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34 votes
3 answers
5k views

A trigonometric equation: how hard could it be?

The following problem started out with a formulation in terms of complex numbers: let $\epsilon=e^{\frac{\pi i}3}$ and $z=e^{\frac{2\pi i}{3(2n-1)}}$. It's rather amusing that the following appears to ...
T. Amdeberhan's user avatar
17 votes
0 answers
891 views

An elementary proof that, for every fixed $n \in \mathbf N^+$, there are infinitely many primes $\equiv -1 \bmod n$

This morning, I made a comment to a comment to a question of Ayman Moussa, only to point out that, among many others, there is an elementary proof of Dirichlet's theorem on the existence of infinitely ...
Salvo Tringali's user avatar
16 votes
6 answers
2k views

Alternative proofs sought after for a certain identity

Here is an identity for which I outlined two different arguments. I'm collecting further alternative proofs, so QUESTION. can you provide another verification for the problem below? Problem. Prove ...
T. Amdeberhan's user avatar
11 votes
3 answers
2k views

Does anyone recognize this inequality?

In some paper the authors make use of the following inequality without further explanation: Let $x\in\mathbb{R}^n$ with $x_1\le\cdots\le x_n$ and $\alpha\in[0,1]^n$ with $\sum_{i=1}^n \alpha_i=N\in\{1,...
Robert Rauch's user avatar
9 votes
2 answers
1k views

A tricky integral to evaluate

I came across this integral in some work. So, I would like to ask: QUESTION. Can you evaluate this integral with proofs? $$\int_0^1\frac{\log x\cdot\log(x+2)}{x+1}\,dx.$$
T. Amdeberhan's user avatar
8 votes
2 answers
325 views

A link between hooks and contents: Part II

This is a question in the spirit of an earlier problem. Let $\lambda$ be an integer partition: $\lambda=(\lambda_1\geq\lambda_2\geq\dots\geq0)$. Recall also the notation for the content of a cell $...
T. Amdeberhan's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
243 views

Five cubes, Hadamard and Shklyarskiy

Here is my(=bad) translation of from the paper about Shklyarskiy by Golovina: ... in 1937/38 Dodik presented to school students a complete proof of Abel's theorem about equations of degree 5. He ...
Anton Petrunin's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
1k views

Products and sum of cubes in Fibonacci

Consider the familiar sequence of Fibonacci numbers: $F_0=0, F_1=1, F_n=F_{n-1}+F_{n-2}$. Although it is rather easy to furnish an algebraic verification of the below identity, I wish to see a ...
T. Amdeberhan's user avatar
6 votes
5 answers
944 views

Combinatorial proof of Catalan's identity

Consider the problem of tiling a board of length $n$ with squares of size $1×1$ and dominoes of size $1×2$, Let's denote $f_n$ to be the number of ways to tile this so-called ($n$)-board.Then $f_n=F_{...
user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
835 views

Beauty of some numbers discovered by Ramanujan

I am a graduate PhD student and my topic is analytic number theory. I am also a mathematics teacher. I am planning to give a course to pupils in high school that motivates them to study arithmetic and ...
Khadija Mbarki's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
590 views

The constant $e$ represented by an infinite series

In this Wikipedia article the constant $\pi$ is represented by the following infinite series: $$\pi=1+\frac{1}{2}+\frac{1}{3}+\frac{1}{4}-\frac{1}{5}+\frac{1}{6}+\frac{1}{7}+\frac{1}{8}+\frac{1}{9}-\...
Pedja's user avatar
  • 2,661
4 votes
2 answers
593 views

Squares in Lucas sequences

Good night, everyone! According to a celebrated result by J. H. Cohn, the only perfect squares in the Fibonacci sequence are $F_{0}=0$, $F_{1}=F_{2}=1$, and $F_{12}=144$. It is also known that the ...
Jamai-Con's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
582 views

Checking elementary proofs with proof checkers

I am not sure if this is the right place to post this, but I have seen discussions related to proof checking here, so let me post it. If there is better place for it, please give me a hint as to where ...
EGME's user avatar
  • 1,018
3 votes
0 answers
98 views

Hales' generalization of the stacked bases theorem (seeking a proof)

In his paper Analogues of the stacked bases theorem, published in the proceedings of a 1976 conference, A.W. Hales claimed some interesting generalizations of the stacked bases theorem for abelian ...
Jose Brox's user avatar
  • 2,992
2 votes
1 answer
377 views

Prove positivity of rational functions

We say a rational function $F(z)$ is positive if the coefficients of its Maclaurin expansion, in the variable $z$, are non-negative. In this context, let $$F_r(z):=\frac{1 - 2z + z^r - (1 - z)^r}{(1 - ...
T. Amdeberhan's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
509 views

Under what condition does Courant–Fischer–Weyl min-max principle hold in general?

From Wikipedia: Let $A$ be an $n \times n$ Hermitian matrix. As with many other variational results on eigenvalues, one considers the Rayleigh–Ritz quotient $R_A : \mathbf C^n \setminus \{0\} \to \...
Fraïssé's user avatar
  • 155
2 votes
0 answers
147 views

Asking for a combinatorial proof of a binomial-sum

QUESTION. Is there a combinatorial proof of the below identity? $$\sum_{k=0}^{n-1}\frac{2^{2k}}{2k+1}\frac{\binom{2n}n}{\binom{2k}k}=2^{2n}-\binom{2n}n.$$ REMARK. There are many other proofs (...
T. Amdeberhan's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
183 views

A binomial convolution of Catalan numbers vs "utterly odd numbers"

An integer is called utterly odd if the terminal string of $1$’s in its binary representation has odd length. A number $2^{k+1}m+(2^k-1)$ where $m\geq0$ (every non-negative integer has this form) is ...
T. Amdeberhan's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
117 views

Product/quotient of factorials beget dyadic powers

I am writing up some notes and the following occurred to me and I would like to see if there are a variety of ways to prove it. Just for reference, the identity pops out of equality between constant ...
T. Amdeberhan's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
112 views

The $p$-adic valuation of powers of consecutive integers

Let $n > 0, K > 0$ integers and, for $i \in \{1,...,n\}$, let $k_i$ and $l_i$ be integers such that $k_i + l_i = K$. Assume that for some $i,j \in \{1,...,n\}$ we have $k_i \neq k_j$. Claim: ...
Daniel W.'s user avatar
  • 365
1 vote
0 answers
207 views

Proofs for almost prime limits

A number $n$ with prime factorization $$n=\prod_{i=1}^rp_i^{a_i}$$ is a k-almost prime if it has a sum of exponents $$\sum_{i=1}^{r}a_i=k$$ i.e., when the prime factor (multiprimality) function $\...
martin's user avatar
  • 1,903