Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Friday, Jan 13th

Problem
Sum the series $\sum_{m=1}^\infty \sum_{n=1}^\infty \frac{m^2 n}{3^m(n3^m+m3^n)}$

Solution

Exchanging $m$ and $n$ produces the same series, so the sum will be
$\frac{1}{2}\sum_{m=1}^\infty \sum_{n=1}^\infty \frac{m^2 n}{3^m(n3^m+m3^n)}+\frac{m n^2}{3^n(n3^m+m3^n)}=\frac{1}{2}\sum_{m=1}^\infty \sum_{n=1}^\infty \frac{mn}{3^m 3^n}$

$=\frac{1}{2}\left(\sum_{k=1}^\infty \frac{k}{3^k}\right)^2=\frac{1}{2}\left(\frac{3}{4}\right)^2=\frac{9}{32}$

Friday, January 13, 2012

Thursday, Jan 12th

Problem
Let $x,y,z$ be positive reals such that $x^2+y^2+z^2=1$. Prove that $x^2yz+xy^2z+xyz^2\leq 1/3$

Solution
Notice that $x^2yz+xy^2z+xyz^2=xyz(x+y+z)$. Then using the AM-GM inequality together with the AM-RMS inequality gives the desired result.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Wednesday, Jan 11th

Problem
A 3 digit natural number is called tricubic if its the sum of the cubes of its digits. Find all pairs of consecutive tricubic numbers.

Solution
Suppose that $(n,n+1)$ is a pair of consecutive tricubic numbers and let $n=a10^2+b10+c$ be the decimal expansion of $n$. Then $n=a^3+b^3+c^3$ and $n+1=a^3+b^3+(c+1)^3$ (if $c\neq 9$) or $n+1=a^3+(b+1)^3$ (if $c=9$ and $b\neq 9$) or $n+1=(a+1)^3$ (if $c=b=9$).

In the first case, we have that $1=3c^2+3c+1$, from which $c=0$. Looking at the possibilities for $a$ and $b$ we find that there are no such tricubic numbers.

In the second case, we have that $9^3=3b(b+1)$, which has no solutions for $b$. In the third case, we have that $9^3+9^3=3a(a+1)$ which has no solutions for $a$.

Hence, there are no such pair of numbers.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Tuesday, January 10th

Problem
For each side of a polygon, divide its length by the length of the other sides. Prove that the sum of all such fractions is smaller than 2. 

Solution
With out loss of generality suppose that the sum of the sides $a_1,\dots, a_n$ of the polygon is 1. Hence it suffices to prove that

$\sum_{i=1}^n \frac{a_i}{1-a_i}\leq 2$

Since $f(x)=\frac{x}{1-x}$ is a convex function, we have that

$\sum_{i=1}^n \frac{a_i}{1-a_i}\leq \frac{n}{n-1}\leq 2$

Monday, January 9, 2012

Monday, January 9th

Problem
Determine if there exists $f:\mathbb{Z}^+\to \mathbb{Z}^+$ such that $f(f(n))=2n$ for all positive integers n.

Solution
As long as $f$ does not have a fixed point there is no problem in the definition of $f$. The key is to analyze the powers of 2, as it appears on the defining property of $f$.

We have that $f\left(2^p q\right)=2^p f(q)$ for $q$ an odd integer, hence $f$ is determined by the values it takes on the odd integers. Since the powers of 2 are not affected by $f$, it suffices that $f$ map $2^r a$ to $2^s b$, where $a,b$ are odd integers and $r,s$ are non-negative integers and the only restriction is that $a\neq b$.

Friday, December 2, 2011

Friday, December 2nd

Problem
Prove that $1/1999<\ln (1999/1998 )<1/1998 $

Solution

Since $1999/1998=1+1/1998$, by the power series expansion of $\ln(1+x)$ we have that $\ln(1999/1998)<1/1998$. Also, since $\ln(1999/1998)=-\ln(1998/1999)=-\ln(1-1/1999)$ and $\ln(1-1/1999)<-1/1999$, we have that $1/1999<\ln(1999/1998)$.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Thursday, December 1st

Problem
Find
$S=\sum_{i=0}^{101} \frac{x_i^3}{1-3x_i+3x_i^2}$
where $x_i=i/101$.


Solution
Since
$\frac{x_i^3}{1-3x_i+3x_i^2}=\frac{x_i^3}{(1-x_i)^3+x_i^3}$

is symmetric when exchanging $x_i$ by $1-x_i$, we have that every such pair will contribute to the sum by one, and there are 51 such pairs, hence $S=51$.