Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 5.1 AIME, harder Prove it United States

Problem:
Determine whether there exists a polynomial f(x,y)f(x, y) of two variables, with real coefficients, with the following property: A positive integer mm is a triangular number if and only if there do not exist positive integers xx and yy such that f(x,y)=mf(x, y)=m.

Solution

Solution:
The answer is yes.

The difference between the nnth and (n+1)(n+1)st triangular numbers is n+1n+1. Therefore, a positive integer mm is not a triangular number if and only if it has the form
n2+n2+y \frac{n^{2}+n}{2}+y
where 1yn1 \leq y \leq n. Define x=ny+1x = n - y + 1; then the conditions 1y1 \leq y and yny \leq n are equivalent to y1y \geq 1 and x1x \geq 1. Conversely, n=x+y1n = x + y - 1, so the polynomial
f(x,y)=(x+y1)2+(x+y1)2+y=(x+y)(x+y1)2+y f(x, y) = \frac{(x + y - 1)^{2} + (x + y - 1)}{2} + y = \frac{(x + y)(x + y - 1)}{2} + y
hits exactly the non-triangular numbers as xx and yy range over positive integers.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.