Let be a positive integer. Find, with proof, the least positive integer which cannot be expressed in the form
where and are nonnegative integers for each .
Solution
The answer is . We first show that cannot be obtained. For any let be the minimum required to express in the desired form and call any realization of this minimum a minimal representation. If is even, any sequence of that can produce must contain an even number of zeros. If this number is nonzero, then canceling one against another or replacing two with a term would reduce the number of terms in the sum. Thus a minimal representation cannot contain a term, and by dividing each term by two we see that . If is odd, there must be at least one and removing it gives a sequence that produces either or . Hence
With as defined above and , we have , so and
Hence, by induction, and and cannot be obtained by a sum with terms.
Next we show by induction on that any positive integer less than can be obtained with terms. By the inductive hypothesis and symmetry about zero, it suffices to show that by adding one summand we can reach every in the range from an integer in the range . Suppose that . By using a term , we see that . Since , it follows from the inductive hypothesis that . Now suppose that . By using a term , we see that . Since , it again follows that .