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China Girls' Mathematical Olympiad

Combinatorics Difficulty 5.2 AIME, harder Prove it China

Let mm and nn be positive integers with m>n≥2m > n \ge 2. Set S={1,2,…,m}S = \{1, 2, \dots, m\}, and T={a1,a2,…,an}T = \{a_1, a_2, \dots, a_n\} is a subset of SS such that every element in SS is divisible by at most one element in TT. Prove that
1a1+1a2+⋯+1an<m+nm. \frac{1}{a_1} + \frac{1}{a_2} + \dots + \frac{1}{a_n} < \frac{m+n}{m}.

Solution

For every ii with 1≤i≤n1 \le i \le n, we define set
Si={b∣b is an element in S and is divisible by ai}. S_i = \{b \mid b \text{ is an element in } S \text{ and is divisible by } a_i\}.
There are ⌊mai⌋\lfloor \frac{m}{a_i} \rfloor elements in SiS_i. Since every element in SS is not divisible by any two distinct elements in TT, it follows that Si∩Sj=∅S_i \cap S_j = \emptyset for 1≤i<j≤n1 \le i < j \le n. Thus
∑i=1n⌊mai⌋=∑i=1n∣Si∣≤∣S∣=m. \sum_{i=1}^{n} \lfloor \frac{m}{a_i} \rfloor = \sum_{i=1}^{n} |S_i| \le |S| = m.
Note that mai<⌊mai⌋+1\frac{m}{a_i} < \lfloor \frac{m}{a_i} \rfloor + 1. It follows that
∑i=1nmai<∑i=1n(⌊mai⌋+1)=∑i=1n⌊mai⌋+∑i=1n1≤m+n. \sum_{i=1}^{n} \frac{m}{a_i} < \sum_{i=1}^{n} (\lfloor \frac{m}{a_i} \rfloor + 1) = \sum_{i=1}^{n} \lfloor \frac{m}{a_i} \rfloor + \sum_{i=1}^{n} 1 \le m + n.
So the desired result is obtained.

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