Maths Olympiad Prep

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Combinatorics Difficulty 6.7 National Olympiad Prove it Italy

Every integer is colored with one of two colors, red or blue. We know that, for every finite set AA of consecutive integers, the absolute value of the difference between the number of red integers and the number of blue integers in the set AA is at most 1000. Prove that there exists a set of 2000 consecutive integers among which there are exactly 1000 red numbers and 1000 blue numbers.

Solution

Given an integer nn, let us call InI_{n} the set of 2000 consecutive numbers {n,n+1,,n+1999}\{n, n+1, \ldots, n+1999\} of length 2000, and let us call RnR_{n} the number of red integers and BnB_{n} the number of blue integers in InI_{n}: observe that, since Rn+Bn=2000R_{n}+B_{n}=2000 is even, Dn=RnBnD_{n}=R_{n}-B_{n} is also even. Observe also that, in passing from InI_{n} to In+1I_{n+1}, the number of red or blue naturals can change by at most one unit, and therefore Dn2Dn+1Dn+2D_{n}-2 \leq D_{n+1} \leq D_{n}+2.

Suppose for contradiction that for no nn do we have Dn=0D_{n}=0, and suppose, without loss of generality, that D0<0D_{0}<0. We want to show, by induction, that Dn<0D_{n}<0 for every n0n \geq 0: the base step holds by hypothesis. DnD_{n} is even and negative, and Dn+1Dn+2<2D_{n+1} \leq D_{n}+2<2 is even, and is not zero by hypothesis, and therefore Dn+1D_{n+1} is also negative.

Let us now consider the intervals I2000kI_{2000 k} as kk ranges over the interval 0k5000 \leq k \leq 500. The I2000kI_{2000 k} are pairwise disjoint, and in each of them there are at least 1001 blue numbers and at most 999 red numbers, hence in the interval {0,1,,2000500+1999}\{0,1, \ldots, 2000 \cdot 500+1999\} there are at least 10015011001 \cdot 501 blue numbers and at most 999501999 \cdot 501 red numbers, contradicting the hypothesis.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement translated into English from it; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.