The first positive integers are written on a board (). Ante repeats the following procedure: first he chooses two numbers on the board, and then he increases them both by the same arbitrary positive integer.
Determine all positive integers such that Ante can, by repeating this procedure, achieve that all numbers on the board are equal.
(Ilko Brnetić)
Solution
Assume . Then Ante can achieve that all numbers on the board are equal in the following way: he will increase by the numbers and , and , ..., and . By doing that, he gets that the numbers on the board are all even numbers smaller than or equal to , and each is written twice. Finally, he increases and by , and by , ..., and by , and he gets that all numbers on the board are equal to .
Assume . Then Ante can achieve that all numbers on the board are equal in the following way: he will increase by the numbers and , and , ..., and . By doing that, he gets that the numbers on the board are all even numbers smaller than or equal to , each written twice, and the number . Finally, he increases and by , and by , ..., and by . Now all numbers on the board are equal to .
Assume . Then Ante cannot achieve that all numbers are equal. The sum of all numbers on the board is initially odd, because
Since there is an even number of numbers on the board, if they were equal their sum would be an even number. On the other hand, in each step the sum of numbers on the board is increased by an even number, so the sum will never be even.
Therefore, Ante can achieve that all numbers are equal if and only if is not of the form , .