Stanford University Mathematics Camp (SUMaC) 2014

Admission Exam

Solve as many of the following problems as you can.

Although SUMaC admission is competitive, correct answers to every problem is not required
for admission to SUMaC. Your work on these problems together with your grades, teacher
recommendations, and answers to questions on the application form, are all used to evaluate
your application and compare it to other applicants to the program.

There is no time limit for this exam other than the application deadline of March 12.

Feel free to report partial progress toward a solution, in the event you are unable to solve a
problem completely.

Please include detailed explanations with all of your answers; numerical answers or formulas
with no explanation are of little value in consideration for admission to SUMaC.

None of these problems require a calculator or computer.

You are expected to do your own work. If you receive help from someone, or if you use any
outside source (books, articles, internet, etc.), you should indicate to what extent you received
help. For example, if true, you should write, After several hours of work on this problem, I
received the following hint from my math teacher. . . .

1. What is the largest prime factor of ? (Note that is the product of the first positive integers,
so

2. The number 9376 has the property that the last four digits of are 9376. How many four-digit numbers have
this property? Are there values of greater than 4 such that there is at least one -digit number that has the
property that the last digits of are the digits of ?

3. Let be the greatest integer , and let be the least integer . Thus and . Sometimes
is called the floor of and is called the ceiling of . Show that the expression

is always equal to or . In what circumstances does each case arise?

4. Find a polynomial with integer coefficients for which is a root. That is find such that for
some non-negative integer , and integers

and ( ) .

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 Stanford University Mathematics Camp (SUMaC) 2014

5. Let be the set of all integers of the form where and are integers.

i. Show that if and are in , then is in .

ii. Show that 121 is in .
iii. Show that 11 is not in .
iv. Show that the equation has infinitely many integer solutions.

6. Suppose is a polynomial with integer coefficients. Show that if for some integer a then has
at most two integer roots.

7. Let , , and denote 3 different colors, and if and are among , , and , let denote the result of
mixing the colors and ; in each case is among the colors , , and . This is a hypothetical situation that
is not meant to pertain to actually mixing light, or paint, or any other physical entity. Suppose that mixing these
colors satisfies the following rules.

i. , for each color . (Mixing a color with itself results in that color.)
ii. , for all colors and . (Mixing with is the same as mixing with .)
iii. , for all colors , , and . (The order in which you mix the colors doesnt matter.)
iv. , for each color . (Color is clear; that is, mixed with another color is that color.)

Show that there is a color among , , and that absorbs all colors in the sense that mixed with anything is
( , , and .) Note that you are not being asked to show which of the colors absorbs all
colors, but only that one of the colors has this property.

8. An equilateral triangle has sides of length 1 cm.

(a) Show that if five points lie in this triangle (on the sides or in the interior), then at least two of the points
lie no farther than .5 cm apart.
(b) Show that .5 (in part (a)) cannot be replaced by a smaller number even if there are 6 points.
(c) If there are eight points, can .5 be replaced by a smaller number? Prove your answer.

9. In the game of n-bit Binary Lottery players try to correctly guess a randomly selected sequence of n zeros and
ones. Players purchase lottery tickets, and for each ticket purchased, the player can select an n-bit sequence of
zeros and ones. Then a sequence of n zeros and ones is selected at random. A prize is awarded to each player
whose ticket is either an exact match of the randomly selected one, or differs from the randomly selected
sequence in only one place. For example in 4-bit Binary Lottery, if the randomly selected sequence is 0100 then
the following tickets win prizes: 0100 (the randomly selected sequence itself) as well as 1100, 0000, 0110, and
0101 (the four sequences obtained by changing the randomly selected sequence in one place).

(a) In terms of n, what is the smallest number of tickets you need to purchase in n-bit Binary Lottery in order to
guarantee that you match the randomly selected sequence exactly.
(b) In terms of n, how many different winning tickets are there in n-bit Binary Lottery?
(c) What is the smallest number of tickets you need to purchase to guarantee that you win in 4-bit binary lottery?
Justify your answer.
(d) What is the smallest number of tickets you need to purchase to guarantee that you win in 5-bit binary lottery?
Justify your answer.