Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 5.3 AIME, harder Prove it Philippines

Problem:
Find all nonempty finite sets XX of real numbers with the following property:
x+xX for all xX x + |x| \in X \quad \text{ for all } x \in X

Solution

Solution:
Let X={x1,x2,,xn}X = \{x_1, x_2, \ldots, x_n\}, n1n \geq 1, where x1<x2<<xnx_1 < x_2 < \cdots < x_n.

If xn>0x_n > 0, then xn+xn=2xnXx_n + |x_n| = 2x_n \in X, which is a contradiction because xn<2xnx_n < 2x_n but xnx_n is the largest element of XX.

The contradiction in the previous paragraph implies that xn0x_n \leq 0. If x1<0x_1 < 0, then x1+x1=x1x1=0Xx_1 + |x_1| = x_1 - x_1 = 0 \in X. Hence, we must have xn=0x_n = 0, so that xi+xi=xixi=0Xx_i + |x_i| = x_i - x_i = 0 \in X for any xiXx_i \in X, i=1,2,,ni = 1, 2, \ldots, n.

Hence, in order for the desired property to be satisfied, XX must be a finite subset of the interval (,0](-\infty, 0] and it must contain 00. On the other hand, such subsets satisfy the said property.

The only nonempty finite sets that satisfy the desired property are those finite subsets of (,0](-\infty, 0] containing 00.

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