corner squares are all of the same color.
(b) Exhibit a black-white coloring of a $4\times 6$ board in which the four corner squares of every rectangle, as described above, are not all of the same color.

Solution

Problem 2

If $A$ and $B$ are fixed points on a given circle and $XY$ is a variable diameter of the same circle, determine the locus of the point of intersection of lines $AX$ and $BY$ . You may assume that $AB$ is not a diameter.

$[asy] size(300); defaultpen(fontsize(8)); real r=10; picture pica, picb; pair A=r*expi(5*pi/6), B=r*expi(pi/6), X=r*expi(pi/3), X1=r*expi(-pi/12), Y=r*expi(4*pi/3), Y1=r*expi(11*pi/12), O=(0,0), P, P1; P = extension(A,X,B,Y);P1 = extension(A,X1,B,Y1); path circ1 = Circle((0,0),r); draw(pica, circ1);draw(pica, B--A--P--Y--X);dot(pica,P^^O); label(pica,"$A$",A,(-1,1));label(pica,"$B$",B,(1,0));label(pica,"$X$",X,(0,1));label(pica,"$Y$",Y,(0,-1));label(pica,"$P$",P,(1,1));label(pica,"$O$",O,(-1,1));label(pica,"(a)",O+(0,-13),(0,0)); draw(picb, circ1);draw(picb, B--A--X1--Y1--B);dot(picb,P1^^O); label(picb,"$A$",A,(-1,1));label(picb,"$B$",B,(1,1));label(picb,"$X$",X1,(1,-1));label(picb,"$Y$",Y1,(-1,0));label(picb,"$P'$",P1,(-1,-1));label(picb,"$O$",O,(-1,-1)); label(picb,"(b)",O+(0,-13),(0,0)); add(pica); add(shift(30*right)*picb); [/asy]$

Solution

Problem 3

Determine all integral solutions of $a^2+b^2+c^2=a^2b^2$ .

Solution

Problem 4

If the sum of the lengths of the six edges of a trirectangular tetrahedron $PABC$ (i.e., $\angle APB=\angle BPC=\angle CPA=90^o$ ) is $S$ , determine its maximum volume.

Solution

Problem 5

If $P(x)$ , $Q(x)$ , $R(x)$ , and $S(x)$ are all polynomials such that $P(x^5) + xQ(x^5) + x^2 R(x^5) = (x^4 + x^3 + x^2 + x +1) S(x),$ prove that $x-1$ is a factor of $P(x)$ .

Solution

1976 USAMO (Problems • Resources)
Preceded by 1975 USAMO	Followed by 1977 USAMO
1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5
All USAMO Problems and Solutions

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1976 USAMO Problems

Contents

Problem 1

Problem 2

Problem 3

Problem 4

Problem 5

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