Maths Olympiad Prep

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Number theory Difficulty 5.3 AIME, harder Find the answer

1. By deleting three consecutive numbers from the set of natural numbers from 1 to 2021, it has been observed that the arithmetic mean of the remaining numbers is a natural number. Determine the numbers that were deleted.

A number or a short expression. Fractions can be typed as 3/2, and spacing doesn't matter.

Solution

Solution. The sum of all natural numbers from 1 to 2021 is

S=202120222=20211011 S=\frac{2021 \cdot 2022}{2}=2021 \cdot 1011

Let x1,x,x+1x-1, x, x+1 be the deleted numbers. Then the arithmetic mean of the remaining numbers is

N=20211011(x1+x+x+1)20213=202110113x2018 N=\frac{2021 \cdot 1011-(x-1+x+x+1)}{2021-3}=\frac{2021 \cdot 1011-3 x}{2018}

We introduce the substitution x=1011+yx=1011+y, where 1009y1009-1009 \leq y \leq 1009 and get

N=202110113(1011+y)2018=201810113y2018=10113y2018. N=\frac{2021 \cdot 1011-3(1011+y)}{2018}=\frac{2018 \cdot 1011-3 y}{2018}=1011-\frac{3 y}{2018} .

According to the condition of the problem, NN is a natural number, and from the constraint on yy we additionally have 323y201832-\frac{3}{2} \leq \frac{3 y}{2018} \leq \frac{3}{2}. The integers in the interval [32,32]\left[-\frac{3}{2}, \frac{3}{2}\right] are 1,0,1-1,0,1, from which it follows that y=0y=0 is the only possible value for yy. Therefore, the deleted numbers are 1010, 1011, and 1012.

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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.