Maths Olympiad Prep

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Combinatorics Difficulty 5.7 AIME, harder Prove it United States

Problem:

Call an 2n2n-digit number special if we can split its digits into two sets of size nn such that the sum of the numbers in the two sets is the same. Let pnp_{n} be the probability that a randomly-chosen 2n2n-digit number is special (we will allow leading zeros in the number).

a. The sequence pnp_{n} converges to a constant cc. Find cc.

Solution

Solution:

Answer: 12\frac{1}{2}

We first claim that if a 2n2n-digit number xx has at least eight 00's and at least eight 11's and the sum of its digits is even, then xx is special.

Let AA be a set of eight 00's and eight 11's and let BB be the set of all the other digits. We split BB arbitrarily into two sets YY and ZZ of equal size. If yYyzZz>8\left|\sum_{y \in Y} y - \sum_{z \in Z} z\right| > 8, then we swap the biggest element of the set with the bigger sum with the smallest element of the other set. This transposition always decreases the absolute value of the sum: in the worst case, a 99 from the bigger set is swapped for a 00 from the smaller set, which changes the difference by at most 1818. Therefore, after a finite number of steps, we will have yYyzZz8\left|\sum_{y \in Y} y - \sum_{z \in Z} z\right| \leq 8.

Note that this absolute value is even, since the sum of all the digits is even. Without loss of generality, suppose that yYyzZz\sum_{y \in Y} y - \sum_{z \in Z} z is 2k2k, where 0k40 \leq k \leq 4. If we add kk 00's and 8k8-k 11's to YY, and we add the other elements of AA to ZZ, then the two sets will balance, so xx is special.

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