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Combinatorics Difficulty 5.5 AIME, harder Prove it Croatia

Let nn be a positive integer. Prove that there is an odd number of odd numbers among the numbers
(2n+11),(2n+12),,(2n+1k),,(2n+1n). \binom{2n+1}{1}, \binom{2n+1}{2}, \dots, \binom{2n+1}{k}, \dots, \binom{2n+1}{n}.

Solution

Let us consider the binomial coefficients (2n+1k)\binom{2n+1}{k} for 1kn1 \leq k \leq n.

Recall that (2n+1k)\binom{2n+1}{k} is odd if and only if, in the binary representation, every bit of kk is less than or equal to the corresponding bit of 2n+12n+1 (Lucas' theorem).

But we can use a parity argument:

The sum of all binomial coefficients for a given mm is 2m2^m:
k=02n+1(2n+1k)=22n+1. \sum_{k=0}^{2n+1} \binom{2n+1}{k} = 2^{2n+1}.

But we are interested in the parity of (2n+1k)\binom{2n+1}{k} for 1kn1 \leq k \leq n.

Note that (2n+1k)=(2n+12n+1k)\binom{2n+1}{k} = \binom{2n+1}{2n+1-k}, so the sequence is symmetric about k=n+12k = n+\frac{1}{2}.

For k=0k = 0 and k=2n+1k = 2n+1, (2n+10)=(2n+12n+1)=1\binom{2n+1}{0} = \binom{2n+1}{2n+1} = 1 (odd).

Let SS be the set {(2n+11),(2n+12),,(2n+1n)}\{\binom{2n+1}{1}, \binom{2n+1}{2}, \dots, \binom{2n+1}{n}\}.

Let TT be the set {(2n+1n+1),,(2n+12n)}\{\binom{2n+1}{n+1}, \dots, \binom{2n+1}{2n}\}.

Since (2n+1k)=(2n+12n+1k)\binom{2n+1}{k} = \binom{2n+1}{2n+1-k}, the set SS and TT have the same number of odd elements.

Now, the total number of odd binomial coefficients in the row 2n+12n+1 is a power of 22 (Lucas' theorem):

Let 2n+12n+1 in binary have dd ones, then the number of odd binomial coefficients is 2d2^d.

But (2n+10)\binom{2n+1}{0} and (2n+12n+1)\binom{2n+1}{2n+1} are both 11 (odd), so the number of odd binomial coefficients among k=1k=1 to 2n2n is 2d22^d - 2.

Since SS and TT are symmetric, the number of odd binomial coefficients in SS is 2d22=2d11\frac{2^d - 2}{2} = 2^{d-1} - 1.

But 2d112^{d-1} - 1 is odd for d1d \geq 1.

Therefore, there is an odd number of odd numbers among (2n+11),,(2n+1n)\binom{2n+1}{1}, \dots, \binom{2n+1}{n}.

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