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Combinatorics Difficulty 6.8 National olympiad Prove it Romania

Determine the smallest positive integer nn such that, for any coloring of the elements of the set {2,3,,n}\{2, 3, \dots, n\} with two colors, the equation x+y=zx + y = z has a monochrome solution with xyx \neq y. (We say that the equation x+y=zx + y = z has a monochrome solution if there exist a,b,ca, b, c distinct, having the same color, such that a+b=ca + b = c.)

Solution

For n=12n = 12 there exists a coloring of the numbers from {2,3,,12}\{2, 3, \dots, 12\} with two colors such that the equation x+y=zx + y = z has no monochrome solution: we color the numbers from A={2,3,4,11,12}A = \{2, 3, 4, 11, 12\} with one color, and the elements of B={5,6,7,8,9,10}B = \{5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10\} with the second color.
For n<12n < 12 we color with the first color the numbers from {2,3,,n}A\{2, 3, \dots, n\} \cap A and with the second one the elements of {2,3,,n}B\{2, 3, \dots, n\} \cap B. Again, the equation x+y=zx + y = z has no monochrome solution.
It follows that n13n \ge 13.
We prove that, for any coloring with two colors of the elements of the set {2,3,,13}\{2, 3, \dots, 13\}, the equation x+y=zx + y = z has monochrome solutions.
Assume the contrary: there exists a coloring such that there is no monochrome solution to the equation.
Case 1: If 22, 33, 44 have color 1, then 5=2+35 = 2+3, 6=2+46 = 2+4, 7=3+47 = 3+4 need to have color 2, hence 11=5+611 = 5+6, 12=5+712 = 5+7, 13=6+713 = 6+7 need to be of color 1. But then 2+11=132+11 = 13, and the equation has a monochrome solution (of color 1).

Case 2: If 22 and 33 are of color 1 while 44 has color 2, then 5=2+35 = 2+3 has color 2, and 9=4+59 = 4+5 has color 1. But 3+6=93+6 = 9, and numbers 33 and 99 have color 1, hence 66 needs to be of color 2. Similarly, as 2+7=92+7 = 9 and 22, 99 have color 1, it follows that 77 has color 2. If 1111 has color 1, then 2+9=112+9 = 11 leads to a monochrome solution. If 1111 has color 2, then 5+6=115+6 = 11 is a monochrome solution.

Case 3: If 22 and 44 have color 1 while 33 has color 2, then 66 has color 2, 99 has color 1. As 44 and 99 have color 1, we need 55 to have color 2. Similarly, 22 and 99 are of color 1, therefore 77 has color 2, 8=3+58 = 3+5 has color 1. But 12=4+8=5+712 = 4+8 = 5+7, hence we have a monochrome solution (of color 1 or color 2, depending on the color of 1212).

Case 4: 22 has color 1, 33 and 44 have color 2. Then 77 has color 1. But 22 and 77 having color 1 means that 55 needs to be of color 2. This leads to 9=2+7=4+59 = 2+7 = 4+5 and, again, regardless on the color of 99, the equation has a monochrome solution.

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