Over a period of consecutive days, a total of 2014 babies were born in a certain city, with at least one baby being born each day. Show that:
1. If , there must be a period of consecutive days during which exactly 100 babies were born.
2. By contrast, if , such a period might not exist.
, 2014
Solution
Let . For , let be the number of babies born on or before Day , and let be the number of babies born on Day . Let and . Because at least one baby is born each day, both sets contain distinct integers between 1 and 2114, inclusive. The sets and might intersect: in fact, they intersect if and only if there are a pair of indices and with for some , which is equivalent to the number of babies born in the period between days and inclusive being 100.
If there were at least 12 different integers in having the same remainder mod 100, there would also be at least 12 different integers in with this remainder. But between 1 and 2114, no remainder mod 100 occurs more than 22 times, hence cannot be empty in this case.
Assume now that no remainder mod 100 occurs more than eleven times in . If , then there are at least 15 remainders mod 100 that occur at least eleven times in , and consequently also at least eleven times in . Thus has at least 15 remainders mod 100 that each occur at least 22 times (including repetitions, in the case of any remainders that occur in both and ). Since there are only 14 remainders that occur 22 times between 1 and 2114, and none that occur more frequently than that, some of these occurrences must overlap. Thus, and must intersect, proving (a).
Let if is not a multiple of 100, and if is a multiple of 100. It is readily verified that this pattern ensures that for all . Also for all integers , . In particular, , as required for in part (b).