{"year": "2003", "tier": "T1", "problem_label": "1", "problem_type": null, "exam": "APMO", "problem": "Let $a, b, c, d, e, f$ be real numbers such that the polynomial\n\n$$\np(x)=x^{8}-4 x^{7}+7 x^{6}+a x^{5}+b x^{4}+c x^{3}+d x^{2}+e x+f\n$$\n\nfactorises into eight linear factors $x-x_{i}$, with $x_{i}>0$ for $i=1,2, \\ldots, 8$. Determine all possible values of $f$.", "solution": "From\n\n$$\nx^{8}-4 x^{7}+7 x^{6}+a x^{5}+b x^{4}+c x^{3}+d x^{2}+e x+f=\\left(x-x_{1}\\right)\\left(x-x_{2}\\right) \\ldots\\left(x-x_{8}\\right)\n$$\n\nwe have\n\n$$\n\\sum_{i=1}^{8} x_{i}=4 \\quad \\text { and } \\quad \\sum x_{i} x_{j}=7\n$$\n\nwhere the second sum is over all pairs $(i, j)$ of integers where $1 \\leq i2 p_{k}$, then $n$ divides $(n-k)$ !.", "solution": "(a) Note that $n-k=2 p_{k}-k<2 p_{k}-p_{k}=p_{k}$, so $p_{k} \\nmid(n-k)$ !, so $2 p_{k} \\nless(n-k)$ !. [1 mark]\n(b) Note that $n>2 p_{k} \\geq 3 k / 2$ implies $k<2 n / 3$, so $n-k>n / 3$. So if we can find integers $a, b \\geq 3$ such that $n=a b$ and $a \\neq b$, then both $a$ and $b$ will appear separately in the product $(n-k)!=1 \\times 2 \\times \\cdots \\times(n-k)$, which means $n \\mid(n-k)!$. Observe that $k \\geq 14$ implies $p_{k} \\geq 13$, so that $n>2 p_{k} \\geq 26$.\n\nIf $n=2^{\\alpha}$ for some integer $\\alpha \\geq 5$, then take $a=2^{2}, b=2^{\\alpha-2}$. [ 1 mark] Otherwise, since $n \\geq 26>16$, we can take $a$ to be an odd prime factor of $n$ and $b=n / a$ [1 mark], unless $b<3$ or $b=a$.\n\nCase (i): $b<3$. Since $n$ is composite, this means $b=2$, so that $2 a=n>2 p_{k}$. As $a$ is a prime number and $p_{k}$ is the largest prime number which is strictly less than $k$, it follows that $a \\geq k$. From $n-k=2 a-k \\geq$ $2 a-a=a>2$ we see that $n=2 a$ divides into $(n-k)$. [ 2 marks]\n\nCase (ii): $b=a$. Then $n=a^{2}$ and $a>6$ since $n \\geq 26$. Thus $n-k>n / 3=a^{2} / 3>2 a$, so that both $a$ and $2 a$ appear among $\\{1,2, \\ldots, n-k\\}$. Hence $n=a^{2}$ divides into $(n-k)!$. [2 marks]", "metadata": {"resource_path": "APMO/segmented/en-apmo2003_sol.jsonl", "problem_match": "\n3. ", "solution_match": "\nSolution."}} {"year": "2003", "tier": "T1", "problem_label": "4", "problem_type": null, "exam": "APMO", "problem": "Let $a, b, c$ be the sides of a triangle, with $a+b+c=1$, and let $n \\geq 2$ be an integer. Show that\n\n$$\n\\sqrt[n]{a^{n}+b^{n}}+\\sqrt[n]{b^{n}+c^{n}}+\\sqrt[n]{c^{n}+a^{n}}<1+\\frac{\\sqrt[n]{2}}{2}\n$$", "solution": "Without loss of generality, assume $a \\leq b \\leq c$. As $a+b>c$, we have\n\n$$\n\\frac{\\sqrt[n]{2}}{2}=\\frac{\\sqrt[n]{2}}{2}(a+b+c)>\\frac{\\sqrt[n]{2}}{2}(c+c)=\\sqrt[n]{2 c^{n}} \\geq \\sqrt[n]{b^{n}+c^{n}} \\quad \\quad[2 \\text { marks }]\n$$\n\nAs $a \\leq c$ and $n \\geq 2$, we have\n\n$$\n\\begin{aligned}\n\\left(c^{n}+a^{n}\\right)-\\left(c+\\frac{a}{2}\\right)^{n} & =a^{n}-\\sum_{k=1}^{n}\\binom{n}{k} c^{n-k}\\left(\\frac{a}{2}\\right)^{k} \\\\\n& \\leq\\left[1-\\sum_{k=1}^{n}\\binom{n}{k}\\left(\\frac{1}{2}\\right)^{k}\\right] a^{n} \\quad\\left(\\text { since } c^{n-k} \\geq a^{n-k}\\right) \\\\\n& =\\left[\\left(1-\\frac{n}{2}\\right)-\\sum_{k=2}^{n}\\binom{n}{k}\\left(\\frac{1}{2}\\right)^{k}\\right] a^{n}<0\n\\end{aligned}\n$$\n\nThus\n\n$$\n\\sqrt[n]{c^{n}+a^{n}}