50th IMO - 50 Years of International Mathematical Olympiads / Edition 1

by Hans-Dietrich Gronau, Hanns-Heinrich Langmann, Dierk Schleicher

Overview

In July 2009 Germany hosted the 50th International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO). For the very first time the number of participating countries exceeded 100, with 104 countries from all continents. Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the IMO provides an ideal opportunity to look back over the past five decades and to review its development to become a worldwide event. This book is a report about the 50th IMO as well as the IMO history. A lot of data about all the 50 IMOs are included. We list the most successful contestants, the results of the 50 Olympiads and the 112 countries that have ever taken part. It is impressive to see that many of the world’s leading research mathematicians were among the most successful IMO participants in their youth. Six of them gave presentations at a special celebration: Bollobás, Gowers, Lovász, Smirnov, Tao and Yoccoz. This book is aimed at students in the IMO age group and all those who have interest in this worldwide leading competition for highschool students.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783642145643
Publisher:	Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Publication date:	01/06/2011
Edition description:	2011
Pages:	297
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Prof. Dr. Hans-Dietrich Gronau is Professor of Mathematics at Rosk University, Rosk Dipl.Math. Hanns-Heinrich Langmann is a member of Bildung & Begabung e.V., Bundeswettbewerb Mathematik, Bonn Prof. Dr. Dierk Schleicher ist Professor of Mathematics at Jacobs University, Bremen

Table of Contents

Part I 50th International Mathematical Olympiad - Germany 2009

1 Committees 5

1.1 Imo Advisory Board 5

1.2 Steering Committee 5

1.3 Organizers 6

1.4 Problem Selection Committee 6

1.5 Jury 7

1.6 Coordinators 8

1.7 Invigilators 9

1.8 Guides 10

1.9 50th Imo Anniversary Committee 12

1.10 Volunteers 12

2 Regulations 13

3 Carl Friedrich Gauss, Curvature, and the Cover Art of the 50th Imo 21

4 Programme 27

4.1 Imo Programme Overview 27

4.2 Programme Details 28

4.3 Daily News 32

5 Participants 47

5.1 National Teams 48

5.2 Observer Countries 100

6 Mathematical Competition 101

6.1 Problems 103

6.2 Solutions 113

6.2.1 Problem 1-NumberTheory-Australia 113

6.2.2 Problem 2 - Geometry - Russia 116

6.2.3 Problem 3 - Algebra - United States 18

6.2.4 Problem 4 - Geometry - Belgium 120

6.2.5 Problem 5 - Algebra - France 122

6.2.6 Problem 6 - Combinatorics - Russia 123

6.3 Awards 126

6.3.1 Gold Medals-TopScores 126

6.3.2 Gold Medals 126

6.3.3 Silver Medals127

6.3.4 Bronze Medals 129

6.3.5 Honourable Mentions 131

6.4 Individual Scores 134

7 Mathematical Guests of Honour 155

7.1 Bela Bollobas 156

The Lion and the Christian, and Other Pursuit and Evasion Games 157

7.2 Timothy Gowers 169

How do Imo Problems Compare with Research Problems? 171

7.3 Laszlo Lovasz 185

Graph Theory Over 45 Years 187

7.4 Stanislav Smirnov 197

How do Research Problems Compare with Imo Problems? 199

7.5 Terence Tao 210

Structure and Randomness in the Prime Numbers 211

7.6 Jean-Christophe Yoccoz 217

Small Divisors: Number Theory in Dynamical Systems 219

Part II History: 50 Years International Mathematical Olympiads

8 Brief Survey 229

9 All Imos 233

10 All Countries 235

11 All Results 239

12 Memories 271

12.1 Mircea Becheanu 271

12.2 Istvan Reiman 274

12.3 Wolfgang Engel 277

12.4 Radu Gologan 282

13 Hall of Fame 285

14 The Golden Microphone Rafael Sanchez Lamoneda 291

A Imo Country Codes 295

Editorial Reviews

From the reviews:

“50^th IMO – 50 Years of International Mathematical Olympia is a pleasant, entertaining, and informative volume. This lovely book ‘is aimed at students in the IMO age group and seeks to demonstrate that mathematics is an active and lively subject, thousands of years old and yet young and fresh, as ever’ … . the book will be enjoyed by a wider audience. … a beautiful book and a very interesting read for every one who is interested in mathematics and the IMOs – even if marginally.” (Alex Bogomolny, The Mathematical Association of America, April, 2011)

From the Publisher