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Combinatorics Difficulty 6.0 AIME, harder Prove it Croatia

Let k>1k > 1 be a positive integer. k+2k+2 distinct positive integers are given, all less than 3k+13k+1. Prove that we can find two numbers among them whose difference is greater than kk and less than 2k2k. (Mathematical Excalibur 2015)

Solution

Denote by SS the set of k+2k + 2 given numbers. Without loss of generality, we can assume that SS contains 11. Indeed, if 11 is not in SS, we can subtract the smallest element of SS from all elements of SS and add 11 to all of them, which preserves the differences between all elements of SS.

If at least one number from {k+2,k+3,,2k}\{k+2, k+3, \dots, 2k\} is contained in SS, then 11 and that number satisfy the claim.

Now assume that none of the numbers k+2,k+3,,2kk+2, k+3, \dots, 2k are in SS. All remaining numbers from 22 to 3k+13k+1 can be divided into kk pairs (2,2k+1),,(k+1,3k)(2, 2k+1), \dots, (k+1, 3k). Other than 11, the set SS contains k+1k+1 other numbers, so by the Dirichlet principle at least one pair consists of numbers that are both in SS. Those two numbers satisfy the claim.

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