The 55th William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition
Saturday, December 3, 1994
A1 Suppose that a sequence a1 , a2 , a3 , . . . satisfies 0 < of integers, then at most 512 of the functions in F map
an ≤P∞a2n + a2n+1 for all n ≥ 1. Prove that the se- A to itself.
ries n=1 an diverges.
B1 Find all positive integers n that are within 250 of exactly
A2 Let A be the area of the region in the first quadrant 15 perfect squares.
bounded by the line y = 12 x, the x-axis, and the el-
lipse 91 x2 + y 2 = 1. Find the positive number m such B2 For which real numbers c is there a straight line that
that A is equal to the area of the region in the first quad- intersects the curve
rant bounded by the line y = mx, the y-axis, and the
ellipse 91 x2 + y 2 = 1. x4 + 9x3 + cx2 + 9x + 4
A3 Show that if the points of an isosceles right triangle of
in four distinct points?
side length 1 are each colored with one of four colors,
then there must be two points
√ of the same color whch
are at least a distance 2 − 2 apart. B3 Find the set of all real numbers k with the following
property: For any positive, differentiable function f that
A4 Let A and B be 2 × 2 matrices with integer entries such satisfies f 0 (x) > f (x) for all x, there is some number
that A, A + B, A + 2B, A + 3B, and A + 4B are all N such that f (x) > ekx for all x > N .
invertible matrices whose inverses have integer entries. B4 For n ≥ 1, let dn be the greatest common divisor of the
Show that A + 5B is invertible and that its inverse has entries of An − I, where
integer entries.
3 2 1 0
A5 Let (rn )n≥0 be a sequence of positive real numbers A= and I = .
4 3 0 1
such that limn→∞ rn = 0. Let S be the set of num-
bers representable as a sum Show that limn→∞ dn = ∞.
ri1 + ri2 + · · · + ri1994 , B5 For any real number α, define the function fα (x) =
bαxc. Let n be a positive integer. Show that there exists
with i1 < i2 < · · · < i1994 . Show that every nonempty
an α such that for 1 ≤ k ≤ n,
interval (a, b) contains a nonempty subinterval (c, d)
that does not intersect S.
fαk (n2 ) = n2 − k = fαk (n2 ).
A6 Let f1 , . . . , f10 be bijections of the set of integers such
that for each integer n, there is some composition fi1 ◦ B6 For any integer n, set
fi2 ◦ · · · ◦ fim of these functions (allowing repetitions)
which maps 0 to n. Consider the set of 1024 functions na = 101a − 100 · 2a .
F = {f1e1 ◦ f2e2 ◦ · · · ◦ f10
e10
},
Show that for 0 ≤ a, b, c, d ≤ 99, na + nb ≡ nc + nd
ei = 0 or 1 for 1 ≤ i ≤ 10. (fi0
is the identity function (mod 10100) implies {a, b} = {c, d}.
and fi1 = fi .) Show that if A is any nonempty finite set
