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Algebra Difficulty 6.1 National Olympiad Prove it Romania

Let aa be a natural odd number which is not a perfect square. If mm and nn are strictly positive integers, prove that
a){m(a+a)}{n(aa)},b)[m(a+a)][n(aa)]. \begin{align*} \text{a)} \quad & \{m(a + \sqrt{a})\} \neq \{n(a - \sqrt{a})\}, \\ \text{b)} \quad & [m(a + \sqrt{a})] \neq [n(a - \sqrt{a})]. \end{align*}

Solution

a.
As mama, nana are natural numbers, the equality implies {ma}={na}\{m\sqrt{a}\} = \{-n\sqrt{a}\}.
Two numbers have the same fractional part if and only if their difference is an integer, whence (m+n)aZ(m+n)\sqrt{a} \in \mathbb{Z}, which is absurd.

b.
Again, let us suppose that there is a natural number NN, for which there exist two not equal numbers mm, nn which are different from zero, such that N=[m(a+a)]=[n(aa)]N = [m(a + \sqrt{a})] = [n(a - \sqrt{a})]. Then Nm(a+a)<N+1N \leq m(a + \sqrt{a}) < N + 1 and Nn(aa)<N+1N \leq n(a - \sqrt{a}) < N + 1; moreover, the inequalities are strict, because the terms in the middle are irrational numbers.
We rewrite the inequalities as
Na+a<m<N+1a+a,Naa<n<N+1aa, \frac{N}{a + \sqrt{a}} < m < \frac{N + 1}{a + \sqrt{a}}, \quad \frac{N}{a - \sqrt{a}} < n < \frac{N + 1}{a - \sqrt{a}},
and thus, by addition, we get N2a1<m+n<(N+1)2a1N \frac{2}{a-1} < m + n < (N+1) \frac{2}{a-1}.
From here, N<a12(m+n)<N+1N < \frac{a-1}{2}(m+n) < N+1, which is a contradiction, because the term in the middle is natural (aa is odd).

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