Chinese IMO Team Selection Test 1999

Time: 4.5 hours each day.

First Day
1. Let x1 , x2 , . . . , xn be positive reals whose sum equals 1. Find the maximum posn

sible value of

(x4i x5i ).

i=1

2. Find all prime numbers p with the property that, for all primes q, the remainer of
p upon division by q is squarefree (i.e. not divisible by any square greater than
1).
3. Find the least n for which there exist n subsets A1 , A2 , . . . , An of set S =
{1, 2, . . . , 15} satisfying:
(i) |Ai | = 7 for all i;
(ii) |Ai A j | 3 for any two distinct i, j;
(iii) for any 3-element subset M S there is an Ak containing M.
Second Day
4. Let a circle touch the sides AB, BC of a convex quadrilateral ABCD at G and H
and intersect AC at E and F. Find the condition ABCD must satisfy in order to
exist a circle passing through E, F and touching DA, DC.
5. Let m be an even positive integer.
(a) Show that there exist integers x1 , x2 , . . . , x2m such that xi xi+m = xi+1xi+m1 +
1 for i = 1, 2, . . . , m 1.
(b) Prove that, if x1 , x2 , . . . , x2m satisfy (a), one can construct an infinite sequence (yk )kZ of integers such that yi = xi for i = 1, . . . , 2m and yk yk+m =
yk+1 yk+m1 + 1 for all integers k.
6. For all permutations = (x1 , . . . , x10 ) of numbers 1, 2, . . . , 10, define
10

S( ) = |2xi 3xi+1|
i=1

(where x11 = x1 ). Find the maximum and minimum values of S( ) and all the
permutations for which those are attained.

The IMO Compendium Group,

D. Djukic, V. Jankovic, I. Matic, N. Petrovic
www.imomath.com