consists of consecutive integers whose sum is , and set consists of consecutive integers whose sum is The absolute value of the difference between the greatest element of and the greatest element of is . Find
Problem 187
Official solution
Note that since set has consecutive integers that sum to , the middle integer (i.e., the median) must be . Therefore, the largest element in is .
Further, we see that the median of set is , which means that the "middle two" integers of set are and . Therefore, the largest element in is . if , which is clearly not possible, thus .
Solving, we get \begin{align*} m - 2 - \frac{m-1}{2} &= 99\\ m-\frac{m}{2}+\frac{1}{2}&=101\\ \frac{m}{2}&=100\frac{1}{2}.\\ m &= \boxed{201}\end{align*}