We assume that there exist 4m+2 elements x0<x1<…<x4m+1 from {0,1,2,…,5m} for which the claim does not hold. Then in particular x4m+1+2xi≤3xi+1 holds for all i=0,1,…,4m−1. Rearranging gives x4m+1−xi≥23(x4m+1−xi+1).
A simple induction argument yields from this x4m+1−xi≥(23)4m−i(x4m+1−x4m).
Here, setting i=0 leads to x4m+1−x0≥(23)4m(x4m+1−x4m)=(1681)m(x4m+1−x4m)>5m⋅1, a contradiction! ㅁ
We denote the largest element of A by c. For k=0,…,4m−1 we define Ak={x∈A∣(1−(32)k)c≤x<(1−(32)k+1)c}.
Since (1−(32)4m)c=c−(8116)mc>c−(51)mc≥c−1, the sets A0,A1,…,A4m−1 form a partition of A∖{c}. Since A∖{c} consists of 4m+1 elements, by the pigeonhole principle there must exist a set Ak that consists of at least two elements. We denote two of the numbers from Ak by a and b such that a<b<c holds. Then c+2a≥c+2(1−(32)k)c=(3−2(32)k)c=3(1−(32)k+1)c>3b, as required. □