Creating and manipulating expressions and formulae

  • Quadratic Harmony
    problem
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    Quadratic Harmony

    Age
    16 to 18
    Challenge level
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    Find all positive integers a and b for which the two equations: x^2-ax+b = 0 and x^2-bx+a = 0 both have positive integer solutions.

  • System Speak
    problem
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    System Speak

    Age
    16 to 18
    Challenge level
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    Five equations... five unknowns... can you solve the system?
  • Sums of Squares
    problem
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    Sums of Squares

    Age
    16 to 18
    Challenge level
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    Can you prove that twice the sum of two squares always gives the sum of two squares?

  • Binomial
    problem
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    Binomial

    Age
    16 to 18
    Challenge level
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    By considering powers of (1+x), show that the sum of the squares of the binomial coefficients from 0 to n is 2nCn

  • Mechanical Integration
    problem
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    Mechanical Integration

    Age
    16 to 18
    Challenge level
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    To find the integral of a polynomial, evaluate it at some special points and add multiples of these values.

  • Absurdity Again
    problem

    Absurdity Again

    Age
    16 to 18
    Challenge level
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    What is the value of the integers a and b where sqrt(8-4sqrt3) = sqrt a - sqrt b?
  • Old Nuts
    problem

    Old Nuts

    Age
    16 to 18
    Challenge level
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    In turn 4 people throw away three nuts from a pile and hide a quarter of the remainder finally leaving a multiple of 4 nuts. How many nuts were at the start?
  • Incircles
    problem

    Incircles

    Age
    16 to 18
    Challenge level
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    The incircles of 3, 4, 5 and of 5, 12, 13 right angled triangles have radii 1 and 2 units respectively. What about triangles with an inradius of 3, 4 or 5 or ...?
  • Reciprocals
    problem

    Reciprocals

    Age
    16 to 18
    Challenge level
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    Prove that the product of the sum of n positive numbers with the sum of their reciprocals is not less than n^2.
  • Plum Tree
    problem

    Plum Tree

    Age
    14 to 18
    Challenge level
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    Label this plum tree graph to make it totally magic!