Let be a positive integer. Determine all positive integers for which there exist positive integers such that
Solution
Call good a number for which there exist positive integers such that .
Since are integers and , we have , so , for all . Then , so every good number, if there exists any, is between 1 and .
Next, we will show that any integer is good. Obviously, is good (for ) and 1 is also good (take ). For , we write:
so it is enough to choose such that the first sum is equal to , and the second sum is equal to 1. We can do that by setting , for and , for . Notice that in all cases, so the good numbers are indeed 1, 2, .
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