Maths Olympiad Prep

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Combinatorics Difficulty 5.4 AIME, harder Prove it Soviet Union

Problem:

Given a sequence of 1919 positive integers not exceeding 8888 and another sequence of 8888 positive integers not exceeding 1919. Show that we can find two subsequences of consecutive terms, one from each sequence, with the same sum.

Solution

Solution:

We prove the general case. Let the first sequence be a1,a2,,ama_1, a_2, \ldots, a_m and the second sequence be b1,b2,,bnb_1, b_2, \ldots, b_n, where 0<ain0 < a_i \leq n and 0<bjm0 < b_j \leq m. Put sk=a1+a2++aks_k = a_1 + a_2 + \ldots + a_k, tk=b1+b2++bkt_k = b_1 + b_2 + \ldots + b_k. Assume sm>tns_m > t_n (if they are equal, then we are done).

Let f(i)f(i) be the smallest kk such that sktis_k \geq t_i. If it is equal, we are done, so assume sk>tis_k > t_i. Now consider the nn numbers sf(i)tis_{f(i)} - t_i. Each is at least 11 and at most n1n-1 (if it was nn or more then sf(i)1sf(i)ntis_{f(i)-1} \geq s_{f(i)} - n \geq t_i, contradicting the minimality of f(i)f(i)). So there must be two the same. So we have sf(i)ti=sf(i)tjs_{f(i)} - t_i = s_{f(i)} - t_j for some i>ji > j and hence af(j)+1+af(j)+2++af(i)=bj+1+bj+2++bia_{f(j)+1} + a_{f(j)+2} + \ldots + a_{f(i)} = b_{j+1} + b_{j+2} + \ldots + b_i.

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