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International Mathematical Internet Olym

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International Mathematical Internet Olym

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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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International Mathematical Internet Olympiad

Alexander Domoshnitsky
Roman Yavich
Vadim Bugaenko,
Ariel University Center, Ariel, Israel

Alexei Kannel-Belov
Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel

ABSTRACT solve, say four problems does not look like a failure in
comparison with the result of a winner who solved six or
Modern Internet technologies open new possibilities in seven problems.
wide spectrum of traditional methods used in We start the project Mathematical Internet Olympiads in
mathematical education. One of the areas, where these 2006. Usually they lasts for four hours during which the
technologies can be efficiently used, is an organization of web site with the Olympiad problems has more than four
mathematical competitions. Contestants can stay at their thousand hits. Thousands students from more than 30
schools or universities and try to solve as many countries took part in these competitions. They
mathematical problems as possible and then submit their represented countries from Brazil and the USA in the
solutions through Internet. Simple Internet technologies west to Vietnam in the east. Among the Olympiad
supply audio and video connection between participants laureates there are prize winners of national and
and organizers. international competitions from Russia, Ukraine,
Armenia, Brazil, Georgia, and Israel. The headquarters of
Keywords: Mathematical Competitions, Internet the Olympiad were located in the Ariel University
Olympiads for students, Internet Olympiads, Internet Center, Israel.
technologies
The important characteristic feature of our Olympiad is
Mathematical competitions the use of the Internet. Thus students from different parts
There are a lot of students’ contests today on different of the world get a chance to participate. The Olympiad
subjects, including math. Generally speaking, these starts with the opening of the web site where the
competitions belong to one of the two types. First, there problems are listed, and after the allotted time the
are contests targeted at `professionals’, one should have contestants must send their solutions to the jury by email.
certain advance training to solve problems there. A In the course of the Olympiad the participants can ask
beginner has almost no chance to succeed. Even the questions about the problems online. Audio and video
wording of a problem could be unfamiliar for him or her. connection was established with some of the locations at
Most probably a novice will not be able to solve which the Olympiad was held. The same technical tools
anything, and the effect will be negative. Rather than to are used at the closing ceremony.
arouse interest in math the experience will only lead to
disappointment and diffidence. A contest of the other The use of internet technologies
type is organized with mass participation in mind. Its Our first Olympiad was held in 2006, with the
problems are accessible for a beginner, to solve them one participation of Israeli students only. It came as a surprise
just needs some level of quick-wittedness. Moreover, for the organizers that not only future mathematicians,
some problems are not that much different from exercises physicists and engineers responded to the invitation to
which students solve in class. However, such contests are participate, but also students of other specializations,
usually of no interest for strong students. Olympiad even nursing students. The number of participants grows
`professionals’ do not care to participate, it is `not cool’ each year, and the Olympiad became international
for them. already in its second year: universities of Russia,
Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria and Germany joined it.
Is it possible to come up with a contest format that is Students from 35 universities of 19 countries participated
attractive and beneficial for an Olympiad professional in the last Olympiad.
and a beginner alike? We tried to find such an optimal
format. We proposed to the participants a large number of Due to collaboration with the Russian National
problems. Their list included simple enough problems as Accreditation Agency in the Sphere of Education and its
well as quite difficult ones. So each participant could head V.G.Navodnov the final round of the Olympiads in
choose problems of appropriate level. However problems 2009- 2011 were combined with the final round of the
were evaluated not equally: the score for the solution of All-Russian students’ mathematical Internet-Olympiad.
an individual problem was inversely proportional to the We view such collaboration to be quite effective and we
number of participants who solved it. Thus actually only plan to continue and extend it.
difficult problems influenced the results of the winners.
On the other hand, when problems are selected in such a Below we present the problems proposed to the
way, there are almost no empty papers, because even participants of the Olympiad round of December 17,
weaker students can find some problems feasible for 2009 and the statistics of solutions. More info, in
them. Thus the result of a beginner who managed to particular the solutions of the previous International

50 SYSTEMICS, CYBERNETICS AND INFORMATICS VOLUME 10 - NUMBER 5 - YEAR 2012 ISSN: 1690-4524
Mathematical Internet Olympiads, can be found at the Find the volume of the intersection of the
Olympiad site: www.i-olymp.net . cylinders.

Problems 11. A professor has formulated n statements


1. At a primeval market one could exchange a
mammoth skin for two saber toothed tiger
A1 , A2 , . . . , An . He gives his postgraduate
skins, and a peacock feather skirt for three
stone spears. At another market, located one students subjects for dissertations: “
Ai implies
day away from the first one, one could Aj
exchange a mammoth skin for three peacock ”. No dissertation should be a direct logical
skirts, and a tiger skin for four spears. All consequence of previously given ones. What is
exchanges could be done both ways. A hunter the maximal number of students that the
brings a mammoth skin to the first market and professor could have?
wants to exchange it for four tiger skins. Could
he do this in 33 days? f ( x, y)
12. Let be an infinitely differentiable
1 function of two variables with a local minimum
lim x ln x at the origin, and let this function have no other
2. Find x  . {\it critical} points. Is it true that the minimum
is global? (A point is called critical if both

3. Is the function ln x   
x 2  1 even, odd or
partial derivatives ∂f/dx and ∂f/dy at it equal
zero).
neither of these two?
Solutions
4. Bassil executes a parachute jump with constant 1. Answer: Yes. Firstly, let us note that the hunter
speed v , while his friend Michael rides a can exchange a mammoth skin for 9 spears in
Ferris wheel which rotates with constant speed. two days. In order to do so, he has to first
(The initial point of Bassil's jump is higher than exchange it for three peacock-feather skirts at
the uppermost point of the Ferris wheel). At the the second market, and then exchange each of
moment of Bassil's landing the cabin in which
Michael sits is at the lowest point (at the the skirts for three spears at the first market.
ground level). It is known that during Bassil's Note also that in two days the hunter can get
descent the friends were at the same height mammoth skin for only 8 spears. First, he has
precisely four times. Find the vertical to exchange the spears for 2 tiger skins at the
component of Michael's speed at the moment second market, and then exchange the tiger
when they found themselves at the same height skins for one mammoth skin at the first. Thus,
for the first time. (You may consider the two
every four days the hunter can add one spear to
boys to be points).
his belongings. If the hunter continues
5. How many solutions does the equation repeating the above cycle, then on the thirty
first day (the third day of the eighth cycle) he
x 2
2 x
have? will find himself at the second market, with 16
spears. These spears can be exchanged for 4
6. Let A and B be arbitrary non-zero matrices of tiger skins. Therefore, the hunter can achieve
the second order. Prove that there exists a
his goal in 31 days.
matrix C such that A C  B  0

7. Find the minimal value of the expression 2. Answer: . Let us transform the function

x  19602  y 2  x 2   y  441
2

. Therefore,

8. Find a non-zero polynomial with integer .


coefficients with a root
5
2 1  5 2 1 . 3. Answer: The function is odd. Denote given

function by . We have
9. Two numbers are chosen randomly in the
segment [0,1]. Calculate the probability that the
square of the first number is greater than the
second one.

10. The axes of two cylinders, the radiuses of


which equal 1, intersect and are perpendicular.

ISSN: 1690-4524 SYSTEMICS, CYBERNETICS AND INFORMATICS VOLUME 10 - NUMBER 5 - YEAR 2012 51
except the maximal one, twice – once in the
(  x  x 2  1)
f ( x)  ln(  x  ( x) 2  1)  ln 
x  x2  1 interval and once in the interval

ln
1
x  x2  1
 
  ln x  x 2  1   f ( x) . Therefore, the equation has two
positive roots, one in each of these intervals.
. They are , and .

6. Remember that in a two-dimensional space


Equality = denotes that the
every second-order matrix is a linear operator.
function is odd. The following three statements are equivalent:
“The operator matrix does not equal zero”;
4. Answer: . The graph that depicts the changes “There exists a vector which does not belong to
the kernel of the operator”; “The image of the
in--Michael's altitude—is--asinusoid operator contains a nonzero vector”. The
, while product of the matrices corresponds to the
composition of the operators, starting with the
the graph that depicts the changes in Bassil's
last factor and ending with the first. Let us
altitude is a straight line . 
examine the vector w KerA , then
The two graphs are shown together in the figure  
below. It can be seen clearly that this is the A( w)  0. Let us also examine the nonzero
only natural position of the graphs for which  
the first intersection point is the point of vector v  Im B , then a vector u must
 
tangency. Therefore, at this point the
exist, such that
B(u )  v . Let us choose an
derivatives of these two functions are equal,  
which means that the sought for speed is equal operator C , such that
C (v )  w . Then,
to the speed of Bassil's descent.    
ACB (u )  AC (v )  A(w)  0 . Thus,
5. Answer: 3 roots. In the interval
the kernel of the operator contains a
the function nonzero vector, which means that the operator's
matrix does not equal zero.
decreases from to 0, and the function
Note: This problem can also be solved by
increases from 0 to 1. Therefore, in this composing and solving a system of linear
interval the equation has only one root. If
equations, where the elements of the matrix
, then , , and are the unknowns, and the elements of the
therefore in this interval the equation has no matrices and are parameters.
roots. Let us examine the interval
7. Answer: 2009. This expression is equal to the
. Our equation is equivalent to the
sum of the distances from point , to
equation . Let us examine the points and .
behavior of the function According to inequality of triangle this
regarding monotony and extrema. Its derivative expression takes the minimal value at all points
1
(1  ln x) x x of the segment , and this minimum is equal

equals to x2 . Therefore, the function to the distance between points and , i.e.

increases in the interval , has its .

maximum at , and decreases in the 8. Answer: One of such a polynomials is


interval . In addition, +5 +5 -2=0. Let us use the following
. identities:
That means that in this interval the function (1)
takes each value from the range of values,

(2)

52 SYSTEMICS, CYBERNETICS AND INFORMATICS VOLUME 10 - NUMBER 5 - YEAR 2012 ISSN: 1690-4524
Assume . It axis at a point with coordinate , is a circle, the

can be easily shown that , radius of which equals . Therefore,


the ratio of the cross-section areas always
. Let . It follows
equals . Thus, the volume of the body can
from (1) that , and if
be obtained by dividing the volume of the
follows from (2) that
sphere (which equals ) by .

11. Answer: . Let us begin by demonstrating


Hence .
that the professor can formulate

9. Answer: . The two numbers that have been acceptable subjects for dissertations. Let us
chosen, and , can be seen as coordinates of assume that the professor asks that all other statements be
a point situated within a unit square on the derived from , and statements with greater numbers be
coordinate plane. The sought for probability is
derived from , and then , etc. As a result he will
equal to the ratio of the area of the part of the
square where to the area of the whole have subjects. After that he can assign another
square. The area of the square equals 1, while
the area of the part of the square equals subjects by deriving all the previous statements
from the last one in descending order. Thus, he will now
. Therefore, the sought for
have subjects. The condition that none of
probability equals .
the dissertations must be a direct logical consequence of
previously defended ones can be checked easily.
10. Answer: . Let us introduce a coordinate axis
Now, let us assume that the professor has formulated a
perpendicular to the axes of the cylinders, with list of subjects, and prove that it contains no more than
origin at the point where the cylinders intersect.
items. Let us denote all the statements as
The cross-section of the body we are examining
by a plane perpendicular to our axis, which points on a plane, and for each line to point . Let
intersects our axis at a point with coordinate , us prove that the number of double-headed arrows will be
is a square, the side of which equals
no greater than . In order to do that we examine
(where ). The an undirected graph, the edges of which are double-
required volume can be expressed as an integral headed arrows. Suppose that it contains a cycle. If so, the
of the cross-section area: last dissertation of this cycle will be a consequence of
those that were defended earlier, which contradicts the
condition. Therefore, the graph must be a tree. All that
we have to do now is use the known theorem, according
Note. This problem can also be solved without to which the number of edges of any tree is smaller than
integration, using Cavalieri's principle which the number of its apexes. Let us calculate the maximal
can be formulated in the following way: if for
possible number of arrows. We have pairs of
two regions in three-space (solids) included
between two parallel planes, every plane
points . No more than of them are
parallel to these two planes intersects both
regions in cross-sections of equal area, then the connected by double-headed arrows. The remaining
two regions have equal volumes. . are either connected by single-headed
Let us compare the cross-sections of the body arrows or not connected at all. Therefore, the total
which we are examining to those of a sphere, number of arrows (i.e., the number of possible subjects
the radius of which equals 1, and the center of for dissertations) can be no greater than
which is at the intersection of the cylinders. The
.
cross-section of this sphere by a plane
perpendicular to our axis, which intersects our

ISSN: 1690-4524 SYSTEMICS, CYBERNETICS AND INFORMATICS VOLUME 10 - NUMBER 5 - YEAR 2012 53
12. Answer: Wrong. In order to construct a
equals at . In order to check the properties
counterexample, let us first find two differentiable
given in the problem, we must find the critical points of
functions and , such that:
the function . The condition is

a) for any ;
equivalent to either or . But
and and
b) the derivative
u ' ( x) equals 0 only when x =0, the
point x =0 is the minimum of function u ; therefore, the condition is possible only in the

v' ( x) never equals 0. first case and only at . Thus, has the
c) the derivative
unique critical point is the origin, which is a local
minimum.
For example, let's consider the following two functions:
This minimum is not global since
.
for any fixed , which

Now, we can find the desired counterexample in the means that . Thus, the sought for
form: counterexample is:

When the value of x is fixed, this function is a cubic


polynomial, which has two local extrema: a minimum
which equals at , and a maximum which

Statistics

Problem no 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Number of 256 296 226 29 65 32 139 57 119 79 1 24

solutions

REFERENCES

A. Domoshnitsky, R. Yavich - The Internet Mathematical Olympiad for University Students and Some Thoughts on the Role of
Competitions in the General Context of Mathematical Education // Mathematics Competitions, Journal of the Word Federation of
National Mathematics Competitions, Australia ,ISSN 1031-7503, Volume 24,Number 1, 2011. pp. 11-21

54 SYSTEMICS, CYBERNETICS AND INFORMATICS VOLUME 10 - NUMBER 5 - YEAR 2012 ISSN: 1690-4524

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