Maths Olympiad Prep

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Combinatorics Difficulty 5.7 AIME, harder Prove it United States

Problem:
Let S={1,2,3,,64}S=\{1,2,3, \ldots, 64\}. Compute the number of ways to partition SS into 16 arithmetic sequences such that each arithmetic sequence has length 4 and common difference 1, 4, or 16.

Solution

Solution:
The key observation is the following:
Claim 1. No partition can contain all three common differences.
Proof. Indeed, suppose the sequences x,x+16,x+32,x+48x, x+16, x+32, x+48 and y,y+4,y+8,y+12y, y+4, y+8, y+12 are both present for some xx and yy in SS. Without loss of generality, assume y26y \leq 26; otherwise, we can take our partition and replace each number nn with 65n65-n, resulting in the sequence 53y,57y,61y,65y53-y, 57-y, 61-y, 65-y instead.
Note that y≢xmod4y \not \equiv x \bmod 4, as otherwise one of y,y+4,y+8y, y+4, y+8, or y+12y+12 would be equivalent to xx modulo 16 and the two sequences would intersect.
Hence, there exists a number zz strictly between yy and y+4y+4 which is equivalent to xx modulo 4. The same argument above tells us zz cannot be in a difference-4 sequence; it also cannot be in a difference-1 sequence, as such a sequence would contain either yy or y+4y+4. Thus zz is in a difference-16 sequence. Similarly, as z+4z+4 lies between y+4y+4 and y+8y+8, and z+8z+8 lies between y+8y+8 and y+12y+12, both z+4z+4 and z+8z+8 are in difference-4 sequences.
Since we assumed y26y \leq 26, we know y+32Sy+32 \in S. Note that y+20y+20 cannot be part of a difference-16 sequence, as such a sequence would also contain y+4y+4. Furthermore, y+20y+20 lies between z+16z+16 and z+20z+20, both of which are in difference-4 sequences; hence, y+20y+20 cannot be part of a difference-1 sequence. Thus y+20y+20 is in a difference-4 sequence. This sequence must contain either y+16y+16 or both y+28y+28 and y+32y+32.
If the sequence contains y+16y+16, then since z+12z+12 lies strictly between y+12y+12 and y+16y+16, the same argument as before tells us z+12z+12 is in a difference-16 sequence. If the sequence contains y+28y+28 and y+32y+32, then z+28z+28 lies strictly between the two, so z+28z+28 is in a difference-16 sequence; this sequence contains z+12z+12. In either case, z+12z+12 is in a difference-16 sequence.
Now, we know z,z+4,z+8z, z+4, z+8, and z+12z+12 are all in difference-16 sequences. These sequences contain all 16 numbers in the same residue class as zz modulo 4. Any difference-1 sequence would have to contain a value in this residue class; thus, no difference-1 sequences can be present.
We casework on which types of sequences are present.

Case 1: Only sequences of common difference 1 and 16 appear.
Observe that each sequence of common difference 1 has one number of each residue class modulo 4, while each sequence of common difference 16 has four numbers in the same residue class. Since SS has an equal number of elements in each residue class, there must be an equal number of difference-16 sequences in each residue class, so the number of difference-16 sequences is a multiple of 4. Say there are 4x4x of them.
Then, among the numbers 1 through 16, there are 4x4x of them that lie in difference-16 sequences, so the remaining 164x16-4x lie in 4x4-x difference-1 sequences.
Conversely, if we are given how the numbers from 1 through 16 are split between difference-1 and difference-16 sequences, we can uniquely recover the whole partition on SS. Indeed, the difference-16 sequences are fixed, which in turn fixes the difference-1 sequences.
Thus, the number of sequences in this case is the number of ordered partitions of 16 into 4x4x 1's and 4x4-x 4's, which is (4+3x4x)\binom{4+3x}{4-x}. Summing over all xx, the total for this case is
(160)+(131)+(102)+(73)+(44)=95 \binom{16}{0}+\binom{13}{1}+\binom{10}{2}+\binom{7}{3}+\binom{4}{4}=95

Case 2: Only sequences of common difference 4 and 16 appear.
Within the multiples of 4, any difference-4 and difference-16 sequence intersect, so the 16 multiples of 4 must be covered with either four difference-4 sequences or four difference-16 sequences. The same goes for each residue class mod 4, and we can make each choice independently. Thus the number of partitions in this case is 24=162^{4}=16.

Case 3: Only sequences of common difference 1 and 4 appear.
Observe that if xx and x+4x+4 are in a difference-4 sequence, then x+1,x+2x+1, x+2, and x+3x+3 must also be in difference-4 sequences, so the difference-4 sequences form contiguous blocks of length 44=164 \cdot 4=16. The difference-1 sequences are themselves contiguous blocks of length 4, so the number of sequences in this case is the number of ordered partitions of 64 into 4's and 16's. This is the same as the number of ordered partitions of 16 into 1's and 4's, which we calculated in Case 1; there are 95 of them.

Summing over all cases, we get 95+16+95=20695+16+95=206. However, we overcount any partition with only one type of sequence, of which there are three (one for each type). Thus, the answer is 2063=203206-3=203.

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