1

Compulsory Questions

Questions 1-15 are worth 1 mark, 16-20 2 marks, 21-25 3 marks.

1. Find the roots of the function f (x) = x2 + 3x + 2
2. How many prime numbers are there?
3. What are the first 5 digits of the decimal expansion of ?
4. How do you write 20 in binary?
5. Is 30941133152 divisible by 3?
6. Is 0.999... = 1?
7. Compute 1 + 2 + 3 + ... + 100.
8. What is the probability of getting 3 Heads in a row with a fair coin?
P
9. What is n=1 21n ?
10. Sketch the set S = {(x, y) : (x, y) R R, x2 + y 2 = 1}
11. What is the prime factorisation of 1680?
12. What is
13. What is

d
2
dx (sin (x)

R1
0

+ cos2 (x))?

x3 dx?

14. Find hcf (144, 308)

15. State Fermats Last Theorem.
16. What are the first 5 digits of the decimal expansion of e?
17. What is
18. What is

d 2 x
dx x e

R
0

sin(x)cos(x)dx?

19. If you score 85% or above in a class, then you get an A. Since you got
an A, you must have scored 85% or above in the class. True or False?
20. I put my umbrella in my bag if it rains. I did not put my umbrella in
my bag, therefore it is not raining. True of False?
21. What is the last digit of 224 ?
22. Find all solutions to the equation z 5 = 2, where z C.
23. Name a Mathematics prize.
24. State one of the Clay Mathematics Institute Millennium Problems.
25. If I am a girl and I am not a girl, then 1 + 1 = 3. True or False?
1

Infinities!

In Set Theory, we say two sets A and B have the same cardinality (size) if you
can arrange elements between A and B into an one-to-one correspondence. Here
is an example:
Example. Let A = {1, 2, 3} and B = {Joanne, Brian, Adrian}. I can define
an one-to-one correspondence between A and B by mapping
1 Joanne
,
2 Brian
,
3 Adrian
.
Hence A and B have the same cardinality.
The essential idea is that you can pair up the elements in A and B. Notice
that there are two key properties that is satisfied:
1. Each element from set A is mapped to an unique element in set B. (Injectivity)
2. For every element b in B, there is an element a A such that a is mapped
to b. (Surjectivity)
(We say that a function f : A B is bijective if it is both injective and
surjective.)
Here is a not so trivial example.
Example. Let A = {1, 2, 3, ...} and B = {2, 4, 6, 8, ...}. Define f : A B by
f (n) = 2n. Note this is just a fancy way of representing
12
24
36
and so on.
Hence the number of whole numbers and the number of even numbers are
the same!
Hopefully you get the gist. Now try and solve the following problems.
(Note: If youre not familiar with writing mathematical proofs, just try and
show your reasoning.)
1. Show that the number of natural numbers is the same as the number of
square numbers. [2]
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2. Show that the number of even numbers is the same as the number of prime
numbers. [3]
3. Show that the number of natural numbers is the same as the number of
integers. [5]
4. Show that the number of natural numbers is the same as the number of
rational numbers. [7] Hint: Consider arranging the rational numbers as
the following

...

1
2

1
3

1
4

1
5

...

2
4

2
5

...

3
4

3
5

...
...
...

2
3

3
2

4
5

1
..
.

4
3

5
..
.

5
..
.

5
2

5
3

5
4

..
.

..
.

..
.

...

5. In the book/movie The Fault in Our Stars, Hazel said There are infinite
numbers between 0 and 1. Theres .1 and .12 and .112 and an infinite
collection of others. Of course, there is a bigger infinite set of numbers
between 0 and 2, or between 0 and a million. Is Hazel right or wrong? If
Hazel is right, can you justify her claim? If not, can you give an example
illustrating her fallacy? [6]
6. Show that the number of natural numbers is not the same as the number
of real numbers in the interval (0, 1). [7] Hint: Suppose you can form an
one to one correspondence between the two, you should obtain
1 0.a11 a12 a13 ...
2 0.a21 a22 a23 ...
3 0.a31 a32 a33 ...
4 0.a41 a42 a43 ...
5 0.a51 a52 a53 ...
and so on. Can you find a real number r (0, 1) that is not included in
the above correspondence?
Remark: Informally speaking, you just found two infinities where one is
greater than the other!

Miscallaneous
1. Identify the problematic implication. (For example, if the problem is the
step from (10) to (11), then write (10) (11) is wrong.)
(a) [3] Let a, b be non-zero real numbers.
a=b
2

a =b
2

(1)
2

(2)

a b =0

(3)

(a + b)(a b) = 0

(4)

a+b=0

(5)

a+a=0

(6)

2a = 0

(7)

2=0

(8)

i2 = 1

(9)

p
(1)(1) = 1

1 = 1

(10)

(12)

1 = 1

(13)

(b) [5]

1 1 = 1

(11)

(c) [6]
(n + 1)2 = n2 + 2n + 1
2

(15)

(16)

(17)

(n + 1) (2n + 1) = n
2

(n + 1) (2n + 1) n(2n + 1) = n n(2n + 1)

2

(14)

(n + 1) (n + 1)(2n + 1) = n n(2n + 1)
2

(2n + 1)
(2n + 1)2
= n2 n(2n + 1) +
4
4
(18)

2 
2
2n + 1
2n + 1
(n + 1)
= n
(19)
2
2
2n + 1
2n + 1
(n + 1)
=n
(20)
2
2
n+1=n
(21)
1=0
(22)

(n + 1)2 (n + 1)(2n + 1) +

2. [5] A teacher told the month of her birthday (lets call it M) to Peter, and
the day of her birthday (lets call it D) to John. Then, the teacher showed
a set of dates, and asked Peter and John which one was her birthday:
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4 Mar, 5 Mar, 8 Mar 4 Jun, 7 Jun 1 Sep, 5 Sep 1 Dec, 2 Dec, 8 Dec
Peter said, If I dont know the answer, John doesnt know, too. John
said, At first I really didnt know, but now I know. Peter said, I know,
too.
What is the teachers birthday?

3. [5] Prove that 2 is irrational.

4. [3] Compute ii .
5. [3] Sketch y 2 = x3 + 1.

Probability
1. [12] 5 cards are dealt from a pack of 52. Calculate the probability to
obtain
(a) One pair
(b) Two pairs
(c) Full house
(d) Straight (excluding straight flushes)
2. [6] In Mark Six, 7 numbers are drawn out of 49 numbers. The first 6 numbers are the Drawn Numbers and the 7th number is the Extra Number.
Calculate the probability of winning
(a) 3rd Prize (picking 5 drawn numbers)
(b) Nothing (pick less than 3 drawn numbers)
3. [5] Calculate the probability that two people share the same birthday in
a room of 23.
4. [7] One hundred people line up to board an airplane. Each has a boarding
pass with assigned seat. However, the first person to board has lost his
boarding pass and takes a random seat. After that, each person takes the
assigned seat if it is unoccupied, and one of unoccupied seats at random
otherwise. What is the probability that the last person to board gets to
sit in his assigned seat?

Modular Arithmetic

Suppose its 21:00 and you want to work out what the time is 9 hours later.
Clearly you cant directly 21 and 9 - that would give 30:00! The correct answer
is, of course, 06:00.
What if you want to work out what the time is 100 hours later? That might
become somehow tedious - until you spot that adding 24 hours is effectively
the same as adding 0 to the time (since 24 hours after 21:00 is still 21:00). So
adding 100 hours is the same as adding 4 hours (since 100 = 24 4 + 4)! So
you find that your answer is 01:00.
Whats the gist here? First, 24 is essentially the same as 0. Secondly, were
interested in the remainder of the number after dividing by 24. This type of
arithmetic is known as modular arithmetic.
Definition. We say two integers a and b are congruent modulo m if the remainder of a dividing m is the same as the remainder of b dividing m. We
write this as
a b mod m
An equivalent definition is the following
Definition. We say that a b mod m if m divides a b, i.e. there exists an
integer k such that mk = a b.
Here are some examples of computations in modular arithmetic.
Example.
4+71
2

4 5

mod 2
mod 11

2000 0

mod 200

225 4

mod 13

Here are some exercises for you to get used to modular arithmetic:
1. [2]
(a) Find the remainder of 64 divided by 7.
(b) Find the remainder of 192 divided by 17.
2. [3] It is currently 03:41. What is the time
(a) 20 hours later?
(b) 301 hours later?
(c) 1000 hours and 23 minutes later?
3. [4] Find the remainder of
(a) 216 divided by 7
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(b) 58 divided by 19.

4. [9] Find all solutions (if exists) to the following equations
(a) 3x + 5 2 mod 5
(b) 2x + 3 4 mod 8
(c) x2 + 3x + 2 0 mod 13
5. [6] There are certain things whose number is unknown. A number is
repeatedly divided by 3, the remainder is 2; divided by 5, the remainder
is 3; and by 7, the remainder is 2. What will the number be?
6. [6]
(a) Find all natural numbers n such that the number 2n 1 is divisible
by 7.
(b) Prove that for all natural numbers n the number 2n +1 is not divisible
by 7.

Calculus

Youll probably need to be on top of your differentiation and integration skills

if youre studying at Imperial (for engineering / physics / maths at least).
1. [2] Compute
(a)
(b)

d
dx tan(x)
d
dx sec(x)

2. [4] Compute
R
(a) 03 tan(x)dx
R1
(b) 0 xex dx
6 Solve y 0 + y = sin(x), y(0) = 1
3. [6] Compute the following integrals:
R2
(a) 1 log(x)dx
R /6
(b) 0 sec3 xdx
4. [6] Compute:
R x t2
d
e dt
(a) dx
0
3
R
x
d
(b) dx
sin(t2 )dt
1
5. [6] Define the gamma function to be the following integral
Z
(t) =
xt1 ex dx
0

(Note:

R
0

f (x)dx = limb

Rb
0

f (x)dx)

Show that (t + 1) = t(t).

Remark: This function is an extension of the factorial function to all
complex numbers except negative integers and zero.