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Algebra Difficulty 5.3 AIME, harder Prove it Bulgaria

Problem:

Prove that among any 2n+12n+1 irrational numbers there are n+1n+1 numbers such that the sum of any 2,3,,n+12,3, \ldots, n+1 of them is an irrational number.

Solution

Solution:

Let the given numbers be a1,a2,,a2n+1a_{1}, a_{2}, \ldots, a_{2n+1}. Choose first 1 and then choose at any step (if it is possible) a number that is not a linear combination with rational coefficients of the already chosen numbers. We may assume that the chosen numbers are a0=1,a1,a2,,aka_{0}=1, a_{1}, a_{2}, \ldots, a_{k}, 1k2n+11 \leq k \leq 2n+1. It is easy to see that any linear combination with rational coefficients of the given numbers can be uniquely presented as a linear combination of these numbers.

Let ai=j=0kαijaja_{i}=\sum_{j=0}^{k} \alpha_{ij} a_{j}, where αijQ\alpha_{ij} \in \mathbb{Q}, 1i2n+11 \leq i \leq 2n+1, 0jk0 \leq j \leq k. Then a sum of aia_{i}'s is a rational number if and only if the sum of the corresponding numbers bi=aiαi0b_{i}=a_{i}-\alpha_{i0} vanishes. Since b1,b2,,b2n+1b_{1}, b_{2}, \ldots, b_{2n+1} are irrational numbers, they are non-zero. In particular, at least n+1n+1 of them have the same sign and hence the corresponding aia_{i}'s have the desired property.

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