Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / Ukrainian National Mathematical Olympiad, Third Round, First Tour /14 of 19

Ukrainian National Mathematical Olympiad, Third Round, First Tour

Combinatorics Difficulty 6.0 National Olympiad Prove it Ukraine

You are given a set of nn not necessarily distinct numbers {a1,a2,…,an}\{a_1, a_2, \dots, a_n\}, (meaning that some of them can be equal). Consider all 2n−12^n - 1 nonempty subsets of this set, and for each such subset, find the sum of its elements. What largest number of these sums could turn out to be equal to 11? For example, for a set {−1;2;2}\{-1; 2; 2\} we have 77 nonempty subsets: {−1}\{-1\}, {2}\{2\}, {2}\{2\}, {−1;2}\{-1; 2\}, {−1;2}\{-1; 2\}, {2;2}\{2; 2\} and {−1;2;2}\{-1; 2; 2\}, and among them there are exactly two subsets with sum 11.
(Anton Trygub)

Solution

Example, where we reach equality, is: (1,0,0,…,0)(1, 0, 0, \dots, 0).

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,604 problems in a working order, from Junior Challenge level to the IMO shortlist.

Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.