Problem:
Let be a set of real numbers such that has at least four elements. Suppose has the property that is a rational number for all distinct numbers in . Prove that there exists a positive integer such that is a rational number for every in .
Solution
Solution:
Suppose . Then is rational and is also rational for all in , , , . Hence for some rational and natural number . For any , we have
which is a rational number.
Hence we may assume is not in . If there is a number in such that is also in , then again we can get the conclusion as follows. Consider two other elements in . Then is rational and is also rational. It follows that is rational and is rational. Similarly, and are also rationals. Thus is rational. Note that we can vary over with and . Again is rational implies that for some rational and natural number . We observe that is rational, and
so that is a rational number. Similarly is the case with . For any other element ,
is a rational number.
Thus we may now assume that is not in and for any in . Let be four distinct elements of . We may assume . Then and are rational numbers and so is their difference . Writing , and using the facts , are rationals, we conclude that is also a rational number. Similarly, is also a rational number.
Consider
Note that . Thus is a rational number and . This gives . Let us take . Then
where and are natural numbers. Take . Then is a rational number. Finally, for any in , we have
is also a rational number.