Maths Olympiad Prep

Track / Stage 5 / 44 of 400 #644 of 1964

Problem 644

AIME late
Number theory Difficulty 5.1 Find the answer

6. From the first 2005 natural numbers, kk of them are arbitrarily chosen. What is the least value of kk to ensure that there is at least one pair of numbers such that one of them is divisible by the other?

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

Official solution

6. Ans: 1004
Take any set 1004 numbers. Write each number in the form 2aibi2^{a_{i}} b_{i}, where ai0a_{i} \geq 0 and bib_{i} is odd. Thus obtaining 1004 odd numbers b1,,b1004b_{1}, \ldots, b_{1004}. Since there are 1003 odd numbers in the first 2005 natural numbers, at least two of the odd numbers are the same, say bi=bjb_{i}=b_{j}. Then 2aibi2a2bj2^{a_{i}} b_{i} \mid 2^{a_{2}} b_{j} if 2αibi<2αibi2^{\alpha_{i}} b_{i}<2^{\alpha_{i}} b_{i}. The numbers 1003,1004,,20051003,1004, \ldots, 2005 are 1003 numbers where there is no pair such that one of them is divisible by the other. So the answer is 1004 .

Source: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic, difficulty and ordering added by this site.