Maths Olympiad Prep

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Number theory Difficulty 5.6 AIME, harder Prove it New Zealand

Problem:
Let {x1,x2,x3,,xn}\{x_{1}, x_{2}, x_{3}, \ldots, x_{n}\} be a set of nn distinct positive integers, such that the sum of any 3 of them is a prime number. What is the maximum value of nn?

Solution

Solution:
First we show that n=4n = 4 is possible with an example. The example {x1,x2,x3,x4}={1,3,7,9}\{x_{1}, x_{2}, x_{3}, x_{4}\} = \{1, 3, 7, 9\} satisfies the problem because:

 1+3+7=11\cdot\ 1 + 3 + 7 = 11 is prime,

 1+3+9=13\cdot\ 1 + 3 + 9 = 13 is prime,

 1+7+9=17\cdot\ 1 + 7 + 9 = 17 is prime, and

 3+7+9=19\cdot\ 3 + 7 + 9 = 19 is prime.

We still have to prove that n5n \geq 5 is impossible.

Consider any set {x1,x2,x3,,xn}\{x_{1}, x_{2}, x_{3}, \ldots, x_{n}\} such that the sum of any 3 of them is a prime number. Also consider the three "pigeonholes" modulo 3; the residue classes 0, 1 and 2. If all three pigeonholes were non-empty, then it would be possible to choose three numbers – one from each pigeonhole. This would result in a sum which is 0+1+200 + 1 + 2 \equiv 0 (mod 3), and since the numbers are distinct positive integers, this sum would be >3> 3. Thus the sum would not be prime which is a contradiction. Hence at least one of the pigeonholes must be empty. i.e.

The numbers {x1,,xn}\{x_{1}, \ldots, x_{n}\} are distributed amongst (at most) two different residue classes modulo 3.

Now assume for the sake of contradiction that n5n \geq 5. By the pigeonhole principle at least one residue class contains at least 3 of the numbers. The sum of any three numbers from the same residue class is always a multiple of 3 and so this is a contradiction.

Therefore n<5n < 5 as required.

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