Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /30 of 196

Algebra Difficulty 4.6 AIME Prove it Soviet Union

Problem:

Given 19801980 vectors in the plane. The sum of every 19791979 vectors is a multiple of the other vector. Not all the vectors are multiples of each other. Show that the sum of all the vectors is zero.

Solution

Solution:

Let the vectors be xi\mathbf{x}_i and their sum s\mathbf{s}. Then we have sxi=nixi\mathbf{s} - \mathbf{x}_i = n_i \mathbf{x}_i for some scalar nin_i. Hence (ni+1)xi=s(n_i + 1) \mathbf{x}_i = \mathbf{s}. If s\mathbf{s} is nonzero, then it follows that every vector is a multiple of s\mathbf{s} and hence all the vectors are multiples of each other. But we are told that is not true. Hence s\mathbf{s} is zero.

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

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