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Number theory Difficulty 6.4 National Olympiad Prove it Estonia

Given a tuple of consecutive positive integers, one forms all pairs of members of it such that the first member is less than the second member. The percentage of these pairs where the second member is divisible by the first one is called the degree of divisibility of the tuple. For every integer n>1n > 1, denote the largest possible degree of divisibility of a tuple of nn consecutive positive integers by j(n)j(n).
Does there exist an integer n>1n > 1 such that j(n+1)>j(n)j(n + 1) > j(n)?

Solutions — 2

Solution 1

The largest percentage of pairs with the second term being divisible by the first term is achieved in the case of tuple (1,2,,n)(1, 2, \dots, n). Indeed, consider an arbitrary tuple of the form (x+1,x+2,,x+n)(x+1, x+2, \dots, x+n) where

x>0x > 0. For any ii, multiples of ii in (1,2,...,n)(1,2,...,n) are every iith term starting from the number ii, multiples of x+ix+i in (x+1,x+2,...,x+n)(x+1,x+2,...,x+n) are every (x+i)(x+i)th term starting from x+ix+i. The latter multiples occuring more seldom while the first occurrence being at the same position implies the same or smaller total number.
It is easy to check that the degree of divisibility of (1,2,3,4,5)(1,2,3,4,5) is 510\frac{5}{10} and the degree of divisibility of (1,2,3,4,5,6)(1,2,3,4,5,6) is 815\frac{8}{15}. By the above, j(6)>j(5)j(6) > j(5).

Solution 2

Calculation shows that the degrees of divisibility of tuples (1,2,3,4,5)(1,2,3,4,5), (2,3,4,5,6)(2,3,4,5,6), (3,4,5,6,7)(3,4,5,6,7) and (4,5,6,7,8)(4,5,6,7,8) are 510\frac{5}{10}, 310\frac{3}{10}, 110\frac{1}{10} and 110\frac{1}{10}, respectively. If the first term of a quintuple is 5 or larger then no two terms can divide each other since the largest term is less than twice larger than the least term. Hence j(5)=510=12j(5) = \frac{5}{10} = \frac{1}{2}. As the degree of divisibility of (1,2,3,4,5,6)(1,2,3,4,5,6) is 815\frac{8}{15}, we have j(6)815>12=j(5)j(6) \ge \frac{8}{15} > \frac{1}{2} = j(5).

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