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Croatian Mathematical Olympiad

Algebra Difficulty 5.4 AIME, harder Prove it Croatia

For a positive integer kk, let ak=⌊2kk⌋a_k = \lfloor \frac{2^k}{k} \rfloor. Prove that the sequence (ak)(a_k) contains infinitely many odd numbers.

(⌊x⌋\lfloor x \rfloor denotes the largest integer not greater than xx.)

Solution

Let k=3⋅4lk = 3 \cdot 4^l for an arbitrary positive integer ll. Then we have
ak=⌊2kk⌋=⌊23⋅4l3⋅4l⌋=⌊23⋅4l−2l3⌋=⌊23⋅4l−2l−13+13⌋. a_k = \left\lfloor \frac{2^k}{k} \right\rfloor = \left\lfloor \frac{2^{3 \cdot 4^l}}{3 \cdot 4^l} \right\rfloor = \left\lfloor \frac{2^{3 \cdot 4^l - 2l}}{3} \right\rfloor = \left\lfloor \frac{2^{3 \cdot 4^l - 2l} - 1}{3} + \frac{1}{3} \right\rfloor.
Since the positive integer 3⋅4l−2l3 \cdot 4^l - 2l is even, we have 23⋅4l−2l≡4≡1(mod3)2^{3 \cdot 4^l - 2l} \equiv 4 \equiv 1 \pmod 3, so the odd positive integer 23⋅4l−2l−12^{3 \cdot 4^l - 2l} - 1 is divisible by 33.
Therefore,
ak=⌊2kk⌋=⌊23⋅4l−2l−13+13⌋=23⋅4l−2l−13 a_k = \left\lfloor \frac{2^k}{k} \right\rfloor = \left\lfloor \frac{2^{3 \cdot 4^l - 2l} - 1}{3} + \frac{1}{3} \right\rfloor = \frac{2^{3 \cdot 4^l - 2l} - 1}{3}
is odd, which finishes the proof.

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