Problem:
Let , , be positive integers with and . Prove that the numbers can be divided into groups in such a way that the sum of the numbers in each group equals .
Problem:
Let , , be positive integers with and . Prove that the numbers can be divided into groups in such a way that the sum of the numbers in each group equals .
Solution:
Induction on , then . For , there is nothing to prove. Assume the result is proved for and consider the case .
If is odd, we have , so the result is true for , .
If is even, we have , so the result is true for and .
Now suppose it is true for .
If , then for odd we can take the sums . These use up the numbers , , ..., and give some sums of . By induction the remaining numbers will give the remaining sums of (obviously ).
If is even, we can take the sums . That gives some sums of and leaves us with the integers and . But since , and hence we can use the integers to form sums of . With the integer that gives us sums of (we know that the parity must come out right because we know that the sum of all the remaining numbers is divisible by ).
Finally, consider . In that case we can form sums of : , , ..., . So we are home provided the remaining integers can be used to form sums of . That follows by induction provided that , or , or or , which is true.