Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /243 of 462

Algebra Difficulty 5.9 AIME, harder Prove it Ireland

Let [x][x] be the greatest integer not exceeding xx. Consider the statements

a. [x+y]=[x]+[y][x+y] = [x] + [y].

b. [xy]=[x]+[y][-x - y] = [-x] + [-y].

Characterise the pairs x,yx, y of real numbers such that at least one of (a) or (b) is true and characterise the pairs x,yx, y such that both (a) and (b) are true.

Solution

At least one of (a) or (b) is true unless x+yx + y is an integer, but xx is not an integer. Exactly one of (a) and (b) is true if none of xx, yy, x+yx + y are integers. Both (a) and (b) are true if at least one of xx, yy is an integer.

Method: for xx a real number, write x=[x]+{x}x = [x] + \{x\}, where 0{x}<10 \le \{x\} < 1 is the fractional part of xx. Then (a) is equivalent to {x+y}={x}+{y}\{x+y\} = \{x\} + \{y\}, which in turn is equivalent to {x}+{y}<1\{x\} + \{y\} < 1. Likewise, equivalent to (b) is the statement: xx or yy is an integer or {x}+{y}>1\{x\} + \{y\} > 1. This relies on the fact that {x}=1{x}\{-x\} = 1 - \{x\} if xx is not an integer.

The best way of visualising the solution is as follows. Notice first that adding an integer to xx or to yy does not change whether or not (x,y)(x, y) satisfies (a) or (b). So we can replace xx by {x}\{x\} and yy by {y}\{y\}. So now we are looking at all points (x,y)(x, y) in the unit square {(x,y)0x,y<1}\{(x, y) \mid 0 \le x, y < 1\}. Check first that (a) is satisfied by all points in the lower triangle bounded by the diagonal x+y=1x+y=1, plus the endpoints of the diagonal (1,0)(1, 0) and (0,1)(0, 1). Now x1xx \to 1-x maps the square onto itself. The (x,y)(x, y) satisfying (b) are those points (1x,1y)(1-x, 1-y) satisfying (a). By the above, these are the (x,y)(x, y) in the upper triangle bounded by x+y=1x+y=1, plus (1,0)(1, 0) and (0,1)(0, 1). The only points in the square satisfying neither (a) nor (b) are those on the diagonal x+y=1x+y=1, apart from (1,0)(1, 0) and (0,1)(0, 1) i.e. when neither xx nor yy is an integer but x+yx+y is an integer.

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

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