Given any set of positive integers, show that at least one of the following two assertions holds:
(1) There exist distinct finite subsets and of such that ;
(2) There exists a positive rational number such that for all finite subsets of .
Solutions — 2
Solution 1
Solution 1. Argue indirectly. Agree, as usual, that the empty sum is to consider rationals in ; adjoining causes no harm, since for no nonempty finite subset of . For every rational in , let be the unique finite subset of such that . The argument hinges on the lemma below.
Lemma. If is a member of and and are rationals in such that , then is a member of if and only if it is not one of .
Proof. If is a member of , then
so , and is not a member of . Conversely, if is not a member of , then
so , and is a member of .
Consider now an element of and a positive rational . Let and consider the sets . Since , the set does not contain , and a repeated application of the lemma shows that the do not contain , whereas the do. Consequently, is a member of if and only if is odd.
Solution 2
Solution 2. A finite clearly satisfies (2), so let be infinite. If fails both conditions, so does . We may and will therefore assume that consists of integers greater than . Label the elements of increasingly , where .
We first show that satisfies (2) if for all . In this case, for all , so
If , or and for some , then for every finite subset of , so satisfies (2); and if and for all , that is, for all , then every finite subset of consists of powers of , so and again satisfies (2).
Finally, we deal with the case where for some . Consider the positive rational . If for no finite subset of , then satisfies (2).
We now assume that for some finite subset of , and show that satisfies (1). Since , it follows that is not a member of , so
Consequently, and are distinct finite subsets of such that , and satisfies (1).