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Algebra Difficulty 6.8 National Olympiad Prove it Hong Kong

Let S={1,2,,100}S = \{1, 2, \dots, 100\}. Consider a partition of SS into S1,S2,,SnS_1, S_2, \dots, S_n for some nn, i.e. SiS_i are nonempty, pairwise disjoint and S=i=1nSiS = \bigcup_{i=1}^n S_i. Let aia_i be the average of elements of the set SiS_i. Define the score of this partition by
a1+a2++ann. \frac{a_1 + a_2 + \dots + a_n}{n}.
Among all nn and partitions of SS, determine the minimum possible score.

Solution

The minimum possible score is 1010.
Suppose we have a partition S1,S2,,SnS_1, S_2, \dots, S_n with score xx.

Claim 1. If there are at least two subsets, say S1,S2S_1, S_2, both with averages at least xx, then merging these two subsets into one subset will not increase the score.
Proof. Let aa' be the new average of the merged set. Note that amax{a1,a2}a' \le \max\{a_1, a_2\}. Together with xa1,a2x \le a_1, a_2, we obtain a+xa1+a2a' + x \le a_1 + a_2. It follows that
a+a3+a4++ann1x+a1+a2+a3++ann1=x+nxn1=x. \frac{a' + a_3 + a_4 + \dots + a_n}{n-1} \le \frac{-x + a_1 + a_2 + a_3 + \dots + a_n}{n-1} = \frac{-x + nx}{n-1} = x.
This means the new score is at most xx.

Claim 2. If there is a subset, say S1S_1, with average at most xx and having at least two elements, then it is possible to split it into two subsets so that the score does not increase.
Proof. Let mm be the smallest element in S1S_1. We split S1S_1 into {m}\{m\} and S1{m}S_1 - \{m\}. The new averages of these two sets are mm and S1a1mS11\frac{|S_1|a_1 - m}{|S_1| - 1} respectively. Now, we have
1n+1(m+S1a1mS11+a2+a3++an)=1n+1(m+a1mS11+a1+a2++an)m+(a1m)+nxn+1x+nxn+1=x. \begin{align*} \frac{1}{n+1} \left( m + \frac{|S_1|a_1 - m}{|S_1| - 1} + a_2 + a_3 + \dots + a_n \right) \\ &= \frac{1}{n+1} \left( m + \frac{a_1 - m}{|S_1| - 1} + a_1 + a_2 + \dots + a_n \right) \\ &\le \frac{m + (a_1 - m) + nx}{n+1} \le \frac{x + nx}{n+1} = x. \end{align*}
This means the new score is at most xx.

Using the above claims, we merge any two subsets with scores above average and subdivide any subset with score below average into singletons. Also, if there are subsets {a}\{a\} and B{b}B \cup \{b\} for which aba \ge b, then we can swap aa and bb to get the subsets {b}\{b\} and B{a}B \cup \{a\} so that the average decreases, since
a+s+bB+1>b+s+aB+1 a + \frac{s+b}{|B|+1} > b + \frac{s+a}{|B|+1}
if B1|B| \ge 1.
Therefore, the optimal case must be of the form
{1},{2},{3},,{k},{k+1,k+2,,100} \{1\}, \{2\}, \{3\}, \dots, \{k\}, \{k+1, k+2, \dots, 100\}
for some k100k \le 100. The score is
1k+1(k(k+1)2+k+1012)=k+12+1002(k+1)2k+121002(k+1)=10 \frac{1}{k+1} \left( \frac{k(k+1)}{2} + \frac{k+101}{2} \right) = \frac{k+1}{2} + \frac{100}{2(k+1)} \ge 2 \sqrt{\frac{k+1}{2} \cdot \frac{100}{2(k+1)}} = 10
by the AM-GM inequality. In other words, the minimum score is 1010, which is attained when k=9k = 9.

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