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Number theory Difficulty 6.5 National olympiad Prove it North Macedonia

A={a,b,c}A = \{a, b, c\} is a set containing three positive integers. Prove that we can find a set BAB \subset A, B={x,y}B = \{x, y\} such that for all odd positive integers m,nm, n we have
10xmynxnym 10 \mid x^m y^n - x^n y^m

Solution

Let f(x,y)=xmynxnymf(x, y) = x^m y^n - x^n y^m. If n=mn = m, the problem statement will be fulfilled no matter how we choose BB so from now on, without loss of generality, we consider n>mn > m.
Since mm and nn are both odd, we have that nmn - m is even and we get
f(x,y)=xmym(ynmxnm)f(x,y)=xmym(y2x2)Q(x,y)f(x,y)=xmym(yx)(y+x)Q(x,y) \begin{align*} f(x, y) &= x^m y^m (y^{n-m} - x^{n-m}) \\ f(x, y) &= x^m y^m (y^2 - x^2) Q(x, y) \\ f(x, y) &= x^m y^m (y - x)(y + x) Q(x, y) \end{align*}
where Q(x,y)=ynm2+ynm4x++ynm2Q(x, y) = y^{n-m-2} + y^{n-m-4} x + \dots + y^{n-m-2}.

Now if one of x,yx, y is even, f(x,y)f(x, y) is even. If both are odd, then f(x,y)f(x, y) is again even since x+yx + y and xyx - y are even in that case. This shows that we only need to consider divisibility by 55.

If AA contains at least one element divisible by 55, we can put it in BB and that will give us the solution easily.

Now we consider the case when none of the elements in AA is divisible by 55. If some two numbers in AA give the same remainder modulo 55, we can choose them and then xyx - y will be divisible by 55 which solves the problem.

Now we consider the case when all remainders modulo 55 in AA are different. Take a look at the pairs (1,4)(1, 4) and (2,3)(2, 3).
Since we have three different remainders modulo 55, by pigeonhole principle one of these pairs has to be completely in AA (when elements are considered modulo 55). Then if we pick the numbers from AA that correspond to those two remainders we get that x+yx + y is divisible by 55 so the problem statement is fulfilled again. This completes the proof.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.