Let be a positive integer. For each of the numbers we compute the difference between the number of its odd positive divisors and its even positive divisors. Prove that the sum of these differences is at least and at most .
Kürschák Competition, 1999
Solution
We count how many times a number contributes to the sum of the differences. It appears times; if is odd, then this term is to be added, while if is even this term is to be subtracted. Thus, the desired sum is
Adding, if necessary, the term at the end, we can group the terms of the sum into pairs having the sum , hence the sum is non-negative. Similarly, separating the first term (which is equal to ), adding, if necessary, a term to the end, we can again group the terms into pairs having the sum .
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