Maths Olympiad Prep

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, 2015

Geometry Difficulty 4.7 AIME Prove it Singapore

Let AA be a set of numbers chosen from 1,2,,20151, 2, \ldots, 2015 with the property that any two distinct numbers, say xx and yy, in AA determine a unique isosceles triangle (which is non-equilateral) whose sides are of length xx or yy. What is the largest possible size of AA?

Solution

Let x<yx < y be two numbers in AA. For them to determine a unique isosceles triangle, we must have 2xy2x \le y. If A={20,21,22,,210}A = \{2^0, 2^1, 2^2, \ldots, 2^{10}\}, then any two of the numbers x<yx < y satisfy 2xy2x \le y. So the maximum size is 11\ge 11.

Now suppose that there is a set AA with A=12|A| = 12 that has the property. Let a1,a2,,a12a_1, a_2, \ldots, a_{12} be the elements of AA in increasing order. Then a22a1a_2 \ge 2a_1, a32a222a1a_3 \ge 2a_2 \ge 2^2a_1, \ldots, a122a11211a1211=2048a_{12} \ge 2a_{11} \ge 2^{11}a_1 \ge 2^{11} = 2048, a contradiction (since 2015<20482015 < 2048). Thus the maximum size is 1111.

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