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Algebra Difficulty 7.1 National olympiad, round 2 Prove it Brazil

Professor Piraldo takes part in soccer matches with a lot of goals and judges a match in his own peculiar way. A match with score of mm goals to nn goals, mnm \ge n, is tough when mf(n)m \le f(n), where f(n)f(n) is defined by f(0)=0f(0) = 0 and, for n1n \ge 1, f(n)=2nf(r)+rf(n) = 2n - f(r) + r, where rr is the largest integer such that r<nr < n and f(r)nf(r) \le n.
Let ϕ=1+52\phi = \frac{1+\sqrt{5}}{2}. Prove that a match with score of mm goals to nn, mnm \ge n, is tough if mϕnm \le \phi n and is not tough if mϕn+1m \ge \phi n + 1.

Solution

First note that if nn is written in the Fibonacci basis (as a sum of distinct Fibonacci numbers containing no neighbors), then the representation of f(n)f(n) is just that of nn with a 0 in the end. The proof goes by induction: it is true for n=0n=0. Suppose n>0n > 0. Then rr will be such that f(r)=nf(r) = n, if the last digit of the Fibonacci of nn is zero, or f(r)=n1f(r) = n-1, if it is one. Then f(n)=n+r+nf(r)f(n) = n+r+n-f(r). If the last digit of the Fibonacci of nn is zero, then rr is obtained by deleting the last digit from nn. So f(n)=n+rf(n) = n+r is the sum of the Fibonacci numbers used in the representation of nn and its respective antecessors in the Fibonacci sequence, resulting in the subsequent Fibonacci numbers, which is exactly nn with a zero at its right. If the last digit of the Fibonacci of nn is zero, then rr is still obtained by deleting the last digit from nn, but f(n)=n+1+rf(n) = n+1+r. Note that n1n-1 ends with a zero, so summing rr will do the same thing as the preceding case; and we're substituting the rightmost digit one with 2, which corresponds to a rightmost 10.

Now, express nn and f(n)f(n) by using the closed form for Fibonacci numbers Fk=15(ϕk(ϕ)k)F_k = \frac{1}{\sqrt{5}}(\phi^k - (-\phi)^{-k}), and note that we cannot use two consecutive Fibonacci numbers in base Fibonacci, so f(n)ϕnZ<ϕ1(1+ϕ2+ϕ4+)=ϕ11ϕ2=1|f(n) - \phi \cdot nZ| < \phi^{-1}(1 + \phi^{-2} + \phi^{-4} + \dots) = \frac{\phi^{-1}}{1-\phi^{-2}} = 1, that is, f(n)1<ϕn<f(n)+1f(n) - 1 < \phi n < f(n) + 1. Thus if mϕnm \le \phi n then m<f(n)+1    mf(n)m < f(n) + 1 \iff m \le f(n) and the match is tough; if mϕn+1m \ge \phi n + 1 then m>f(n)1+1=f(n)m > f(n) - 1 + 1 = f(n) and the match is not tough.

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