Using no more than high school algebra, here’s how to solve the infamous question 6 from the 1988 International Mathematics Olympiad.
Motivation
This problem has a reputation for being one of the hardest, and perhaps the hardest, IMO problem of all time. And you can solve it only using high school algebra. Struggling through and understanding the solution will do several really cool things for you, but will take time, so motivation is essential.
First, you’ll understand that you can help advance mathematics. I spent several days solving this problem, whereas in the competition they have 4 and a half hours for 3 questions. But I’m not amazing at mathematics — I’m an undergraduate economist. I do maths for fun, and I didn’t give up. You don’t need to be a genius to be a good mathematician. If you work hard, you will be able to solve really hard problems and, maybe one day that will be solving hard research problems. In real life, it doesn’t matter if you are slower than the super geniuses, because there aren’t enough super geniuses to go round. We need ordinary people to work hard and solve problems. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and nor was it built by one person!
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