Let be an integer. Find the smallest integer with the property that there exists a set of distinct real numbers such that each of its elements can be written as a sum of other distinct elements of the set.
Solution
First we show that . Suppose that there exists such a set with numbers and denote them by .
Note that in order to express as a sum of distinct elements of the set, we must have and, similarly for , we must have . We also know that .
If then we have , which gives a contradiction.
If then we have , that again gives a contradiction.
If then we have and . Adding the two inequalities we get , again a contradiction.
It remains to give an example of a set with elements satisfying the condition of the problem. We start with the case when and . In that case, denote by and take the set , which has exactly elements. We are left to show that this set satisfies the required condition.
Note that if a number can be expressed in the desired way, then so can by negating the expression. Therefore, we consider only .
If , we sum the numbers from some sets with , and the numbers and .
For , we sum the numbers from some sets with , and the numbers and .
It remains to give a construction for odd with (since ). To that end, we modify the construction for by adding to the previous set.
This is a valid set as can be added to each constructed expression, and can be expressed as follows: take the numbers and all the numbers from the remaining sets .