The University of Western Australia SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS BLAKERS MATHEMATICS COMPETITION

2012 Problems
The Competition begins Monday, May 21 and ends Friday, September 28, 2012. You may use any source of information except other people. In particular, you may use computer packages (though contributed solutions are expected to have complete mathematical proofs). Extensions and generalisations of any problem are invited and are taken into account when assessing solutions. Solutions are to be mailed or given to Greg Gamble, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, 6009 before 4 pm on Friday, September 28. Remember, you dont have to solve all the problems to win prizes! Include a cover page with your name, address, e-mail address, University, and the number of years you have been attending any tertiary institution. Start each problem on a new page, and write your name on every page. 1. A oor in the argument We denote by r , the oor of r, i.e. the greatest integer that is at most the real number r. Find all the real solutions to the equation, x2 3x + 2 = 3x 7. 2. A determination Let n 2. The number of n n matrices, whose coecients are exactly the integers 1, 2 . . . , n2 , is (n2 )!. What is the sum of the determinants of all these (n2 )! matrices? 3. Moments with functions Find all functions f (x), that are continuous and non-negative on [0, 1], such that
1 1 1

f (x) dx = 1,
0 0

f (x)x dx = a and
0

f (x)x2 dx = a2 ,

where a is a given real number. 4. Intersecting graphs For which real numbers a > 1 do the graphs of ax and loga x intersect? 5. Cut the pack Let n 1. A stack of 2n + 1 cards marked 1 or 1 in random order has more 1s than 1s. Show that it is possible to cut the stack at most once, putting the top part below the bottom part, so that enumerating the cards sequentially from top to bottom, the totals are always positive.

6. A treasure island A pirate landed on an island in order to hide a treasure. He saw two big rocks A and B, and a bit further inland, 3 palm trees C1 , C2 and C3 . Starting from C1 , the pirate drew a line segment C1 A1 perpendicular to and of the same length as C1 A, where A1 is in a dierent half-plane with axis AC1 than B. Then he drew the line segment C1 B1 perpendicular to and of the same length as C1 B, where B1 is in a dierent half-plane with axis BC1 than A. Then he put a stick at the intersection P1 of AB1 and A1 B. Then he did the same procedure with the two palm trees C2 and C3 . He drew a circle passing through the three sticks P1 , P2 and P3 , (which were at distinct points) and hid the treasure at the centre of this circle. He then removed the sticks and erased the drawings. Returning to the island 10 years later to retrieve the treasure, the pirate sees with horror that the island had been hit by a hurricane and that there is no trace of the palm trees anymore. Luckily, the pirate is very clever and managed to retrieve the treasure anyway. How did he do it? Note. A half-plane with axis , is the entire region on one side of the line . 7. Indomitable Is is possible to cover a 6 6 grid with eighteen 2 1 dominoes in such a way that (i) each of the 5 internal vertical lines forming the grid bisects at least one domino, and (ii) each of the 5 internal horizontal lines forming the grid bisects at least one domino? Note. The bisection of a domino by a horizontal or vertical line cuts it into two 1 1 cells. 8. n-hedra? For which integers n does there exist in 9. Diminishing functions Do there exist two decreasing functions f, g from (a) f f (x) = x + 1 for all x R? (b) g g(x) = 2x + 1 for all x R? 10. Food ght There are 2n + 1 people standing in a at eld, in such a way that their pairwise distances are distinct. Everybody launches a pie towards their closest neighbour. Show the following. (a) (b) (c) (d) No pie trajectories intersect (except for cases where two people throw pies at each other). The network formed by all the pie trajectories has no closed polygon. At least one person is not hit by any pie. Nobody is hit by more than 5 pies.

R3 a polyhedron with exactly n edges? R to R such that

Note. This is a two-dimensional problem. Each pie trajectory is to be thought of as a line segment in the plane of the at eld. 2