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Combinatorics Difficulty 6.5 National olympiad Prove it Czech-Polish-Slovak Mathematical Match

Find for which
n{3900,3901,3902,3903,3904,3905,3906,3907,3908,3909} n \in \{3\,900, 3\,901, 3\,902, 3\,903, 3\,904, 3\,905, 3\,906, 3\,907, 3\,908, 3\,909\}
the set {1,2,3,,n}\{1, 2, 3, \dots, n\} can be partitioned into (disjoint) triples in such a way that one of the three numbers in any triple is the sum of the other two.

Solution

From the possibility of partitioning the set into disjoint triples it follows that 3n3 \mid n. In each triple {a,b,a+b}\{a, b, a+b\} the sum of its elements is 2(a+b)2(a+b), hence an even number; thus also the sum of all numbers from 11 to nn must be even, i.e. the product n(n+1)n(n+1) must be divisible by four. Altogether it therefore follows that the number nn has to be of the form either 12k12k or 12k+312k+3; from the given set of numbers, this is satisfied only for n=3900n = 3900 and n=3903n = 3903.

In the next paragraph we describe a construction how to produce, starting from a decomposition satisfying the given condition for some n=kn = k, a decomposition of the same kind for n=4kn = 4k and n=4k+3n = 4k + 3. This guarantees that the required decompositions for n=3900n = 3900 and n=3903n = 3903 indeed exist, in view of the decreasing sequence
390097524360153 3900 \rightarrow 975 \rightarrow 243 \rightarrow 60 \rightarrow 15 \rightarrow 3
(instead of 39003900 one can start also with 39033903) and the trivial decomposition for n=3n=3 (from which we in turn construct the decompositions for n=15n=15, n=60n=60 etc. up to n=3900n=3900 or n=3903n=3903).

From a decomposition of the set {1,2,,k}\{1, 2, \dots, k\} satisfying the given conditions we first produce a similar decomposition for the set of the first kk even numbers {2,4,,2k}\{2, 4, \dots, 2k\} (simply by multiplying all the numbers in the triples by two). In the case of n=4kn=4k we partition the remaining numbers
{1,3,5,,2k1,2k+1,2k+2,,4k1,4k} \{1, 3, 5, \dots, 2k-1, 2k+1, 2k+2, \dots, 4k-1, 4k\}
into the kk triples {2j1,3kj+1,3k+j}\{2j-1, 3k-j+1, 3k+j\}, where j=1,2,,kj=1, 2, \dots, k. They are shown in the columns of the table below.

(1352k32k13k3k13k22k+22k+13k+13k+23k+34k14k) \begin{pmatrix} 1 & 3 & 5 & \dots & 2k-3 & 2k-1 \\ 3k & 3k-1 & 3k-2 & \dots & 2k+2 & 2k+1 \\ 3k+1 & 3k+2 & 3k+3 & \dots & 4k-1 & 4k \end{pmatrix}

In the case of n=4k+3n = 4k + 3 we partition the remaining numbers
{1,3,5,,2k1,2k+1,2k+2,,4k+2,4k+3} \{1, 3, 5, \dots, 2k-1, 2k+1, 2k+2, \dots, 4k+2, 4k+3\}
into the k+1k+1 triples {2j1,3k+3j,3k+j+2}\{2j-1, 3k+3-j, 3k+j+2\}, where j=1,2,,k+1j=1, 2, \dots, k+1; these are again shown in the columns of the table below.

(1352k12k+13k+23k+13k2k+32k+23k+33k+43k+54k+24k+3) \begin{pmatrix} 1 & 3 & 5 & \dots & 2k-1 & 2k+1 \\ 3k+2 & 3k+1 & 3k & \dots & 2k+3 & 2k+2 \\ 3k+3 & 3k+4 & 3k+5 & \dots & 4k+2 & 4k+3 \end{pmatrix}

This completes the proof of the fact that the solution of the given problem are the numbers n=3900n=3900 and n=3903n=3903.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.