AHSMC Newsletter Vol. 20, No.

3 , March 15, 2011

Alberta High School Mathematics Competition Newsletter

Volume 20, Number 3 March 15, 2011 The second part of the 55th Alberta High School Mathematics Competition was written on February 2, 2011 by 67 students representing 13 schools. Here is the list of fellowship winners and top performers.

ConocoPhillips Canada Fellow, First Place:

Mariya Sardarli, Strathcona High School, Edmonton Grade 11.

Peter H. Denham Memorial Fellow, Second Place:

Hunter Spink, Western Canada High School, Calgary.

Canadian Mathematical Society Fellow, Third Place: Yaroslav Babich, Sir Winston Churchill High School, Calgary. Alberta Teachers Association Grade XI Fellows, Fourth Places:
Bai Li, Henry Wise Wood High School, Calgary, and Jason Lynch, Bishop Carroll High School, Calgary.

Alberta Teachers Association Grade X Fellow, Twelfth Place:

Ethan White, Westmount Charter School, Calgary.

Honorable Mentions:
6 7 8 Kaiven Zhou Tim He Megan Liang Julian Salazar Jerey Huang Andrew Qi Justine Zhang Jerry Chiu Chan Fan Chang Su Meng Zhao Weilian Chu Hee-Joo Nam James Lin Strathcona High School, Edmonton. Henry Wise Wood High School, Calgary. Western Canada High School, Calgary, Grade 11. Henry Wise Wood High School, Calgary, Grade 11. Western Canada High School, Calgary. Old Scona Academic High School, Edmonton. Sir Winston Churchill High School, Calgary. Henry Wise Wood High School, Calgary, Grade 11. Western Canada High School, Calgary, Grade 11. Western Canada High School, Calgary. Western Canada High School, Calgary. Old Scona Academic High School, Edmonton, Grade 10. Western Canada High School, Calgary, Grade 10. Western Canada High School, Calgary, Grade 11.

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We oer our congratulations to the above students, their schools and their teachers.

AHSMC Newsletter Vol. 20, No. 3 , March 15, 2011 2010 Canadian Mathematical Olympiad

1. For a positive integer n, an n-staircase is a gure consisting of unit squares, with one square in the rst row, two squares in the second row, and so on, up to n squares in the n-th row, such that all the left-most squares in each row are in a vertical column. For example, the 5-staircase us shown in the diagram below.

Let f (n) be the minimum number of squares required to tile the n-staircase. The squares can be of any size. For example, f (2) = 3 and f (4) = 7, as shown in the diagram below.

(a) Determine all n for which f (n) = n. (b) Determine all n for which f (n) = n + 1. 2. A, B and P are three points on a circle. The distances from P to the tangents at A and B and the chord AB are a, b and c reespectively. Prove that c2 = ab. 3. Three speedskaters have a friendly race on a skating oval. They all start from the same point and skate in the same direction, but with dierent speeds that they maintain throughout the race. The slowest skater does 1 lap a minute, the fastest one does 3.14 laps a minute, and the middle on does L laps a minute where 1 < L < 3.14. The race ends at the moment when all three skaters again come together to the same point on the oval, which may dier from the starting point. A passing occurs when one skater overtakes another. The beginning and the end of the race are not counted as passings. Determine how many dierent choices for L are there such that exactly 117 passing occur before the end of the race. 4. A nite graph consists of a nite set of vertices and a nite set of edges between the vertices. Two vertices are said to be neighbours if there is an edge between them. Each vertex of a nite graph is coloured black initially. In each move, we choose a vertex, change its colour from black to white or vice versa, and change the colours of all its neighbours too. Is it possible to change the colour of each vertex to white after a nite number of moves? 5. Let P and Q be polynomials with integer coecients. Prove that if every positive integer n, then Q(n) = 0.
P (n) Q(n) P (n!+n) Q(n!+n)

is an integer for

is also an integer for every positive integer n such that

Answers: 1. (a) n = 2k 1 for some integer k > 0. (b) n = 2k 2t 1 for some integers k > t > 0. 3. 16. 4. yes.

AHSMC Newsletter Vol. 20, No. 3 , March 15, 2011 2010 International Mathematical Olympiad

1. Determine all functions f from the set of all real numbers to the same set such that for all real numbers x and y , f (|x|y ) = f (x)|f (y )|. 2. Triangle ABC has incentre I and circumcircle . The extension of AI meets again at D. E is a point on the arc BC which contains D, and F is a point on the segment BC , such that BAF = CAE < 1 BAC . If G is the midpoint of IF , prove that the point of intersection 2 of the lines EI and DG lies on . 3. Determine all functions g from the set of all positive integers to the same set such that for all positive integers m and n (g (m) + n)(g (n) + m) is a perfect square. 4. In triangle ABC , CA = CB . P is a point inside ABC such that the extensions of AP, BP and CP meet the circumcircle of ABC again at K, L and M respectively. The tangent to at C meets the line AB at S . Prove that if SC = SP , then MK = ML. 5. Initially, there is 1 coin in each of the six boxes B1, B2 , B3 , B4 , B5 and B6 . In each move, we may perform either of the following two operations. Operation A. Choose a non-empty box Bj , 1 j 5. Remove one coin from Bj and add two coins to Bj +1 . Operation B. Choose a non-empty box Bk , 1 k 4. Remove one coin from Bk and interchange the contents of Bk+1 and Bk+2 . Determine if there exists a nite sequence of moves such that B1 , B2 , B3, B4 and B5 become 2010 coins. empty while B6 contains exactly 20102010 6. Let a1 , a2, . . . be a sequence of positive real numbers and S be a positive integer such that an = max{ak + ank : 1 k n 1} for all n > S . Prove that there exist positive integers s S and N such that an = as + ans for all n N . Answers: 1. f (x) = a where a = 0 or 1 a < 2. 3. g (x) = x + k where k is any positive integer. 5. yes. *****************************************************

The Alberta High School Math Competitions 19572006

This is a compilation of the rst 50 years of our own competition, the oldest in Canada on a provincial scale. It contains all the questions posed during that period, all the answers and detailed solutions from 1983 onward. There is also a brief history of the contest. This is a hard cover book with close to 300 pages. By a special arrangement with the publishers, the Mathematical Association of America and the Canadian Mathematical Society, the AHSMC Board is allowed to sell this book to Alberta schools at a favourable price of $60 (plus $3 GST) which includes postage and handling. For orders of ve or more copies, the price drops to $50 (plus $2.50 GST), still including postage and handling. Orders may be placed by Alberta schools, for their own libraries as well as on behalf of individual teachers or students. Send an email message to Mrs. Linda Drysdale, Board Secretary, to arrange for payment and shipping.