Maths Olympiad Prep

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Problem 2016

National Olympiad, first round
Combinatorics Difficulty 6.9 Prove it Saudi Arabian Mathematical Competitions · Saudi Arabia

Consider the set X={1,2,3,…,2018}X=\{1,2,3, \ldots, 2018\}. How many positive integers kk with 2≤k≤20172 \leq k \leq 2017 that satisfy the following conditions:

i) There exists some partition of the set XX into 10091009 disjoint pairs which are (a1,b1),(a2,b2),…,(a1009,b1009)(a_{1}, b_{1}), (a_{2}, b_{2}), \ldots, (a_{1009}, b_{1009}) with ∣ai−bi∣∈{1,k}|a_{i}-b_{i}| \in \{1, k\}.

ii) For all partitions satisfy the condition (i), the sum T=∑i=11009∣ai−bi∣T=\sum_{i=1}^{1009}|a_{i}-b_{i}| has the right most digit is 99.

This one wants a proof. Work it on paper, then read the official solution and mark yourself. Be honest about it: the record is only any use to you if it is.

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Official solution

First, we notice that for all 2≤k≤20172 \leq k \leq 2017, we always can find a partition satisfy i). For example, we can choose ai=2i−1a_{i}=2i-1, bi=2ib_{i}=2i with i=1,2,…,1009i=1,2, \ldots, 1009.

Denote mm as the number of pairs (ai,bi)(a_{i}, b_{i}) with ∣ai−bi∣=k|a_{i}-b_{i}|=k then
T=(1009−m)⋅1+m⋅k=1009+(k−1)m. T=(1009-m) \cdot 1 + m \cdot k = 1009 + (k-1)m.
Hence, the necessary condition of kk is (k−1)m(k-1)m is divisible by 1010. First, we can see that all numbers k≡1(mod5)k \equiv 1 \pmod{5} satisfy the given condition.

Indeed, we have some cases:

1. If k≡1(mod10)k \equiv 1 \pmod{10} then 10∣k−110 \mid k-1 and ii) is satisfied.

2. If k≡6(mod10)k \equiv 6 \pmod{10} then kk is even. Thus, we need to prove mm is even. This is true because we can write m=m1+m2m = m_{1} + m_{2} with m1,m2m_{1}, m_{2} are the number of pairs with the difference is kk that have same parity and different parity. In XX, the number of even and odd numbers are equal and all the pairs (ai,bi)(a_{i}, b_{i}) with ∣ai−bi∣=1|a_{i}-b_{i}|=1 also contain exactly 11 number in each type of even/odd. These imply that m1=m2m_{1}=m_{2} or mm is an even number.

Hence, all numbers k≡1(mod5)k \equiv 1 \pmod{5} satisfy the given condition.

Next, we will prove that all other numbers kk do not satisfy the given condition.

3. If kk is odd then k−1k-1 is not divisible by 55. We choose the partition with a1=1a_{1}=1, b1=k+1b_{1}=k+1 and the rest are divided into pairs with ai,bia_{i}, b_{i} being two consecutive numbers. It is easy to check that this partition satisfies i) but not ii) because T=1008+k≢9(mod10)T=1008+k \not\equiv 9 \pmod{10}.

4. If kk is even, k−1k-1 is not divisible by 55 then k−1k-1 is an odd number that is not divisible by 55. We choose the partition with exactly two pairs (1,k+1),(2,k+2)(1, k+1), (2, k+2) and the rest are divided into pairs with ai,bia_{i}, b_{i} being two consecutive numbers. Similarly with the previous case, we have T=1009+2(k−1)≢9(mod10)T=1009+2(k-1) \not\equiv 9 \pmod{10}.

Therefore, the necessary and sufficient condition of kk is k≡1(mod5)k \equiv 1 \pmod{5}. From 22 to 20172017, we have 403403 numbers in total satisfy it.

Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty, ordering) added by this project.