{"year": "1992", "tier": "T1", "problem_label": "1", "problem_type": null, "exam": "APMO", "problem": "A triangle with sides $a, b$, and $c$ is given. Denote by $s$ the semiperimeter, that is $s=(a+b+c) / 2$. Construct a triangle with sides $s-a, s-b$, and $s-c$. This process is repeated until a triangle can no longer be constructed with the sidelengths given.\nFor which original triangles can this process be repeated indefinitely?\nAnswer: Only equilateral triangles.", "solution": "The perimeter of each new triangle constructed by the process is $(s-a)+(s-b)+(s-c)=$ $3 s-(a+b+c)=3 s-2 s=s$, that is, it is halved. Consider a new equivalent process in which a similar triangle with sidelengths $2(s-a), 2(s-b), 2(s-c)$ is constructed, so the perimeter is kept invariant.\nSuppose without loss of generality that $a \\leq b \\leq c$. Then $2(s-c) \\leq 2(s-b) \\leq 2(s-a)$, and the difference between the largest side and the smallest side changes from $c-a$ to $2(s-a)-2(s-c)=$ $2(c-a)$, that is, it doubles. Therefore, if $c-a>0$ then eventually this difference becomes larger than $a+b+c$, and it's immediate that a triangle cannot be constructed with the sidelengths. Hence the only possibility is $c-a=0 \\Longrightarrow a=b=c$, and it is clear that equilateral triangles can yield an infinite process, because all generated triangles are equilateral.", "metadata": {"resource_path": "APMO/segmented/en-apmo1992_sol.jsonl", "problem_match": "# Problem 1", "solution_match": "# Solution\n\n"}} {"year": "1992", "tier": "T1", "problem_label": "2", "problem_type": null, "exam": "APMO", "problem": "In a circle $C$ with centre $O$ and radius $r$, let $C_{1}, C_{2}$ be two circles with centres $O_{1}, O_{2}$ and radii $r_{1}, r_{2}$ respectively, so that each circle $C_{i}$ is internally tangent to $C$ at $A_{i}$ and so that $C_{1}, C_{2}$ are externally tangent to each other at $A$.\nProve that the three lines $O A, O_{1} A_{2}$, and $O_{2} A_{1}$ are concurrent.", "solution": "Because of the tangencies, the following triples of points (two centers and a tangency point) are collinear:\n\n$$\nO_{1} ; O_{2} ; A, \\quad O ; O_{1} ; A_{1}, \\quad O ; O_{2} ; A_{2}\n$$\n\nBecause of that we can ignore the circles and only draw their centers and tangency points.\n![](https://cdn.mathpix.com/cropped/2024_11_22_c7e8c80a7518426c71e5g-2.jpg?height=1018&width=1095&top_left_y=713&top_left_x=432)\n\nNow the problem is immediate from Ceva's theorem in triangle $O O_{1} O_{2}$, because\n\n$$\n\\frac{O A_{1}}{A_{1} O_{1}} \\cdot \\frac{O_{1} A}{A O_{2}} \\cdot \\frac{O_{2} A_{2}}{A_{2} O}=\\frac{r}{r_{1}} \\cdot \\frac{r_{1}}{r_{2}} \\cdot \\frac{r_{2}}{r}=1\n$$", "metadata": {"resource_path": "APMO/segmented/en-apmo1992_sol.jsonl", "problem_match": "# Problem 2", "solution_match": "# Solution\n\n"}} {"year": "1992", "tier": "T1", "problem_label": "3", "problem_type": null, "exam": "APMO", "problem": "Let $n$ be an integer such that $n>3$. Suppose that we choose three numbers from the set $\\{1,2, \\ldots, n\\}$. Using each of these three numbers only once and using addition, multiplication, and parenthesis, let us form all possible combinations.\n(a) Show that if we choose all three numbers greater than $n / 2$, then the values of these combinations are all distinct.\n(b) Let $p$ be a prime number such that $p \\leq \\sqrt{n}$. Show that the number of ways of choosing three numbers so that the smallest one is $p$ and the values of the combinations are not all distinct is precisely the number of positive divisors of $p-1$.", "solution": "In both items, the smallest chosen number is at least 2: in part (a), $n / 2>1$ and in part (b), $p$ is a prime. So let $11,(m-1)(n-1) \\geq 1 \\cdot 2 \\Longrightarrow m n>m+n, t n+m-(t m+n)=$ $(t-1)(n-m)>0 \\Longrightarrow t n+m>t m+n$, and $(t+m) n-(t+n) m=t(n-m)>0$,\n\n$$\nx+y+z0 \\Longrightarrow(y+z) x>y+z x$ and $(x+z) y-(x+y z)=$ $(y-1) x>0 \\Longrightarrow(x+z) y>x+y z$. Therefore the only numbers that can be equal are $x+y z$ and $(y+z) x$. In this case,\n\n$$\nx+y z=(y+z) x \\Longleftrightarrow(y-x)(z-x)=x(x-1)\n$$\n\nNow we can solve the items.\n(a) if $n / 20,2 \\leq s+10$, a contradiction. This implies that the sequence cannot have more than 16 terms. One idea to find a suitable sequence with 16 terms is considering cycles of 7 numbers. For instance, one can try\n\n$$\n-a,-a, b,-a,-a,-a, b,-a,-a, b,-a,-a,-a, b,-a,-a .\n$$\n\nThe sum of every seven consecutive numbers is $-5 a+2 b$ and the sum of every eleven consecutive numbers is $-8 a+3 b$, so $-5 a+2 b>0$ and $-8 a+3 b<0$, that is,\n\n$$\n\\frac{5 a}{2}