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Mongolian Mathematical Olympiad

Number theory Difficulty 5.5 AIME, harder Prove it Mongolia

Given are mm positive integers such that 1≤a1≤a2≤⋯≤am≤4001 \le a_1 \le a_2 \le \dots \le a_m \le 400. Show that m≤40m \le 40, if gcd(ai,aj)≤400\text{gcd}(a_i, a_j) \le 400 for all ii and jj (1≤i,j≤m1 \le i, j \le m).

Solution

First let us change the order: a1=bma_1 = b_m, a2=bm−1a_2 = b_{m-1}, ..., am=b1a_m = b_1. Then we have 1≤bm≤bm−1≤⋯≤b2≤b1≤4001 \le b_m \le b_{m-1} \le \dots \le b_2 \le b_1 \le 400. Let us show that bk≤400kb_k \le \frac{400}{k}, 1≤k≤m1 \le k \le m. If k=1k=1, it is true.

For the induction step, we need to prove that bk+1≤400k+1b_{k+1} \le \frac{400}{k+1}. By the condition
bk−bk+1≥(bk,bk+1)=bk⋅bk+1[bk,bk+1]≥bk⋅bk+1400 b_k - b_{k+1} \ge (b_k, b_{k+1}) = \frac{b_k \cdot b_{k+1}}{[b_k, b_{k+1}]} \ge \frac{b_k \cdot b_{k+1}}{400}
holds. From this inequality we have bk+1≤400bkbk+400=4001+400bk≤4001+kb_{k+1} \le \frac{400b_k}{b_k + 400} = \frac{400}{1 + \frac{400}{b_k}} \le \frac{400}{1+k}. Hence 400bk≥k\frac{400}{b_k} \ge k.

The 1≤bm≤bm−1≤⋯≤b20≤40020=201 \le b_m \le b_{m-1} \le \dots \le b_{20} \le \frac{400}{20} = 20. Since bib_i is integer for 1≤i≤m1 \le i \le m, m≤40m \le 40.

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