Ross Program 2017 Application Problems

This document is part of the application to the Ross Mathematics Program, and is
posted at http://u.osu.edu/rossmath/.
The Admission Committee will start reading applications on March 1, 2017, making
admission decisions on a rolling basis. The deadline for applications is April 1, but
spaces will fill as applications arrive. For adequate consideration of your application,
it is best to submit your solutions well before the end of March.
Each applicant should work independently on the problems below. We are interested
in seeing how you approach unfamiliar math problems, not whether you can find
answers by searching through web sites or books, or by asking experts.
Please submit your own work on all of these problems.
For each problem, explore the situation (with calculations, tables, pictures, etc.),
observe patterns, make some guesses, test the truth of those conjectures, and describe
the progress you have made. Where were you led by your experimenting?
Include your thoughts even though you may not have completely solved the problem.
If you’ve seen one of the problems before (e.g. in a class or online), please include a
reference along with your solution.
Please convert your problem solutions into a PDF file. That PDF file can be created
by scanning your problem solutions from a handwritten paper copy. (It’s best to use
dark pencil or pen using only one side of the paper.) Alternatively, you could type
up the solutions using a word processor or with LATEX, and then convert the output
to PDF format.

Note: each Ross Program course concentrates deeply on one subject, unlike the problems here.
This Problem Set is an attempt to assess your general mathematical background and interests.

1
Problem 1
What numbers are expressible as an alternating-sum of an increasing sequence of
powers of 2? To form such a sum, choose a subset of the sequence 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, . . .
(these are the powers of 2). List the numbers in that subset in increasing order (no
repetitions allowed), and combine them with alternating plus and minus signs. For
example,

1 = −1 + 2; 2 = −2 + 4; 3 = 1 − 2 + 4;
4 = −4 + 8; 5 = 1 − 4 + 8; 6 = −2 + 8; etc.

Note: the expression 5 = −1 − 2 + 8 is invalid because the signs are not alternating.

(a) Is every positive integer expressible in this fashion? If so, give a convincing proof.

(b) A number might have more than one expression of this type. For instance

3 = 1 − 2 + 4 and 3 = −1 + 4.

Given a number n, how many different ways are there to write n in this way?
Prove that your answer is correct.

2
Problem 2
Given a line segment from the origin O to a point P , a geometer constructs a rectangle
of area 1 with the segment OP as base, and oriented counter-clockwise from the base.
Starting from P0 = (1, 0) on the x-axis, she draws a square with base OP0 . (That
square is red in the picture.) With “diagonal point” P1 = (1, 1), she draws an area
1 rectangle on base OP1 (blue in the picture). With diagonal point P2 = ( 12 , 32 ), she
draws the next rectangle with base OP2 (green).
Continue the process: Using diagonal point Pn of the nth rectangle, construct the
next rectangle with base OPn , area 1, and counterclockwise from OPn .

(a) Let Qn be the fourth corner of the nth rectangle. The picture indicates that Q0
lies on segment Q1 P2 , and Q1 lies on segment Q2 P3 .
Does Qn lie on the the segment Qn+1 Pn+2 , for every n = 0, 1, . . . ?
If so, provide an explanation (proof) of why that happens.

(b) Let bn = |OPn | be the base-length of the nth rectangle. Then the adjacent √ side
has lengthp|OQn | = 1/bn , because the area is 1. For instance, b0 = 1, b1 = 2,
and b2 = 5/2.
Do lengths bn grow without bound as n increases?
Do points Pn spiral repeatedly around O as n increases?

P3
P2

Q0 P1

Q1

Q2
P0
O

3
Problem 3
In an array of dots, how many can be colored red without forming a red rectangle?
• We use rectangular arrays of dots, and consider only those rectangles with horizontal and vertical
sides. A dot-rectangle is called “red” if its four corners are red. (Other dots can be of any color.)

For whole numbers m, n, define R(m, n) to be the largest number of dots in an m × n

array that can be colored red without making a red rectangle.
For instance, in a 3 × 3 array an L-shaped arrangement of 5 red dots contains no
red rectangle. Therefore R(3, 3) ≥ 5. But 5 is not maximal: there is a rectangle-free
arrangement of 6 red dots, proving that R(3, 3) ≥ 6. After some work I managed to
prove:
Every arrangement of 7 red dots in a 3 × 3 array must include a red rectangle.
This shows that R(3, 3) = 6.

(a) Does R(2, n) = n + 1 for every n ≥ 2?

Can you evaluate (with proof) R(3, 4), R(3, 5), . . . ? How about R(4, 4)?

(b) Investigate other values of R(m, n), observing patterns, making conjectures, and
constructing proofs.

4
Problem 4
A polynomial f (x) has the factor-square property (or FSP) if f (x) is a factor of f (x2 ).
For instance, g(x) = x − 1 and h(x) = x have FSP, but k(x) = x + 2 does not.
Reason: x − 1 is a factor of x2 − 1, and x is a factor of x2 , but x + 2 is not a factor of x2 + 2.
Multiplying by a nonzero constant “preserves” FSP, so we restrict attention to poly-
nomials that are monic (i.e., have 1 as highest-degree coefficient).

What is the pattern to these FSP polynomials? To make progress on this general
problem, investigate the following questions and justify your answers.

(a) Are x and x − 1 the only monic polynomials of degree 1 with FSP?

(b) Check that x2 , x2 − 1, x2 − x, and x2 + x + 1 all have FSP. Determine all the
monic degree 2 polynomials with FSP.

(c) Some of our examples are products of FSP polynomials of smaller degree. For
instance, x2 and x2 − x come from degree 1 cases. However, x2 − 1 and x2 − x + 1
are new, not expressible as a product of two smaller FSP polynomials.
Are there monic FSP polynomials of degree 3 that are new (not built from FSP
polynomials of smaller degree)?
Are there such examples of degree 4?

(d) The examples written above all had integer coefficients. Do answers change if we
allow polynomials whose coefficients are allowed to be any real numbers? Or if
we allow polynomials whose coefficients are complex numbers?

5
Problem 5
Many students are familiar with Pascal’s Triangle:
Row 0: 1
Row 1: 1 1
Row 2: 1 2 1
Row 3: 1 3 3 1
Row 4: 1 4 6 4 1
Row 5: 1 5 10 10 5 1
Row 6: 1 6 15 20 15 6 1
Row 7: 1 7 21 35 35 21 7 1
Row 8: 1 8 28 56 70 56 28 8 1
etc.

Standard notation: nk is the the
k th entry of Row

7 7

n. (Here, counting starts at zero
rather than one.) For example, 2 = 21 and 3 = 35. Each entry equals the sum of
the entries directly above and above-left (except for the 1’s at the ends of rows).
The entry nk is the number of combinations of
n objects taken k at a time. That

term also appears in the Binomial Theorem: nk equals the coefficient of xk in the
expansion of (1 + x)n .
The sum across Row n equals 2n , and sums of every second entry of Row n are half
of that total. For instance, when n = 8:

1 + 8 + 28 + 56 + 70 + 56 + 28 + 8 + 1 = 256 = 28 .

1 + 28 + 70 + 28 + 1 = 128 = 28 /2,
8 + 56 + 56 + 8 = 128 = 28 /2.
Several different methods lead to proofs of those results for every n. You might use induction,
direct counting of combinations, or evaluating (1 + x)n at x = 1 and x = −1.

(a) What about the sums of every third entry of Row n ? In Row 8 those sums are:
1 + 56 + 28 = 85 8 + 70 + 8 = 86 28 + 70 + 8 = 85.
Those values are near 28 /3 = 85 31 . Explore more examples, formulate some
conjectures, and try to prove them.

(b) Investigate generalizations. For instance:

Are sums of every fourth entry in Row n close to the “expected” value 2n /4 ?

6
Problem 6
Two rows (a1 , a2 , . . . , an ) and (b1 , b2 , . . . , bn ) of n numbers (or symbols) are said to be
orthogonal if:
a1 b1 + a2 b2 + · · · + an bn = 0.
For instance, rows (1, 2, 3) and (4, −5, 2) are orthogonal because 1·4+2·(−5)+3·2 =
4 − 10 + 6 = 0. Similarly: Rows (a, b) and (−b, a) are orthogonal for any a, b.
Suppose (x1 , x2 , . . . , xn ) is a row containing n different symbols (independent vari-
ables). Define a mixing of that row to be a rearrangement of the entries, with a plus
or minus sign assigned to each term. For instance, the row (x1 , x2 , x3 ) has 48 different
mixings (I think), including (−x2 , x3 , −x1 ) and (x1 , −x3 , x2 ).
Sometimes, mixings of a row can be orthogonal to one another. For example, when
n = 4 the three rows
( x1 , x2 , x3 , x4 ),
(−x2 , x1 , x4 , −x3 ),
( x3 , x4 , −x1 , −x2 ),
are mutually orthogonal. That is, each row is orthogonal to the other two.
• How many mixings of the row (x1 , x2 , . . . , xn ) can be mutually orthogonal?
[We continue to assume that the xj are independent symbols, not specific numbers.]
For example, if n is odd, no two mixings can be orthogonal. Is it fairly easy to prove
that claim?
How many mutually orthogonal mixings can there be when n = 4, 6, or 8?
What observations can you make? What sorts of questions about this situation would
be interesting to investigate?

We hope you enjoyed working on these problems! Information about this sum-
mer mathematics program is available on the web at http://u.osu.edu/rossmath/.
Your questions and comments can be emailed to [email protected].