Mock RMO

Shourya Pandey

Instructions:

This examination has a recommended duration of 4 hours. However, as the test is not invigilated,
you may use more time than this without any penalty.
Solutions to problems may be submitted in any convenient way.
While this examination uses elementary ideas, the questions are of a much higher difficulty level.
Solving even a few problems is considered to be excellent. Do not be disheartened if you are unable
to solve most questions; most people will be on the same level as you are.
Most questions can be found on the internet. It is up to you to remain true to yourself. If you have
seen a question before, PLEASE MENTION IT ALONG WITH YOUR SOLUTIONS. It is
not very difficult to see through if you have seen the solution before or not. If in case you have seen
the solution and fail to mention it, a penalty may be charged.
Marking Scheme (tentative):
Question 1 : 10 Marks
Question 2 : 2 + 8 = 10 Marks
Question 3 : 5 + 5 = 10 Marks
Question 4 : 15 Marks
Question 5 : 25 Marks
Question 6 : 10 + 20 = 30 Marks
Maximum Marks : 100
1. Find all positive integers m, n for which the equation
2m 1 = mn
holds true.
2. A ceremony for n mathematicians is organised. A mathematician in the ceremony is famous if this
person is known by every other mathematician, but knows none of them. Note that a person may
know another person even if the second person does not know the first.
(a) Prove that there cannot be two famous mathematicians in the ceremony.
(b) A hard-working journalist named Carl needs to find the famous mathematician, if one exists, at
this ceremony, by asking only one type of question; asking a guest whether they know a second
guest. Everyone must answer their questions truthfully. Show that 3n 3 questions are sufficient
for Carl to find out the famous mathematician, if any.
3. ABCD is a convex quadrilateral. M is a point varying on line segment AB. N 6= M is a point of
intersection of the circumcircles of M AC and M BD. Prove that
(a) N lies on a fixed circle.
(b) M N passes through a fixed point.

4. Let x, y and z be positive real numbers for which x+ y+ z = 1. Show that

x2 + yz y 2 + zx z 2 + xy
p +p +p 1
2x2 (y + z) 2y 2 (z + x) 2z 2 (x + y)
When does equality hold?
5. Prove that for all natural numbers a, b, we have
a b
b ib ia
X X
c
ba (1) a (1)b b c (mod 4)
i=1 i=1

For all reals x, bxc denotes the greatest integer less than or equal to x.
6. (a) We fill a 2 n table with numbers from 1 to 2n, using each number exactly once. Clearly, there
are (2n)! ways of doing so. Now, a table is called good if the entries of each row is an increasing
sequence and the entries of each column is also an increasing sequence. Let the number of good
tables be Cn . Derive an explicit formula for Cn .
(b) A permutation, in informal terms, is a rearrangement of numbers. For example, (5, 3, 1, 4, 6, 2)
is a permutation of {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}.
A subsequence of a sequence is a sequence of numbers obtained by taking only a few terms,
but maintaining the order in which they appear in the original sequence. For example,(3, 6),
(5, 1, 6, 2) and (6) are subsequences of (5, 3, 1, 4, 6, 2).
An increasing subsequence of a sequence is a subsequence whose terms are increasing. For
example, (3, 4, 6) is an increasing subsequence of (5, 3, 1, 4, 6, 2). A decreasing subsequence is
defined similarly.
Prove the remarkable fact that the number of permutations of 2n numbers, such that the longest
increasing subsequence has length n and the longest decreasing subsequence has length
2, is equal to (Cn )2 .