Luc TARTAR to John MACKEY, September 17, 2009

I consider your Putnam problem set 1 of August 25.

Your problem 1: One colours the squares black and white as on a checkerboard. Moving one bean horizontally
or vertically by one square changes the parity of the number of beans on white squares and the parity of
the number of beans on black squares, so that two moves do not change these parities. As there are 9 white
squares and 9 black squares, it is then impossible to gather all the beans on squares of the same colour (like
all the beans on one square), as there must always be an odd number of beans on each colour.
Remark 1: If one removes the two squares at the end of one of the diagonals of a checkerboard, then one
cannot cover what remains with dominos having the size of two adjacent squares, since a domino covers a
black square and a white square, and one has removed two squares of the same colour.
Almost twenty years ago, I heard an interesting variant from Michael ALBERT,1 and it might be from
a Putnam problem: one has a cubic box of ten units sides, so that its volume is 1000, and it is easy to fill it
with 250 boxes of size 1 × 1 × 4, but the problem is that one just has 248 of these boxes, and instead of the
missing two one wants to use a small cube of size 2, with the right volume 8. One cannot fill the big box
with these, and one way to prove it is to use 4 colours (i.e. if the integer coordinates are a, b, c, one takes
a + b + c modulo 4), and each box of size 1 × 1 × 4 uses the four colours exactly once, but the little cube
does not use the four colours exactly twice (as in the cube {0, 1}3 the sums 0 and 3 only appear once, but
the sums 1 or 2 appear three times).
Your problem 2: It seems to me that if there are 2 pirates left, the older decides to keep the 100 coins, and
give none to the other: since he/she votes yes for his/her plan, the other vote is irrelevant, and the older
being greedy gives him/her nothing. If there are 3 pirates left, the older decides to keep 99 coins, give none
to the second, and to give 1 to the third: the second votes no because his/her interest is that the older be
killed so that he/she gets 100 coins, and the third has no interest in voting no, since he/she would get 0 coin
instead of 1. If there are 4 pirates left, the older decides to keep 99 coins, give none to the second, give 1
to the third, and give none to the fourth: the second votes no because his/her interest is that the older be
killed so that he/she gets 99 coins, and the third has no interest in voting no, since he/she would get 0 coin
instead of 1, and the other vote is irrelevant, and the older being greedy gives him/her nothing. Finally, in
the case of 5 pirates, the older decides to keep 98 coins, give none to the second, give 1 to the third, give
none to the fourth, and give 1 to the fifth: the second votes no because his/her interest is that the older be
killed so that he/she gets 99 coins, and the third and fifth have no interest in voting no, since they would
get 0 coin instead of 1, and the other votes are irrelevant, and the older being greedy gives them nothing.
Your problem 3 (Putnam 1983-A1): How many positive integers n are such that n is an exact divisor of at
least one of the numbers
1040 , 2030 ?
Hint: As 1040 = 240 540 and 2030 = 260 530 , an integer n divides one of these two numbers if and only if
n = 2a 5b with either 0 ≤ a ≤ 40 and 0 ≤ b ≤ 40 or 0 ≤ a ≤ 60 and 0 ≤ b ≤ 30. A first subset is
0 ≤ a, b ≤ 40, and a second disjoint subset is 41 ≤ a ≤ 60, 0 ≤ b ≤ 30; the first set has 41 · 41 = 1681 integers
and the second has 20 · 31 = 620 integers, giving a total of 1681+620 = 2301 integers dividing one of the two
given numbers.
Your problem 4: If the smaller distance is 1 and the other (eventually absent) is a > 1, one takes one point
to be the origin O = (0, 0), the other to be A = (1, 0), and the circles of radius 1 centered at O or A
√

intersect at B = 21 , 23 and B. Then one draws the circles of radius a centered at O or A, which intersect
√
2
at C = 21 , 4a2 −1 and C, and if 1 < a ≤ 2 at D = (α, β), E = (1 − α, β), D and E, with α < 12 , β ≥ 0


2
√
a 4−a2
solutions of α2 + β 2 = 1 and (α − 1)2 + β 2 = a2 , so that α = 2−a
2 , and then β = 2 .

1
Michael ALBERT was a young algebraist from Canada, who was hired at CMU in 1987 (at the same time
than me). He took care of the Putnam preparation, and I think that he had been ranked well enough when
he was a student (in Waterloo, I think). The CMU team ranked in the first ten while he was in charge, and I
only started taking care of the Putnam preparation after he had left. I think that his wife (Susan MERCER)
is Australian, and they may have first gone to Australia, but after that they moved to New Zealand, where
they may still be.

1
 One of the points C, D, E together with O, A corresponds to an isosceles triangle, possibly degenerate
in the case {D, O, A} when a = 2, i.e. a segment with its middle; it is only for special values of a that one
may use two of these points with O, A, and the precise condition is that the distance between two of these
points be 1 or a.

2 √
2 √
The case |B − C| = 1 corresponds to a2 = 21 + 23 + 1 , i.e. a2 = 2 + 3; and a maximal set in this
case is {O, A, B, C}, which is a particular isosceles triangle (with angles 5π 5π π
12 , 12 , 6 ) together with its center.
This case is also found for |D − D| = 1. √
The case |B − D| = 1 corresponds also to |D − D| = a, and a = 3, and one maximal set is {O, A, D, D}
which corresponds to an equilateral triangle with its center, and another maximal set is {O, A, B, D}, which
is the same as {O, A, B, B} and corresponds to√a lozenge made of two equilateral triangles.
The case |D − E| = 1 corresponds to a = 2, and a maximal set is {O, A, D, E} which corresponds to
a square. √
2
The case |D − E| = a corresponds to α = 2−a 2 = 1−a
2 , i.e. a2
− a − 1 = 0, i.e. a = 1+ 5
2 , and as one
recognizes the features of a regular pentagon, the fifth point must be C, i.e. one must have |C − D| = 1 (and
one always has |C − D| = |C − E|); indeed, |C − D| = 1 gives this value of a but after a tedious calculation.2
The case |C − D| = a corresponds to an equilateral triangle with vertices A, C, D and side √
a, whose
altitude CH has been extended until O to have |C − O| = a, this shows that |H − O| = a − a 2 3 , and by
√

2 2 √
Pythagoras a − a 2 3 + a4 = 1, which gives a2 = 2−1√3 = 2 + 3, already found above for a different
configuration.
I hope that I have not forgotten a case!
Your problem 5 (Putnam1975-A2): For which ordered pairs of real numbers b, c do both roots of the equation

z2 + b z + c = 0

lie inside the unit disk {|z| < 1} in the complex plane?
Draw a reasonably accurate picture (i.e. ‘graph’) of the region in the real bc plane for which the above
condition holds. Identify precisely the boundary curves of this region.

2 2
I had not written a solution before: Because z + 2b = b4 − c one needs to have −1 < − 2b < +1, i.e.
−2 < b < +2.
2
In the case where b4 − c = `2 ≥ 0 with ` ≥ 0, the solutions are − 2b ± ` and one needs to have −1 + ` <
b2 b2
− 2b < 1 − `, i.e. |b| 2 2
2 < 1 − `; this implies 0 ≤ ` < 1, i.e. 4c ≤ b < 4c + 4, and 4 < (1 − `) = 1 − 2` + 4 − c,
i.e. 2` < 1 − c, which means c < 1 and 4`2 < (1 − c)2 , or b2 − 4c < 1 − 2c + c2 ; putting all these conditions
together gives −1 < c < +1 and 4c ≤ b2 < min{4c + 4, (1 + c)2 } = (1 + c)2 , the last inequality being
2
|b| < 1 + c. If one draws the parabola of equation c = b4 , the tangents at b = ±2 and c = +1 intersect at
b = 0 and c = −1, and the region for (b, c) is that between the two tangents and the parabola, including the
piece of parabola but not the pieces of the tangents.
2
In the case where b4 − c = −`2 ≤ 0 with ` ≥ 0, the solutions are − 2b ± i ` and one needs to have
b2 2
4 + ` < 1, i.e. c < 1, so the region for (b, c) is that above the parabola, and below the horizontal line c = 1,
including the piece of parabola but not the piece of the horizontal line.
Putting all this together gives the interior of the triangle with vertices (−2, +1), (+2 + 1), and (0, −1).

2 √
2
2 √
2 1
2 − α + 4a2 −1 − β = 1 and α2 + β 2 = 1 give β 4a2 − 1 = a2 − α; taking the square and using
again α2 + β 2 = 1 gives a6 − 2a4 − 2a2 + 1 = 0, so that X = a2 √satisfies X 3 − 2X
√
2
− 2X + 1 = 0, which after
2 3± 5 1+ 5
factorization of X + 1 gives X − 3X + 1 = 0, so that X = 2 , and a = 2 , since a > 1.