Maths Olympiad Prep

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, 2023

Combinatorics Difficulty 7.0 National Olympiad, round 2 Prove it Balkan Mathematical Olympiad

Find the greatest integer k2023k \le 2023 for which, regardless of how Alice colors exactly kk numbers among {1,2,,2023}\{1, 2, \dots, 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 k593k \ge 593, Alice can color the greatest 593 numbers 1431,1432,,20231431, 1432, \dots, 2023 and any other (k593)(k-593) numbers so that their sum ss would satisfy
s202320242143014312>12(202320242), s \ge \frac{2023 \cdot 2024}{2} - \frac{1430 \cdot 1431}{2} > \frac{1}{2} \cdot \left( \frac{2023 \cdot 2024}{2} \right),
thus anyhow Bob chooses his numbers, the sum of his numbers will be less than Alice's numbers' sum.
We now show that k=592k = 592 satisfies the condition. Let ss be the sum of Alice's 592 numbers; note that s<12(202320242)s < \frac{1}{2} \cdot \left(\frac{2023 \cdot 2024}{2}\right). Below is a strategy for Bob to find some of the remaining 1431 numbers so that their sum is
s0=min{s,2023202422s}13(202320242), s_0 = \min \left\{ s, \frac{2023 \cdot 2024}{2} - 2s \right\} \le \frac{1}{3} \cdot \left( \frac{2023 \cdot 2024}{2} \right),
(Clearly, if Bob finds some numbers whose sum is 2023202422s\frac{2023 \cdot 2024}{2} - 2s, then the sum of remaining numbers will be ss).
Case 1. s02024s_0 \ge 2024. Let s0=2024a+bs_0 = 2024a + b, where 0b20230 \le b \le 2023. Bob finds two of the remaining numbers with sum bb or 2024+b2024+b, then he finds aa (or a1a-1) pairs among the remaining numbers with sum 2024. Note that a337a \le 337 since s013(202320242)s_0 \le \frac{1}{3} \cdot \left(\frac{2023 \cdot 2024}{2}\right).
The b12\lfloor \frac{b-1}{2} \rfloor pairs
(1,b1),(2,b2),,(b12,bb12), (1, b-1), (2, b-2), \dots, \left( \left\lfloor \frac{b-1}{2} \right\rfloor, b - \left\lfloor \frac{b-1}{2} \right\rfloor \right),
have sum of their components equal to bb and the 2023+b2b\lfloor \frac{2023+b}{2} \rfloor - b pairs
(2023,b+1),(2022,b+2),,(2024+b2023+b2,2023+b2) (2023, b+1), (2022, b+2), \dots, \left( 2024 + b - \left\lfloor \frac{2023+b}{2} \right\rfloor, \left\lfloor \frac{2023+b}{2} \right\rfloor \right)
have sum of their components equal to 2024+b2024 + b. The total number of these pairs is
2023+b2b+b122022+b2+b22b=20202=1010>592, \left\lfloor \frac{2023+b}{2} \right\rfloor - b + \left\lfloor \frac{b-1}{2} \right\rfloor \ge \frac{2022+b}{2} + \frac{b-2}{2} - b = \frac{2020}{2} = 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) (1, 2023), (2, 2022), \dots, (1011, 1013)
have sum of the components equal to 2024. Among these, at least 1011594=417>337a1011 - 594 = 417 > 337 \ge a pairs have no components colored, so Bob can choose aa (or a1a-1) uncolored pairs and color them all blue to achieve a collection of blue numbers with their sum equal to s0s_0.
Case 2. s02023s_0 \le 2023. Note that s1+2++592>2023s \ge 1 + 2 + \dots + 592 > 2023, thus we have s0=2023202422ss_0 = \frac{2023 \cdot 2024}{2} - 2s, i.e. s=202320244s02s = \frac{2023 \cdot 2024}{4} - \frac{s_0}{2}.
If s0>2593s_0 > 2 \cdot 593, at least one of the 593 pairs
(1,s01),(2,s02),,(593,s0593) (1, s_0 - 1), (2, s_0 - 2), \dots, (593, s_0 - 593)
have no red-colored components, so Bob can choose these two numbers and immediately achieve the sum of s0s_0. And if s02593s_0 \le 2 \cdot 593, then
s=202320244s02(1432+1433++2023)593=839+(1434+1435++2023), s = \frac{2023 \cdot 2024}{4} - \frac{s_0}{2} \ge (1432 + 1433 + \dots + 2023) - 593 = 839 + (1434 + 1435 + \dots + 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 s0s_0.
Remark. The problem can be asked for any nn large enough (n100n \ge 100 suffices as it's originally proposed), and in that case the answer would be k=(2n+1)n2+(n+1)22k = \lfloor \frac{(2n + 1) - \sqrt{n^2 + (n + 1)^2}}{2} \rfloor, the largest value guaranteeing that sum of any kk numbers is less than half of the sum of all numbers in the set.

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