Let $p>3$ be a prime, and let $(frac{cdot}p)$ be the Legendre symbol. Let $binmathbb Z$ and $varepsilonin{pm 1}$. We mainly prove that $$left|left{N_p(a,b): 1<a<p text{and} left(frac apright)=varepsilonright}right|=frac{3-(frac{-1}p)}2,$$ where $N_p(
a,b)$ is the number of positive integers $x<p/2$ with ${x^2+b}_p>{ax^2+b}_p$, and ${m}_p$ with $minmathbb{Z}$ is the least nonnegative residue of $m$ modulo $p$.
For an integer $n>2$, a rank-$n$ matroid is called an $n$-spike if it consists of $n$ three-point lines through a common point such that, for all $kin{1, 2, ..., n - 1}$, the union of every set of $k$ of these lines has rank $k+1$. Spikes are very sp
ecial and important in matroid theory. In 2003 Wu found the exact numbers of $n$-spikes over fields with 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 elements, and the asymptotic values for larger finite fields. In this paper, we prove that, for each prime number $p$, a $GF(p$) representable $n$-spike $M$ is only representable on fields with characteristic $p$ provided that $n ge 2p-1$. Moreover, $M$ is uniquely representable over $GF(p)$.
