Maths Olympiad Prep

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, 2012

Algebra Difficulty 5.8 AIME, harder Prove it Saudi Arabia

Let M={1,2,4,5,7,8,}M = \{1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, \dots\} be the set of all positive integers not divisible by 33. The sum of 2n2n consecutive elements of MM is 300300. Determine the possible values of nn.

Solution

Let SiS_i be the sum of the first ii numbers in the set MM. We have
S2k=(1+2)+(4+5)++(3k2+3k1)=(613)+(623)++(6k3)=3k(k+1)3k=3k2. \begin{aligned} S_{2k} &= (1+2) + (4+5) + \dots + (3k-2+3k-1) \\ &= (6 \cdot 1 - 3) + (6 \cdot 2 - 3) + \dots + (6k-3) \\ &= 3k(k+1) - 3k = 3k^2. \end{aligned}
Then S2k+1=S2k+3k+1=3k2+3k+1S_{2k+1} = S_{2k} + 3k + 1 = 3k^2 + 3k + 1.

Case 1. The sum of 2n2n consecutive elements of MM is
a2k+1+a2k+2++a2l=S2lS2k, a_{2k+1} + a_{2k+2} + \dots + a_{2l} = S_{2l} - S_{2k},
where n=lkn = l - k. We obtain 3(l2k2)=3003(l^2 - k^2) = 300, so therefore
(lk)(l+k)=100, (l-k)(l+k) = 100,
giving the systems
{lk=1l+k=100;{lk=2l+k=50;{lk=4l+k=25;{lk=5l+k=20;{lk=10l+k=10 \begin{cases} l - k = 1 \\ l + k = 100 \end{cases} \quad ; \quad \begin{cases} l - k = 2 \\ l + k = 50 \end{cases} \quad ; \quad \begin{cases} l - k = 4 \\ l + k = 25 \end{cases} ; \\ \begin{cases} l - k = 5 \\ l + k = 20 \end{cases} ; \quad \begin{cases} l - k = 10 \\ l + k = 10 \end{cases}
Only the second and the last are solvable in integers, and we obtain l=26l = 26, k=24k = 24 and l=10l = 10, k=0k = 0. Thus we get n=2n = 2, n=10n = 10.

Case 2. The sum of 2n2n consecutive elements of MM is
a2k+a2k+1++a2l1, a_{2k} + a_{2k+1} + \dots + a_{2l-1},
where n=lkn = l - k, k1k \ge 1. We obtain 3(l2+lk2k)=3003(l^2 + l - k^2 - k) = 300, and so (lk)(l+k+1)=100(l-k)(l+k+1) = 100.
The solutions that work are
{lk=1l+k=99;{lk=4l+k=24;{lk=5l+k=19 \begin{cases} l - k = 1 \\ l + k = 99 \end{cases} \quad ; \quad \begin{cases} l - k = 4 \\ l + k = 24 \end{cases} \quad ; \quad \begin{cases} l - k = 5 \\ l + k = 19 \end{cases}
We get
l=50,k=49l = 50, k = 49, l=14,k=10l = 14, k = 10, l=12,k=7l = 12, k = 7,
meaning that n=1,4,5n = 1, 4, 5.

The solutions are n{1,2,4,5,10}n \in \{1, 2, 4, 5, 10\}.

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