Find the greatest integer k≤2023 for which, regardless of how Alice colors exactly k numbers among {1,2,…,2023} in red, Bob can color some of the remaining uncolored numbers in blue, such that the sum of the red numbers is the same as the sum of the blue ones.
Solution
Answer: 592. For k≥593, Alice can color the greatest 593 numbers 1431,1432,…,2023 and any other (k−593) numbers so that their sum s would satisfy s≥22023⋅2024−21430⋅1431>21⋅(22023⋅2024), thus anyhow Bob chooses his numbers, the sum of his numbers will be less than Alice's numbers' sum. We now show that k=592 satisfies the condition. Let s be the sum of Alice's 592 numbers; note that s<21⋅(22023⋅2024). Below is a strategy for Bob to find some of the remaining 1431 numbers so that their sum is s0=min{s,22023⋅2024−2s}≤31⋅(22023⋅2024), (Clearly, if Bob finds some numbers whose sum is 22023⋅2024−2s, then the sum of remaining numbers will be s). Case 1.s0≥2024. Let s0=2024a+b, where 0≤b≤2023. Bob finds two of the remaining numbers with sum b or 2024+b, then he finds a (or a−1) pairs among the remaining numbers with sum 2024. Note that a≤337 since s0≤31⋅(22023⋅2024). The ⌊2b−1⌋ pairs (1,b−1),(2,b−2),…,(⌊2b−1⌋,b−⌊2b−1⌋), have sum of their components equal to b and the ⌊22023+b⌋−b pairs (2023,b+1),(2022,b+2),…,(2024+b−⌊22023+b⌋,⌊22023+b⌋) have sum of their components equal to 2024+b. The total number of these pairs is ⌊22023+b⌋−b+⌊2b−1⌋≥22022+b+2b−2−b=22020=1010>592, hence some of these pairs have no red-colored components, so Bob can choose one of these pairs and color those two numbers in blue. Thus 594 numbers are colored so far. Further, the 1011 pairs (1,2023),(2,2022),…,(1011,1013) have sum of the components equal to 2024. Among these, at least 1011−594=417>337≥a pairs have no components colored, so Bob can choose a (or a−1) uncolored pairs and color them all blue to achieve a collection of blue numbers with their sum equal to s0. Case 2.s0≤2023. Note that s≥1+2+⋯+592>2023, thus we have s0=22023⋅2024−2s, i.e. s=42023⋅2024−2s0. If s0>2⋅593, at least one of the 593 pairs (1,s0−1),(2,s0−2),…,(593,s0−593) have no red-colored components, so Bob can choose these two numbers and immediately achieve the sum of s0. And if s0≤2⋅593, then s=42023⋅2024−2s0≥(1432+1433+⋯+2023)−593=839+(1434+1435+⋯+2023), hence Alice cannot have colored any of the numbers 1, 2, ..., 838. Then Bob can easily choose one or two of these numbers having the sum of s0. Remark. The problem can be asked for any n large enough (n≥100 suffices as it's originally proposed), and in that case the answer would be k=⌊2(2n+1)−n2+(n+1)2⌋, the largest value guaranteeing that sum of any k numbers is less than half of the sum of all numbers in the set.
Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track
puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.
Source: MathNet,
licensed CC-BY-4.0.
Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.