Let be a set of different positive integers. Denote by the sum of all elements in a subset of and by the set for a positive integer . If for an integer such that then show that the elements of form an arithmetic progression.
(Bayarmagnai G.)
Mongolian IMO Team Selection Tests, 2015
Solution
Let be elements of . For each positive integers and , construct a subset of as . Then it is clear that and
Moreover, we have
since . For each and , we consider the subset of given by . Certainly, and
Thus, between and , there are different elements of and hence from (1). Therefore we get that
which implies that are in arithmetic progression.
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