Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /316 of 860

Algebra Difficulty 5.1 AIME, harder Find the answer

For positive integers LL, let SL=n=1Ln/2S_{L}=\sum_{n=1}^{L}\lfloor n / 2\rfloor. Determine all LL for which SLS_{L} is a square number.

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

Solution

We distinguish two cases depending on the parity of LL. Suppose first that L=2k1L=2k-1 is odd, where k1k \geq 1. Then SL=1n2k1n2=20m<km=2k(k1)2=k(k1)S_{L}=\sum_{1 \leq n \leq 2k-1}\left\lfloor\frac{n}{2}\right\rfloor=2 \sum_{0 \leq m<k} m=2 \cdot \frac{k(k-1)}{2}=k(k-1). If k=1k=1, this is the square number 0. If k>1k>1 then (k1)2<k(k1)<k2(k-1)^{2}<k(k-1)<k^{2}, so k(k1)k(k-1) is not square. Now suppose L=2kL=2k is even, where k1k \geq 1. Then SL=SL1+k=k2S_{L}=S_{L-1}+k=k^{2} is always square. Hence SLS_{L} is square exactly when L=1L=\mathbf{1} or LL is even.

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

Source: Omni-MATH, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.