Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 6.0 AIME, harder Prove it Ireland

Let AA be a set of five distinct integers and SS the set that contains all sums x+yx + y with x,yAx, y \in A and xyx \neq y. The two smallest elements of SS are 2525 and 3131, while the two largest elements of SS are 5757 and 7171. Determine all possible sets AA.

Solution

Let a<b<c<d<ea < b < c < d < e be the elements of AA. The two smallest sums are 25=a+b<31=a+c25 = a + b < 31 = a + c. The two largest are 57=c+e<71=d+e57 = c + e < 71 = d + e. We then obtain
a+d=(a+c)(c+e)+(d+e)=3157+71=45 a + d = (a + c) - (c + e) + (d + e) = 31 - 57 + 71 = 45
ea=(c+e)(a+c)=5731=26. e - a = (c + e) - (a + c) = 57 - 31 = 26.

This allows us to express the elements of AA in terms of aa as follows:
e=26+a,d=45a,c=31a,b=25a. e = 26 + a, \quad d = 45 - a, \quad c = 31 - a, \quad b = 25 - a.
For a<b=25aa < b = 25 - a we need 2a<252a < 25, i.e. a12a \le 12. For d<ed < e we need 45a<26+a45 - a < 26 + a or 19<2a19 < 2a, i.e. 10a10 \le a. Therefore we only have the following three possibilities:

<table>
<thead>
<tr><th>a</th><th>10</th><th>11</th><th>12</th></tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr><th>b = 25 - a</th><td>15</td><td>14</td><td>13</td></tr>
<tr><th>c = 31 - a</th><td>21</td><td>20</td><td>19</td></tr>
<tr><th>d = 45 - a</th><td>35</td><td>34</td><td>33</td></tr>
<tr><th>e = 26 + a</th><td>36</td><td>37</td><td>38</td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>

A straightforward check shows that these three possibilities indeed satisfy the given conditions:

<table>
<thead>
<tr><th>A</th><th>S</th></tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr><td>10, 15, 21, 35, 36</td><td>25, 31, 36, 45, 46, 50, 51, 56, 57, 71</td></tr>
<tr><td>11, 14, 20, 34, 37</td><td>25, 31, 34, 45, 48, 51, 54, 57, 71</td></tr>
<tr><td>12, 13, 19, 33, 38</td><td>25, 31, 32, 45, 46, 50, 51, 52, 57, 71</td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>

The set SS in the second case has only 9 elements because 48=11+37=14+3448 = 11 + 37 = 14 + 34.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.