Number theoryDifficulty 7.1National olympiad, round 2Find the answer
2・13 Let S={1,2,⋯,n},A be an arithmetic sequence with at least two terms, a positive common difference, all of whose terms are in S, and adding any other element of S to A does not form an arithmetic sequence with the same common difference as A. Find the number of such A (here, a sequence with only two terms is also considered an arithmetic sequence).
A number or a short expression. Fractions can be typed as 3/2, and spacing doesn't matter.
Solution
[Solution] Let the common difference of A be d, then 1⩽d⩽n−1. We discuss in two cases: (1) Suppose n is even, then when 1⩽d⩽2n, there are dAs with common difference d; when 2n+1⩽d⩽n−1, there are n−dAs with common difference d. Therefore, when n is even, the total number of such As is (1+2+⋯2n−1)+{1+2+⋯+[n−(2n+1)]}=4n2 (cases) (2) Suppose n is odd, then when 1⩽d⩽2n−1, there are dAs with common difference d; when 2n+1⩽d⩽n−1, there are n−dAs with common difference d. Therefore, when n is odd, the total number of such As is (1+2+⋯+2n−1)+(1+2+⋯+2n−1)=4n2−1( cases )
Both cases can be unified as: the number of such As is [4n˙2].
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