Regional Mathematical Olympiad-2009

Chhattisgarh Region Problems and Solutions

1. Let ABC be a triangle with AB = 3, BC = 4 and CA = 5. A line L, which is perpendicular to AC , intersects AC in Q and AB in P . Suppose there is a circle inside the quadrilateral P BCQ touching all its four sides(i.e., P BCQ has an incircle). Find the area of P BCQ. Solution:

A Q

5 3

4
B C

Observe that AP Q is similar to ACB . Hence AP AQ PQ = = = , AC AB BC say. We get AP = 5, AQ = 3, P Q = 4. Thus CQ = 5 3, P B = 3 5. Because P BCQ has an incircle, the sides of P BCQ satify the relation P B + CQ = BC + P Q. This leads to 4 + 4 = 8 8, giving = 1/3. Thus AQ = 3 = 1, We get the area of AP Q: 2 1 [AP Q] = AQ P Q = . 2 3 Note that the area of ABC is 6. Hence the area of P BCQ is given by: [P BCQ] = [ABC ] [AP Q] = 6 16 2 = . 3 3 4 P Q = 4 = . 3

2. Let a and b be two natural numbers. Can both a2 + 4b and b2 + 4a be perfect squares? Solution: NO! Suppose b a. We show that a2 + 4b cannot be a square. Observe that a2 < a2 + 4b a2 + 4a < (a + 2)2 . This shows that a2 + 4b = (a + 1)2 . Hence 4b = 2a + 1, which is clearly impossible. Similarly, a b implies that b2 + 4a cannot be a square. 3. If x, y, z are positive real numbers, prove that x2 y 2 z 2 x y z + + + + . y 2 z 2 x2 y z x Proof: Let us put x y z , b= , c= . y z x Then a, b, c are positive real numbers such that abc = 1. We have to prove that a= a2 + b2 + c2 a + b + c. Using (a b)2 + (b c)2 + (c a)2 0, it is easy to derive a2 + b2 + c2 ab + bc + ca. Thus 3(a2 + b2 + c2 ) a2 + b2 + c2 + 2(ab + bc + ca) = (a + b + c)2 . However, AM-GM inequality gives a + b + c 3(abc)1/3 = 3. Thus 3(a2 + b2 + c2 ) (a + b + c)(a + b + c) 3(a + b + c), which gives a2 + b2 + c2 a + b + c. 4. Consider the following 5 5 array: 1 2 3 4 6 7 8 9 11 12 13 14 16 17 18 19 21 22 23 24 5 10 15 20 25

Show that no matter which 5 numbers are removed from this array, there exists a 5-term arithmetic progression among the remaining 20 numbers. Solution: Let a, b, c, d, e be the ve numbers that are deleted. If some row or column remains completely in tact in this process, we may take the ve numbers in that particular row or column, which are in AP. Thus we may assume that a, b, c, d, e belong to dierent rows as well as dierent columns. We may further assume that a, b, c, d, e lie in rows 1,2,3,4,5 respectively. If one of b a, c b, d

c, e d is at least 6, say b a 6, then there are 5 consecutive numbers between a and b, which make an AP of 5 numbers. Assume b a 5, c b 5, d c 5 and e d 5. Since a, b, c, d, e belong to dierent columns, no dierence is equal to 5. Thus each dierence is 4. Since a, b, c, d, e are in dierent rows, this can happen only if a = 5, b = 9, c = 13, d = 17 and e = 21. Now we can choose 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, which are in AP. 5. Let ABC be a triangle with circum-circle . Let M be the point of intersection of the tangents to at B and C . Suppose N is point chosen on the line AC such that MN is parallel to AB . Prove that NA = NB . Solution:
A

Let MBC = MCB = . Then BAC = . Since MN is parallel to AB , we have MNC = BAC = . But MBC = . Thus B, M, C, N are concyclic. This gives MNB = MCB = . But BN is a transversal to the parallel line BA and MN . Hence ABN = BNM = = BAN . This shows that triangle ABN is isosceles with NA = NB . 6. Find all integers which are measures, in degrees, of the interior angles of regular polygons. Solution: Suppose the regular polygon has n sides. Then the measure of its interior angle is 180(n 2)/n, in degrees. If this has to be an integer, n must divide 360. The divisors of 360 are(there are 24 of them) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 24, 30, 36, 40, 45, 60, 72, 90, 120, 180, 360. We have to leave out 1 and 2. For the remaining, we get the angles(22 in all): 60, 90, 108, 120, 135, 140, 144, 150, 156, 160, 162, 165, 168, 170, 171, 172, 174, 175, 176, 177, 178, 179. -00-