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Algebra Difficulty 6.8 National Olympiad Prove it JBMO

Problem:

Let nn (n1n \geq 1) be an integer. Consider the equation
212xn+1=(n+1)(1nx) 2 \cdot \left\lfloor \frac{1}{2x} \right\rfloor - n + 1 = (n+1)(1 - n x)
where xx is the unknown real variable.

a. Solve the equation for n=8n=8.

b. Prove that there exists an integer nn for which the equation has at least 2021 solutions. (For any real number yy by y\lfloor y \rfloor we denote the largest integer mm such that mym \leq y.)

Solution

Solution:

Let k=12xk = \left\lfloor \frac{1}{2x} \right\rfloor, kZk \in \mathbb{Z}.

a. For n=8n=8, the equation becomes
k=12x=836xx0 and x=8k36 k = \left\lfloor \frac{1}{2x} \right\rfloor = 8 - 36x \Rightarrow x \neq 0 \text{ and } x = \frac{8 - k}{36}
Since x0x \neq 0, we have k8k \neq 8, and the last relation implies k=12x=188kk = \left\lfloor \frac{1}{2x} \right\rfloor = \left\lfloor \frac{18}{8 - k} \right\rfloor. Checking signs, we see that 0<k<80 < k < 8. By direct verification, we find the solutions k=3k = 3 (hence x=536x = \frac{5}{36}) and k=4k = 4 (hence x=19x = \frac{1}{9}).

b. From the given equation we have x0x \neq 0 and x=2(nk)n(n+1)x = \frac{2(n - k)}{n(n+1)}. Therefore, knk \neq n and k=12x=n(n+1)4(nk)k = \left\lfloor \frac{1}{2x} \right\rfloor = \left\lfloor \frac{n(n+1)}{4(n - k)} \right\rfloor. Again, checking signs we see that 0k<n0 \leq k < n. The last equation implies
kn(n+1)4(nk)<k+1{(2kn)2+n0(2k+1n)2<n+1n1n+12<k<n1+n+12 \begin{gathered} k \leq \frac{n(n+1)}{4(n-k)} < k+1 \Rightarrow \left\{\begin{array}{l} (2k - n)^2 + n \geq 0 \\ (2k + 1 - n)^2 < n+1 \end{array} \Rightarrow \right. \\ \quad \Rightarrow \frac{n-1-\sqrt{n+1}}{2} < k < \frac{n-1+\sqrt{n+1}}{2} \end{gathered}
Conversely, if kZk \in \mathbb{Z} satisfies (2) and 0<k<n0 < k < n, then x=2(nk)n(n+1)x = \frac{2(n - k)}{n(n+1)} is a solution to the given equation. It remains to note that choosing nn such that n+1>2021\sqrt{n+1} > 2021 ensures that there exist at least 2021 integer values of kk which satisfy (2).

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