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Algebra Difficulty 7.5 National olympiad, round 2 Prove it Netherlands

Let nn be a positive integer. For a real x1x \ge 1, assume that xn+1,xn+2,,x4n\lfloor x^{n+1} \rfloor, \lfloor x^{n+2} \rfloor, \dots, \lfloor x^{4n} \rfloor are all squares of positive integers. Prove that x\lfloor x \rfloor is also the square of a positive integer.

Here z\lfloor z \rfloor is the greatest integer smaller than or equal to zz.

Solution

We first prove the statement for n=1n = 1. Write x=a+rx = a + r, with a1a \ge 1 an integer and 0r<10 \le r < 1. Suppose x2,x3\lfloor x^2 \rfloor, \lfloor x^3 \rfloor and x4\lfloor x^4 \rfloor are squares. Then we have ax<a+1a \le x < a + 1, from which it follows that a2x2<(a+1)2a^2 \le x^2 < (a+1)^2. Hence, x2x^2 is squeezed between two consecutive squares. However, x2\lfloor x^2 \rfloor is a square, hence the only possibility is that x2=a2\lfloor x^2 \rfloor = a^2. We conclude that a2x2<a2+1a^2 \le x^2 < a^2 + 1.

Completely analogously, we also get that (a2)2x4<(a2+1)2(a^2)^2 \le x^4 < (a^2 + 1)^2 and hence x4=a4\lfloor x^4 \rfloor = a^4. We conclude that a4x4<a4+1a^4 \le x^4 < a^4 + 1.

Moreover, we have that x3a3x^3 \ge a^3. Now suppose that x3a3+1x^3 \ge a^3 + 1, i.e.
x4x(a3+1)=(a+r)(a3+1)=a4+ra3+a+ra4+aa4+1, x^4 \ge x(a^3 + 1) = (a + r)(a^3 + 1) = a^4 + r a^3 + a + r \ge a^4 + a \ge a^4 + 1,
which gives a contradiction. Hence, x3<a3+1x^3 < a^3 + 1, which yields that x3=a3\lfloor x^3 \rfloor = a^3. This is also a square, hence aa must be a square itself. We see that x\lfloor x \rfloor is a square.

Now we will finish the proof with induction to nn. The induction basis has just been proved. Now let k1k \ge 1 and suppose that the statement is proved for n=kn = k. Consider a real number x1x \ge 1 with the property that xk+2,xk+3,,x4k+4\lfloor x^{k+2} \rfloor, \lfloor x^{k+3} \rfloor, \dots, \lfloor x^{4k+4} \rfloor are all squares. In particular, x2(k+1),x3(k+1)\lfloor x^{2(k+1)} \rfloor, \lfloor x^{3(k+1)} \rfloor, and x4(k+1)\lfloor x^{4(k+1)} \rfloor are all squares. We can now apply the case n=1n = 1 on xk+1x^{k+1} (which is a real number greater than or equal to 1) and find that xk+1\lfloor x^{k+1} \rfloor is also a square. Now we know that xk+1,xk+2,,x4k\lfloor x^{k+1} \rfloor, \lfloor x^{k+2} \rfloor, \dots, \lfloor x^{4k} \rfloor are all squares and using the induction hypothesis, we obtain that x\lfloor x \rfloor is a square as well. This completes the proof by induction. \square

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