
Creating and manipulating expressions and formulae
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problem
There and back
Brian swims at twice the speed that a river is flowing, downstream from one moored boat to another and back again, taking 12 minutes altogether. How long would it have taken him in still water? -
problem
Quadratic harmony
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. -
problem
Mechanical integration
To find the integral of a polynomial, evaluate it at some special points and add multiples of these values. -
problem
W mates
Show there are exactly 12 magic labellings of the Magic W using the numbers 1 to 9. Prove that for every labelling with a magic total T there is a corresponding labelling with a magic total 30-T. -
problem
Magic W
Find all the ways of placing the numbers 1 to 9 on a W shape, with 3 numbers on each leg, so that each set of 3 numbers has the same total.
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problem
Diverging
Show that for natural numbers x and y if x/y > 1 then x/y>(x+1)/(y+1}>1. Hence prove that the product for i=1 to n of [(2i)/(2i-1)] tends to infinity as n tends to infinity. -
problem
Pair squares
The sum of any two of the numbers 2, 34 and 47 is a perfect square. Choose three square numbers and find sets of three integers with this property. Generalise to four integers. -
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Reciprocals
Prove that the product of the sum of n positive numbers with the sum of their reciprocals is not less than n^2.