Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /295 of 462

, 2014

Combinatorics Difficulty 6.1 National Olympiad Prove it Ireland

Over a period of kk 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 1014<k20141014 < k \le 2014, there must be a period of consecutive days during which exactly 100 babies were born.
2. By contrast, if k=1014k = 1014, such a period might not exist.

Solution

Let N0=0N_0 = 0. For 1ik1 \le i \le k, let NiN_i be the number of babies born on or before Day ii, and let ni=NiNi1n_i = N_i - N_{i-1} be the number of babies born on Day ii. Let S={N1,,Nk}S = \{N_1, \dots, N_k\} and T={N1+100,,Nk+100}T = \{N_1 + 100, \dots, N_k + 100\}. Because at least one baby is born each day, both sets contain kk distinct integers between 1 and 2114, inclusive. The sets SS and TT might intersect: in fact, they intersect if and only if there are a pair of indices ii and jj with Nj=Ni+100N_j = N_i + 100 for some i<ji < j, which is equivalent to the number of babies born in the period between days i+1i+1 and jj inclusive being 100.
If there were at least 12 different integers in SS having the same remainder mod 100, there would also be at least 12 different integers in TT with this remainder. But between 1 and 2114, no remainder mod 100 occurs more than 22 times, hence STS \cap T cannot be empty in this case.
Assume now that no remainder mod 100 occurs more than eleven times in SS. If k1015k \ge 1015, then there are at least 15 remainders mod 100 that occur at least eleven times in SS, and consequently also at least eleven times in TT. Thus STS \cup T 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 SS and TT). 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, SS and TT must intersect, proving (a).
Let ni=1n_i = 1 if iNi \in N is not a multiple of 100, and ni=101n_i = 101 if ii is a multiple of 100. It is readily verified that this pattern ensures that NjNi100N_j - N_i \ne 100 for all 0ij0 \le i \le j. Also N100s+j=200s+jN_{100s+j} = 200s + j for all integers 0j<1000 \le j < 100, s0s \ge 0. In particular, N1014=2014N_{1014} = 2014, as required for k=1014k = 1014 in part (b).

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.