Prove that there exists constant satisfying the following: for any positive integer and , there exist three permutations ; ; and of such that
for every .
Solution
We prove the case . Let us arrange into a triangle as in the figure. For any point in the triangle, let be the row number counted from the vertex . Let and be the points corresponding to after rotating the triangle clockwise and counterclockwise, respectively. Since is an equilateral triangle, we have
Furthermore, let us consider to be the number corresponding to in the triangle. Since the top rows of the triangle contain a total of points, we have
and hence
Therefore we have
that is,
Also,
so we have
Therefore, letting range from 1 to , satisfies what is required in the problem.
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