Problem:
A set of at least three positive integers is called uniform if removing any of its elements the remaining set can be disjoint into two subsets with equal sums of elements. Find the minimal cardinality of a uniform set.
Solution
Solution:
Let be a uniform set. Set . It follows from the given condition that is an even number for any . Suppose that the number is even. Then all the numbers are even. Set . Then it is easy to see that the set is uniform, too. So, we may assume that is an odd number and whence and are also odd numbers.
We shall prove that . It is not difficult to check that is a uniform set. It remains to show that there are no uniform sets with 5 elements, since it is obvious that the sets with 3 elements are not uniform.
Suppose that is a uniform set and let . Considering the set we see that either or . Considering the set we get that either or .
- If and , then .
- If and , then .
- If and , then .
- If and , then .
Since all the above possibilities lead to a contradiction, we conclude that there are no uniform sets with 5 elements.