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Combinatorics Difficulty 7.8 National olympiad, round 2 Prove it Bulgaria

In a mathematical olympiad students received marks for any of the four areas: algebra, geometry, number theory and combinatorics. Any two of the students have distinct marks for all four areas. A group of students is called nice if all students in the group can be ordered in increasing order simultaneously of at least two of the four areas. Find the least positive integer NN, such that among any NN students there exist a nice group of ten students.

Solution

Answer: 730.

Lemma. A sequence A=a1,a2,,akA = a_1, a_2, \dots, a_k consisting of distinct numbers does not possess 10 term increasing subsequence if and only if its terms can be colored in 9 colors such that the members of one and the same color from a decreasing sequence.

Proof. First, assume that such a coloring exists. Any 10-term subsequence of AA contains two terms colored in the same way. Hence, the sequence is not increasing.

Suppose now, AA does not contain 10-term increasing subsequence. Color in color ii any term aa of AA such that the longest increasing subsequence of AA, having aa as its last element, has length ii. It is easy to see that this coloring has the desired properties. This completes the proof of the Lemma.

We prove that among any 730 students there exist 10 that form a nice sequence.

Let M1,M2,,M730M_1, M_2, \dots, M_{730} be a sequence in which the students are ordered in increasing order according to their algebra marks. Let aia_i be the geometry mark of MiM_i. If the sequence a1,a2,,a730a_1, a_2, \dots, a_{730} has 10-term subsequence then we have a nice sequence.

In the opposite case according to the Lemma we color all students in 9 colors such that the geometry marks for any color form a decreasing subsequence. There exist at least 82 students having the same color. Let N1,N2,,N82N_1, N_2, \dots, N_{82} be of the same color and they are ordered in increasing order for algebra marks and decreasing order for geometry marks.

Let bib_i be number theory mark for NiN_i. If the sequence b1,b2,,b82b_1, b_2, \dots, b_{82} has 10-term decreasing subsequence, then we have the desired nice sequence. In the opposite case we can color students N1,N2,,N82N_1, N_2, \dots, N_{82} in 9 colors such that number theory marks for any color to form increasing sequence. We have at least 10 students of the same color and they from nice subsequence with their marks in algebra and number theory.

It remains to show an example of 729 students without 10-term nice subsequence.

Let kk be an integer between 0 and 728. For 0i<j20 \le i < j \le 2 denote by fij(k)f_{ij}(k) the integer from representation of kk in base 9 when the digits in ii-th and jj-th place are replaced by their compliments to 8. (If k80k \le 80 then we add 0's to the left.)

Consider 729 students with algebra marks 0, 1, ..., 728 and the student of mark kk has geometry mark f01(k)f_{01}(k), number theory mark f02(k)-f_{02}(k), and combinationics mark f12(k)-f_{12}(k).

It is clear that for any two areas there exist two numbers 0i<j20 \le i < j \le 2, such that for any student one of the marks for these two areas is obtained from the other through the function fijf_{ij}.

We prove that a 10-term nice sequence for algebra and geometry does not exist. For remaining pairs the proof is the same.

Let M1,M2,,M729M_1, M_2, \dots, M_{729} be the sequence in increasing order according to algebra marks. Let aia_i be the geometry mark of MiM_i. It suffices to show that a 10-term increasing subsequence of a1,a2,,a729a_1, a_2, \dots, a_{729} does not exist.

For any ii color aia_i in color ss where ss is the second digit of the representation of base 9 of aia_i. It is easy to see that any monochromatic subsequence of a1,a2,,a729a_1, a_2, \dots, a_{729} is decreasing. Hence, according to the Lemma, the proof is complete.

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