The smallest of nine consecutive integers is 2012. These nine integers are placed in the circles to the right. The sum of the three integers along each of the four lines is the same. If this sum is as small as possible, what is the value of ?
Solution
If we have a configuration of the numbers that has the required property, then we can add or subtract the same number from each of the numbers in the circles and maintain the property. (This is because there are the same number of circles in each line.) Therefore, we can subtract 2012 from all of the numbers and try to complete the diagram using the integers from 0 to 8. We label the circles as shown in the diagram, and call the sum of the three integers along any one of the lines. Since are 0 through 8 in some order, then . From the desired property, we want . Therefore, . From this, or . We note that the right side is an integer that is divisible by 4. Also, we want to be as small as possible so we want the sum to be as small as possible. Since is a positive integer that is divisible by 4, then the smallest that it can be is . If , then and must be 0,1 and 3 in some order since each of and is a different integer between 0 and 8. In this case, and so . Since , then we cannot have and or and equal to 0 and 1 in some order, or else the third number in the line would have to be 9, which is not possible. This tells us that must be 3, and and are 0 and 1 in some order. Therefore, the value of in the original configuration is .