Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 6.8 National olympiad Find the answer

If 8/198/19 of the product of largest two elements of a positive integer set is not greater than the sum of other elements, what is the minimum possible value of the largest number in the set?

Pick one

Solution

1. Let the largest two elements in the set be aa and bb such that a<ba < b. For all other elements in the set, let xx be an element such that x<ax < a.

2. The sum of all other elements in the set is at most (a1)a2\frac{(a-1)a}{2}. This is because the sum of the first a1a-1 positive integers is (a1)a2\frac{(a-1)a}{2}.

3. According to the problem, 819\frac{8}{19} of the product of the largest two elements is not greater than the sum of the other elements. Therefore, we have:
819ab(a1)a2 \frac{8}{19} \cdot a \cdot b \leq \frac{(a-1)a}{2}

4. Simplify the inequality:
8ab19a(a1)2 \frac{8ab}{19} \leq \frac{a(a-1)}{2}

5. Multiply both sides by 38 to clear the fractions:
16ab19a(a1) 16ab \leq 19a(a-1)

6. Divide both sides by aa (assuming a0a \neq 0):
16b19(a1) 16b \leq 19(a-1)

7. Solve for bb:
b19(a1)16 b \leq \frac{19(a-1)}{16}

8. Since bb must be greater than aa, we have:
a<b19(a1)16 a < b \leq \frac{19(a-1)}{16}

9. To find the minimum possible value of aa, we need to find the smallest integer aa such that:
a<19(a1)16 a < \frac{19(a-1)}{16}

10. Simplify the inequality:
16a<19(a1) 16a < 19(a-1)
16a<19a19 16a < 19a - 19
0<3a19 0 < 3a - 19
19<3a 19 < 3a
a>193 a > \frac{19}{3}
a>6.33 a > 6.33

11. Since aa must be an integer, the smallest possible value for aa is 7. However, we need to check if this value satisfies the original inequality.

12. If a=7a = 7:
b19(71)16=11416=7.125 b \leq \frac{19(7-1)}{16} = \frac{114}{16} = 7.125
Since bb must be an integer and greater than aa, a=7a = 7 does not work.

13. Try a=8a = 8:
b19(81)16=13316=8.3125 b \leq \frac{19(8-1)}{16} = \frac{133}{16} = 8.3125
Since bb must be an integer and greater than aa, a=8a = 8 does not work.

14. Try a=12a = 12:
b19(121)16=20916=13.0625 b \leq \frac{19(12-1)}{16} = \frac{209}{16} = 13.0625
Since bb must be an integer and greater than aa, the smallest possible value for bb is 13.

Therefore, the minimum possible value of the largest number in the set is 1313.

The final answer is 13\boxed{13}.

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Source: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.