Maths Olympiad Prep

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Combinatorics Difficulty 7.0 National Olympiad, round 2 Prove it Soviet Union

Problem:

The numbers 1,2,3,,n1, 2, 3, \ldots, n are written on a blackboard (where n3n \geq 3). A move is to replace two numbers by their sum and non-negative difference. A series of moves makes all the numbers equal kk. Find all possible kk.

Solution

Solution:

If a prime pp divides a+ba + b and aba - b, then it divides 2a2a and 2b2b, so if pp is odd, it divides aa and bb. Thus if an odd prime pp divides kk, then it must divide all the original numbers including 11. So kk must be a power of 22. Note that k,k0,2k2k,2kk, k \rightarrow 0, 2k \rightarrow 2k, 2k and k,k,k0,k,2kk,k,2k0,2k,2k2k,2k,2kk, k, k \rightarrow 0, k, 2k \rightarrow k, k, 2k \rightarrow 0, 2k, 2k \rightarrow 2k, 2k, 2k. So (by a trivial induction) if we get all the numbers equal to kk, then we can get them all to equal 2k2k. Finally, note that we can never decrease the largest number on the board, so the answer must be all powers of 22 greater than some minimum, which must be at least nn.

We use induction to show that if 2m2^{m} is the smallest power of 22 which is n\geq n, then we can get all numbers equal to 2m2^{m}. Note that 0,kk,k0,2k0, k \rightarrow k, k \rightarrow 0, 2k, so with a zero we can double each member of any set of numbers as often as we wish and finally convert the zero. For example, we could convert 0,2,40, 2, 4 to 8,8,88, 8, 8. It is convenient to take the induction hypothesis as SnS_{n}: we can convert 1,2,,n1, 2, \ldots, n to 0,2k,2k,,2k0, 2^{k}, 2^{k}, \ldots, 2^{k}, where 2k2^{k} is the smallest power of 22 which is n\geq n.

We show first that SnS_{n} is true for n8n \leq 8. For n=3n = 3, we take 1,32,41, 3 \rightarrow 2, 4, then 2,20,42, 2 \rightarrow 0, 4. For n=4n = 4, we ignore the 44 and use the case n=3n = 3. For n=5n = 5, we take 3,52,83, 5 \rightarrow 2, 8. Then 2,20,42, 2 \rightarrow 0, 4. Then we use the 00 to convert the remaining powers of 22 (1,4,41, 4, 4) to 88. For n=6n = 6, we take 2,64,82, 6 \rightarrow 4, 8 and 3,52,83, 5 \rightarrow 2, 8, then 4,40,84, 4 \rightarrow 0, 8. Finally, we use the 00 to convert 11 and 22 to 88. For n=7n = 7, we take 1,76,81, 7 \rightarrow 6, 8, then 2,64,82, 6 \rightarrow 4, 8, then 3,52,83, 5 \rightarrow 2, 8, then 4,40,84, 4 \rightarrow 0, 8, then 2,64,82, 6 \rightarrow 4, 8 and finally use the 00 to convert the remaining 44 to 88.

Let n=2a+bn = 2^{a} + b, where 0<b2a0 < b \leq 2^{a} and assume SmS_{m} is true for all m<nm < n. If b=1b = 1, we convert the pair 2a12^{a} - 1, 2a+12^{a} + 1 to 2,2a+12, 2^{a + 1}. We have 2a2>22^{a} - 2 > 2, so by induction we can convert 1,2,,2a21, 2, \ldots, 2^{a} - 2 to 0,2a,,2a0, 2^{a}, \ldots, 2^{a}. Now all the numbers except 00 are powers of 22 and we can use the 00 to convert them each to 2a+12^{a + 1}. Similarly, if b=2b = 2, we convert 2a12^{a} - 1, 2a+12^{a} + 1 to 2,2a+12, 2^{a + 1} and 2a22^{a} - 2, 2a+22^{a} + 2 to 4,2a+14, 2^{a + 1} and then proceed as in the previous case. If 3b<2a3 \leq b < 2^{a}, then we start by converting the pairs (2a+b,2ab)(2^{a} + b, 2^{a} - b), (2a+b1,2ab+1)(2^{a} + b - 1, 2^{a} - b + 1), (2a+b2,2ab+2)(2^{a} + b - 2, 2^{a} - b + 2), \ldots, (2a+1,2a1)(2^{a} + 1, 2^{a} - 1). That gives some 2a+12^{a + 1}s and 2,4,,2b2, 4, \ldots, 2b. Now by SbS_{b} we can convert 2,4,,2b2, 4, \ldots, 2b to 0,2a+1,,2a+10, 2^{a + 1}, \ldots, 2^{a + 1}. The remaining numbers 1,2,,2ab11, 2, \ldots, 2^{a} - b - 1 can either be converted to powers of 22 by S2ab1S_{2^{a - b - 1}} (if 2ab132^{a} - b - 1 \geq 3) or are already powers of 22. Finally we use the 00 to bring all powers of 22 up to 2a+12^{a + 1}. In the case b=2ab = 2^{a}, we ignore 2a+b(=2a+1)2^{a} + b (= 2^{a + 1}) and use the case b1b - 1 to convert the others.

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