Problem Books in Mathematics Edited by P.R. Halmos Springer New York Berlin Heidelberg Barcelona Budapest Hong Kong London Milan Paris Santa Clara Singapore Tokyo Problem Books in Mathematics Series Editor: P.R. Halmos Polynomials by Edward J. Barbeau PvoblemsinGeome~ by Marcel Berger, Pierre Pansu, Jean-Pic Berry, and Xavier Saint Raymond Pvoblem Book for First Year Calculus by George W Bluman Exercises in Pvobability by T CacouZZos An Intvoduction to Hilbert Space and Quantum Logic by David W Cohen Unsolved Pvoblems in Geome~ by HaZZard T Croft, Kenneth J. Falconer, and Richard K. Guy Pvoblems in Analysis by Bernard R. Gelbaum Pvoblems in Real and Complex Analysis by Bernard R. Gelbaum Theorems and Counterexamples in Mathematics by Bernard R. Gelbaum and John M.H. Olmsted Exercises in Integration by Claude George Algebraic Logic by S. G. Gindikin (continued after index) Edward Lozansky Cecil Rousseau Winning Solutions Springer Edward Lozansky Cecil Rousseau National Science Thacher's Association The University of Memphis Washington, DC 20009 Memphis, TN 38152 USA USA Series Editor: Paul R. Halmos Department of Mathematics Santa Clara University Santa Clara, CA 95053 USA Mathematics Subject Classification (1991): llAxx 05Axx Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lozansky, Edward Winning Solutions! Edward Lozansky, Cecil Rousseau. p. cm - (Problem books in mathematics) Includes bibliographical references (p. -) and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-387-94743-3 e-ISBN-I3: 978-1-4612-4034-1 DOl: 10.1007/978-I -46 I 2-4034-I 1. Mathematics - Problems, exercises, etc. I. Rousseau, Cecil. II. Title. III. Series QA43.L793 1996 5lO'.76-dc20 96-13584 Printed on acid-free paper. @ 1996 Springer-Verlag New York, Inc. All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission ofthe publisher (Springer-Verlag New York, Inc., 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY lOOlO, USA), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use of general descriptive names, trade names, trademarks, etc., in this publication, even if the former are not especially identified, is not to be taken as a sign that such names, as understood by the 1Tade Marks and Merchandise Marks Act, may accordingly be used freely by anyone. Production managed by Robert Wexler; manufacturing supervised by Joe Quatela. Photocomposed copy prepared using the author's IdJ':&C files and Springer's utm macro. 987654321 SPIN 10016809 Preface Problem-solving competitions for mathematically talented sec ondary school students have burgeoned in recent years. The number of countries taking part in the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) has increased dramatically. In the United States, potential IMO team members are identified through the USA Mathematical Olympiad (USAMO), and most other participating countries use a similar selection procedure. Thus the number of such competitions has grown, and this growth has been accompanied by increased public interest in the accomplishments of mathematically talented young people. There is a significant gap between what most high school math ematics programs teach and what is expected of an IMO participant. This book is part of an effort to bridge that gap. It is written for students who have shown talent in mathematics but lack the back ground and experience necessary to solve olympiad-level problems. We try to provide some of that background and experience by point ing out useful theorems and techniques and by providing a suitable collection of examples and exercises. This book covers only a fraction of the topics normally rep resented in competitions such as the USAMO and IMO. Another volume would be necessary to cover geometry, and there are other v VI Preface special topics that need to be studied as part of preparation for olympiad-level competitions. At the end of the book we provide a list of resources for further study. A word of explanation is due the reader who is not already fa miliar with olympiads and the topics normally dealt with in such competitions. Until now, calculus has not been accepted as one of those topics. Problems on olympiad exams regularly call for use of Ceva's theorem, Chebyshev's inequality, the Chinese remainder the orem, and convex sets, but not calculus. The authors are the first to acknowledge that this book deals with an ecclectic list of topics. However, we have tried to choose these topics with the olympiad tradition and the needs of mathematically talented young persons in mind. Many people have made valuable suggestions to us during the writing of this book. We are especially grateful to Basil Gordon (UCLA), Ian McGee (University of Waterloo), and Ron Scoins (Uni versity of Waterloo) for suggestions made concerning the first two chapters, and to David Dwiggins (University of Memphis) for his careful reading of the final manuscript. The first two chapters of this book were written while one of the authors [CR] was on sabbatical at the University of Waterloo. This author wishes to thank Ron Dunkley for the invitation to visit Waterloo and to express his appreciation to all the members of the faculty and staff who helped make this visit a productive one. For one of the authors [CR], the opportunity to write this book is an outgrowth of the good fortune of having been associated with both the USAMO and the IMO for many years. The opportunity for this author to play such a role was initially provided by Murray Klamkin, and has been supported and enlarged by many others, in cluding Dick Gibbs, Samuel Greitzer, Walter Mientka, Ian Richards, Leo Schneider, many fine colleagues of the Mathematical Olympiad Summer Program (Titu Andreescu, Anne Hudson, Gregg Patruno, Gail Ratcliff, Daniel Ullman, Elizabeth Wilmer), and the many won derfully talented students who have participated in the USAMO, IMO, and the Mathematical Olympiad Summer Program. Finally, we are very grateful to the American Mathematical Com petitions for permission to use problems from the AIME (American Preface VB Invitational Mathematics Examination) and the USAMO as examples and exercises in this book. January, 1996 Edward Lozansky Cecil Rousseau Washington, D.C. Memphis, TN Contents Preface v 1 Numbers 1 1.1 The Natural Numbers . 1 1.2 Mathematical Induction 11 1.3 Congruence....... 18 1.4 Rational and Irrational Numbers . 29 1.5 Complex Numbers ... 35 1.6 Progressions and Sums 46 1.7 Diophantine Equations 56 1.8 Quadratic Reciprocity . 65 2 Algebra 73 2.1 Basic Theorems and Techniques 73 2.2 Polynomial Equations ..... . 92 2.3 Algebraic Equations and Inequalities 106 2.4 The Classical Inequalities ..... . 113 3 Combinatorics 141 3.1 What is Combinatorics? . 141 3.2 Basics of Counting .... 142 IX X Contents 3.3 Recurrence Relations . . . . . . . 149 3.4 Generating Functions . . . . . . . 156 3.5 The Inclusion-Exclusion Principle 178 3.6 The Pigeonhole Principle. 188 3.7 Combinatorial Averaging 195 3.8 Some Extremal Problems . 202 Hints and Answers for Selected Exercises 215 General References 237 List of Symbols 239 Index 241 Numbers CHAPTER 1.1 The Natural Numbers Normally, we first learn about mathematics through counting, so the first set of numbers encountered is the set of counting numbers or natural numbers {I, 2, 3, ... }. Later, our knowledge is extended to integers, rational numbers, real numbers and com plex numbers. A formal definition of even the natural number system requires careful thought, and one was given only in 1889 by the Italian mathematician Giuseppe Peano. Our approach is in formal. It is assumed that the reader is familiar with various number systems. The following definitions ensure a common language with which to present problems and their solutions. We use Z to denote the set of integers {. .. , -2, -1,0, 1,2, ... } and Z+ to signify the set of positive integers {I, 2, 3, ... }. We shall use the term natural number to mean a positive integer. (Mathematicians do not always agree on matters of terminology and notation. Some use the term natural number to mean a nonnegative integer.) If a and b are integers, we say that a divides b, in symbols alb, if there is an integer c such that b = ac. Then a is a divisor, or factor, ofb. A natural number p > 1 is said to be prime if 1 and p are its only positive divisors. A natural number n > 1 that is not prime is said to 1