Olympiad Maths Prep

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Number theory Difficulty 5.8 AIME, harder Prove it Ukraine

You are given 5 distinct positive integers. Can their arithmetic mean be:
a) exactly 3 times larger than their largest common divisor;
b) exactly 2 times larger than their largest common divisor;

Solution

a) It's enough to provide an example of such 5 integers. One example is the set 1,2,3,4,51, 2, 3, 4, 5, whose arithmetic mean is 33, and the largest common divisor is 11.

b) Suppose that such numbers a1,a2,a3,a4a_1, a_2, a_3, a_4 and a5a_5 exist, let dd be their largest common divisor, then these 5 integers can be rewritten as ai=dbia_i = d b_i, i=1,5i = 1, 5 and the equality in the statement is rewritten as:
a1++a55=2dd(b1++b5)=10db1++b5=10. \frac{a_1 + \cdots + a_5}{5} = 2d \Leftrightarrow d(b_1 + \cdots + b_5) = 10d \Leftrightarrow b_1 + \cdots + b_5 = 10.
Clearly numbers b1,,b5b_1, \dots, b_5 are distinct, so their smallest possible sum is 1+2+3+4+5=15>101 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 = 15 > 10, this contradiction completes the proof.

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