How many possible ways of writing down a sequence of positive integers are there satisfying the following conditions? Conditions: You start out with writing down the number 2012 and end up with writing down the number 1, and after writing down a number n you follow with writing an integer less than or equal to n.
Solution
Let m be a positive integer and denote by am the number of possible ways of writing down a sequence of positive integers satisfying the following, which we call the conditions Cm: Cm: Start with writing down the number m, and end up with writing down the number 1, and after writing down a number n, follow with writing a positive integer less than or equal to n. Then, we have a1=1,am=a1+a2+⋯+ak, where k is a positive integer satisfying k2+1≤m≤(k+1)2.
a1=1, a2=a3=a4=a1=1, a5=a6=⋯=a9=a1+a2=2, a10=a11=⋯=a16=a1+a2+a3=3, a17=a18=⋯=a25=a1+a2+a3+a4=4, a26=a27=⋯=a36=a1+a2+a3+a4+a5=6 a37=a38=⋯=a44=a1+a2+a3+a4+a5+a6=8. From these we finally obtain a2012=a1+a2+⋯+a44=(a1+⋯+a4)+(a5+⋯+a9)+(a10+⋯+a16)+(a17+⋯+a25)+(a26+⋯+a36)+(a37+⋯+a44)=4×1+5×2+7×3+9×4+11×6+8×8=4+10+21+36+66+64=201.
So, 201 is the desired answer.
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Source: MathNet,
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