Maths Olympiad Prep

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Combinatorics Difficulty 4.8 AIME Prove it United States

Problem:

Aerith and Bob play rounds of pool. At some point Bob had won more rounds than Aerith, but now Aerith has won 85%85\% of their rounds. Show that at some point, Aerith had won exactly 75%75\% of their rounds.

Solution

Solution:

At any time, let aa and bb represent the respective number of rounds won by Aerith and Bob. Now, after nn games, a3b=n(85%315%)>0a-3b = n(85\% - 3 \cdot 15\%) > 0. However, at some point in the past bb was greater than aa, so a3ba-3b was negative. Consider the first subsequent moment when a3ba-3b was non-negative. At that moment,
(a1)3b<0a3b, (a-1)-3b < 0 \leq a-3b,
so as aa and bb were integers, a3b=0a-3b=0 and a=75%(a+b)a=75\% \cdot (a+b), as desired.

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