Let be a non-empty finite subset of positive integers . A subset of is called good if for every integer there exists an in such that . Let
Prove that :
If is not good then the number of pairs in is even.
the number of good subsets of is odd.
Let be a non-empty finite subset of positive integers . A subset of is called good if for every integer there exists an in such that . Let
Prove that :
If is not good then the number of pairs in is even.
the number of good subsets of is odd.
### Part (a)
1. Graph Construction: Construct an undirected graph where each vertex corresponds to an element in . There is an edge between vertices and if and only if .
2. **Non-Good Subset **: Since is not a good subset, there exists at least one vertex such that is not adjacent to any vertex in . This means for all .
3. Counting Pairs: Consider the set of pairs in . For each subset , we need for all and .
4. **Splitting by **: Since is not adjacent to any vertex in , can either be included in or not. This creates a natural partition of the pairs into two disjoint sets: those that include and those that do not.
5. Even Count: Each pair can be uniquely paired with if . This implies that the total number of such pairs is even.
Thus, if is not a good subset, the number of pairs in is even.
### Part (b)
1. **Set **: Consider the set .
2. Pairing Property: For every pair , the pair as well. If , then for all , which implies and must be empty (since for any ).
3. **Odd Cardinality of **: Since each pair can be paired with and the only unpaired element is , the total number of elements in is odd.
4. Counting Good Subsets: For each subset , count the number of times it appears as the first element of a pair in :
- If is a good subset, it appears an odd number of times.
- If is not a good subset, it appears an even number of times (as shown in part (a)).
5. Conclusion: Since the total number of pairs in is odd, the number of good subsets must be odd to balance the count.