Maths Olympiad Prep

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Combinatorics Difficulty 5.7 AIME, harder Prove it Estonia

Kati and Peeter play the following game. First, Kati writes a positive integer a>2016a > 2016 on the blackboard. Then Peeter starts to write more numbers on the blackboard, adding at each step the number 2016b+12016b + 1 where bb is the biggest number on the blackboard. Peeter wins if at some point he writes a number divisible by 20172017. Otherwise Kati wins. Can Kati win, and if yes, what is the smallest number aa she can write to win?

Solution

The number 2016b+12016b + 1 gives the same remainder upon division by 20172017 as b+1-b + 1. Hence the remainders upon division by 20172017 are as in the sequence b,b+1,(b+1)+1,b, -b+1, -(b+1)+1, \dots. Since (b+1)+1=b-(b+1)+1 = b, this sequence has period 22, whence there are at most 22 different remainders. Hence the number aa gives the win to Kati if and only if neither aa nor a+1-a+1 is divisible by 20172017. Thus a=2017a = 2017 does not give a win, as it is divisible by 20172017, similarly for a=2018a = 2018, as 2018+1-2018+1 is divisible by 20172017. But for a=2019a = 2019 none of 20192019 or 2019+1-2019+1 is divisible by 20172017, giving a win.

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