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Algebra Difficulty 5.4 AIME, harder Find the answer

At a tennis tournament there were 2n2n boys and nn girls participating. Every player played every other player. The boys won 75\frac 75 times as many matches as the girls. It is knowns that there were no draws. Find nn .

A number or a short expression. Spacing and $ signs are ignored.

Solution

The total number of games played in the tournament is 3n(3n1)2.\tfrac{3n(3n-1)}{2}. Since the boys won 75\tfrac75 as many matches as the girls, the boys won 712\tfrac{7}{12} of all the games played, so the total number of games that a boy won is 7123n(3n1)2=7n(3n1)8.\tfrac{7}{12} \cdot \tfrac{3n(3n-1)}{2} = \tfrac{7n(3n-1)}{8}.
Since the number of games that a boy won is a whole number, n(3n1)n(3n-1) must be a multiple of 8. Testing each residue, we find that n0,3(mod8).n \equiv 0,3 \pmod{8}.
For nn to be valid, the number of games the boys won must be less than or equal to the number of games where a boy has played. The number of games with only girls is n(n1)2,\tfrac{n(n-1)}{2}, so the number of games where there is at least one boy playing is 3n(3n1)2n(n1)2.\tfrac{3n(3n-1)}{2} - \tfrac{n(n-1)}{2}. This means we can write and solve the following inequality. \begin{align*} \frac{3n(3n-1)}{2} - \frac{n(n-1)}{2} &\ge \frac{7n(3n-1)}{8} \\ \frac{5n(3n-1)}{8} &\ge \frac{n(n-1)}{2} \end{align*} Since n>0,n > 0, we do not have to change the inequality sign when we divided by n.n. \begin{align*} \frac{5(3n-1)}{4} &\ge n-1 \\ \frac{15n}{4} - \frac54 &\ge n-1 \\ \frac{11n}{4} &\ge \frac14 \\ n &\ge \frac{1}{11} \end{align*} Thus, we can confirm that all positive integers congruent to 0 or 3 modulo 8 satisfy the conditions. In summary, n{N0,3(mod8)}.\boxed{n \in \{\mathbf{N} \equiv 0,3 \pmod{8}\}}.

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