Problem:
Determine the largest natural number for which there exist distinct sets such that:
for every two integers , and
for every three integers .
Problem:
Determine the largest natural number for which there exist distinct sets such that:
for every two integers , and
for every three integers .
Solution:
Each set has at most 2003 elements. Indeed, if , then from condition it follows that for all , contrary to condition . Consider the sets
Then and all sets are pairwise disjoint (otherwise, if , then , which is impossible if at least three of are distinct). It follows that , whence .
We will construct 32 sets satisfying and . Let us partition the set arbitrarily into (disjoint) sets , where for , and define
Condition is automatically satisfied. Moreover, every belongs to at most one of the sets , which means that there exist at most two sets that do not contain it (these are and ), so condition is also satisfied. Therefore, the answer is .