Maths Olympiad Prep

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, 2021

Number theory Difficulty 5.8 AIME, harder Prove it United States

Problem:
Let nn be a positive integer. Claudio has nn cards, each labeled with a different number from 11 to nn. He takes a subset of these cards, and multiplies together the numbers on the cards. He remarks that, given any positive integer mm, it is possible to select some subset of the cards so that the difference between their product and mm is divisible by 100100. Compute the smallest possible value of nn.

Solution

Solution:
We require that n15n \geq 15 so that the product can be divisible by 2525 without being even. In addition, for any n>15n > 15, if we can acquire all residues relatively prime to 100100, we may multiply them by some product of {1,2,4,5,15}\{1,2,4,5,15\} to achieve all residues modulo 100100, so it suffices to acquire only those residues. For n=15n = 15, we have the numbers {3,7,9,11,13}\{3,7,9,11,13\} to work with (as 11 is superfluous); these give only 25=322^{5} = 32 distinct products, so they cannot be sufficient. So, we must have n17n \geq 17, whence we have the numbers {3,7,9,11,13,17}\{3,7,9,11,13,17\}. These generators are in fact sufficient. The following calculations are motivated by knowledge of factorizations of some small numbers, as well as careful consideration of which sets of numbers we have and haven't used. It is also possible to simply write out a table of which residues relatively prime to 100100 are included once each number is added, which likely involves fewer calculations.

First, consider the set {3,11,13,17}\{3,11,13,17\}. This set generates, among other numbers, those in {1,11,21,31,51,61}\{1,11,21,31,51,61\}. Since {7,9}\{7,9\} generates {1,7,9,63}\{1,7,9,63\}, which spans every residue class mod 1010 relatively prime to 1010, we need only worry about
{41,71,81,91}×{1,7,9,63} \{41,71,81,91\} \times \{1,7,9,63\}
Since 4141 can be generated as 3713173 \cdot 7 \cdot 13 \cdot 17 and 9191 can be generated as 7137 \cdot 13, we need not worry about these times 11 and 99, and we may verify
417871117,916333311 41 \cdot 7 \equiv 87 \equiv 11 \cdot 17, \quad 91 \cdot 63 \equiv 33 \equiv 3 \cdot 11
and
9173739111317 91 \cdot 7 \equiv 37 \equiv 3 \cdot 9 \cdot 11 \cdot 13 \cdot 17
using the method we used to generate 4949 earlier. So, we only need to worry about
{71,81}×{1,7,9,63} \{71,81\} \times \{1,7,9,63\}
We calculate
717917,71939313,7163733713 71 \equiv 7 \cdot 9 \cdot 17, \quad 71 \cdot 9 \equiv 39 \equiv 3 \cdot 13, \quad 71 \cdot 63 \equiv 73 \equiv 3 \cdot 7 \cdot 13
each of which doesn't use 1111, allowing us to get all of
{71,81}×{1,9,63} \{71,81\} \times \{1,9,63\}
so we are only missing 7179771 \cdot 7 \equiv 97 and 8176781 \cdot 7 \equiv 67. We find
973911 97 \equiv 3 \cdot 9 \cdot 11
and
67391317 67 \equiv 3 \cdot 9 \cdot 13 \cdot 17
so all numbers are achievable and we are done.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.