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Contest 2022

- The document describes the rules and exercises for the BME Mathematics Contest held on May 3rd, 2022 from 1415-1800. It includes 10 multi-part math problems. - The first problem is only for first year students and requires showing that 3 numbers from a set of 12 can form an acute triangle. - Problems are worth 10 points each and partial solutions may be awarded additional points. Answers should be written on separate sheets with identification. - The last problem involves proving an inequality about determinants of sums of squares of real matrices, and asking if the requirement of symmetry can be dropped.

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Mihaly Weiner
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55 views2 pages

Contest 2022

- The document describes the rules and exercises for the BME Mathematics Contest held on May 3rd, 2022 from 1415-1800. It includes 10 multi-part math problems. - The first problem is only for first year students and requires showing that 3 numbers from a set of 12 can form an acute triangle. - Problems are worth 10 points each and partial solutions may be awarded additional points. Answers should be written on separate sheets with identification. - The last problem involves proving an inequality about determinants of sums of squares of real matrices, and asking if the requirement of symmetry can be dropped.

Uploaded by

Mihaly Weiner
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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BME Mathematics Contest 3 May 2022 1415 –1800 , CHFMAX

— Corrected answer sheets are available for review to all participants in office H666
from 14:15 till 17:00 on 12 May. All interested are cordially invited to the ceremonial
announcement of results and to the following reception with times and places to be
determined at a later date.
— The first exercise is only for first year students. The remaining 9 exercises are open
for every participant (both first year and higher year students).
— Each exercise is worth 10 points. Partial solutions are also considered. In some in-
stances even more than 10 points are awarded on a problem (e.g. by providing interesting
generalizations or multiple solutions).
— Each problem should be answered on a separate sheet of paper carrying the
exercise number as well as the name and NEPTUN code of the participant.

THE FIRST EXERCISE IS FOR FIRST YEAR STUDENTS ONLY!


1. Given 12 numbers in the open interval (1,12), show that one can surely choose 3 of
them for which there exists an acute triangle whose side lengths are the chosen values!

2. Let 1 < q ≤ 2 and consider the set S of numbers that can be written as sums of
finitely many different (integer, non-negative) powers of q. (For example, the single term
q 7 in itself or q 0 + q 4 + q 5 = 1 + q 4 + q 5 are such numbers.) Prove that any real greater
than or equal to 1/2 can be approximated by such numbers with error at most 1/2; i.e.
that for any x ≥ 1/2 there exists an s ∈ S such that |x − s| ≤ 1/2 holds!

3. Does there exist a constant c ∈ R such that for any monotonously decreasing function
f : [0, 1] → R, the inequality
Z 1 Z 1
−x
e x f (x) dx ≤ c f (x) dx
0 0

holds? (Attention, all we require is that x ≤ y ⇒ f (x) ≥ f (y), but there is no restriction
on the sign of f !)

4. You are swimming in a circular lake. You are almost at the coast, ready to get out,
when just in front of you the terrifying human-eating monster appears on the shore.
Luckily, it does not like to enter the water and on dry land you are the faster runner –
so it only poses a threat if it catches you while you are getting out of the water. You
are not yet tired; so keeping your eye on the monster, you decide to swim on and find a
better place / moment to get out of the water. Is there a strategy that guarantees your
survival if the monster can run a) 4 times, b) 8 times as fast as you can swim? (These
are two separate questions.)

α1 , . . . αn be real parameters and f : R → R the function defined by


5. Let c1 , . . . cn and P
the formula f (x) = nk=1 ck eαk x . Prove that if f has at least n different zeros, then f is
the constant zero function!

1
BME Mathematics Contest 3 May 2022 1415 –1800 , CHFMAX

6. Can 16 points of the plane determine precisely 17 lines? (Here is a question that may
help to consider. Suppose some points of the plane are painted black and certain two lines
are such that there are x1 and x2 black points on them, respectively. Can you give, in
terms of x1 and x2 , an estimate of the number of lines determined by the black points?)

7. With an independent and uniform


(fixed) probability p, edges of a complete,
infinite ternary tree (see the figure) are
painted red. (Unpainted edges remain
black.) Determine the probability q (as a
function of p) that the resulting graph will
contain (as a subgraph) a complete infinite
binary tree with red edges only, sprouting
from the root of the original tree!

8. Can it happen that p(1) = 0, p(3) = 2 and p(7) = 18, if p is a polynomial with integer
coefficients, only?

9. Alice and Bob play. There is a game board between them with 6 consecutive squares
and a single figure on one of them. If the figure arrives to square nr 1 (i.e. to the position
closest to Alice), Alice wins and the game ends. If it arrives to square nr 6 (i.e. to the
position closest to Bob), the game ends with Bob’s win. Movement of the figure happens
once every round according to the following rules. First Alice can pour some fine gold
powder from her resources onto the pan of the scales of the game referee (she can pour
as much as she wants: even all that she has, or nothing). Then Bob – who saw how
much Alice poured into the pan – can give away some of his gold to the referee, who then
moves the figure by one unit: if Alice paid more, then towards her and in every other
case, towards Bob. The players see each other’s wealth all through the game.
At the moment the figure is on square nr 3. Show that if Alice still has more than
one and a half times the quantity of gold that Bob currently has, then she has a winning
strategy, but if she has just one and a half times (or less) the quantity of gold that Bob
has, then he has a winning strategy!

10. Let A and B be two symmetric real matrices of size n×n. Prove that det(A2 +B 2 ) ≥
det(A)2 + det(B)2 , and decide if this holds even if we drop the requirement that these
matrices must be symmetric!

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