The sets and are subsets of the positive integers. The sum of any two different elements from is an element of . The quotient of any two different elements from (where we divide the largest by the smallest) is an element of . Determine the maximum number of elements in .
Solution
Suppose contains at least three elements, say , so is positive, thus it must hold that . This gives . Therefore, contains at most two elements.
Suppose contains at least four elements, say . Then contains the three distinct elements , and . But cannot contain three distinct elements, contradiction. Therefore, contains at most three elements.
In total, contains at most 5 elements. This is possible, for example with and . Now and and , so this pair of sets satisfies the conditions. We conclude that contains at most 5 elements.
Finding a pair of sets that satisfies the conditions can be done as follows. Suppose contains the elements . Then contains the elements , and , with being the largest. Since contains only two elements, it must hold that . Furthermore, the sum of the two elements in must be in , so . Write , then and . Now you see that can equal by choosing . With , you get , so this does not work; with , you get the solution mentioned above.