Problem:
Let be a set of 10 positive integers. Prove that one can find two disjoint subsets and of with such that the sums
and
differ by less than 0.01; i.e.,
Solution
Solution:
Partition the interval into 250 intervals each of size 0.01.
Now consider all possible sets, , we can choose from the given 10 positive integers with . Because each of the positive integers must be different, the smallest possible reciprocal sum of one of these sets is
Therefore each of these different sets has a reciprocal sum lying somewhere in the interval . The number of such sets is but the number of intervals in our partition is only 250. By the pigeonhole principle there exists at least one interval, , and two distinct sets such that both reciprocal sums,
lie in . The reciprocal sums of and have difference less than because they both lie in the interval . If and are disjoint then we can simply choose and . Otherwise let be the intersection of and and then let and let . The sets and are disjoint and equisized because and .