Maths Olympiad Prep

Track / Stage 6 / 116 of 400 #1116 of 1964

Problem 1116

National olympiad, first round
Algebra Difficulty 6.2 Find the answer

2542 \cdot 54 Let S={a1,a2,,ar}S=\left\{a_{1}, a_{2}, \cdots, a_{r}\right\} be a set of integers, where r>1r>1. For a non-empty subset AA of SS, define p(A)p(A) as the product of all integers in AA. Let m(S)m(S) denote the arithmetic mean of all p(A)p(A). If m(S)=13m(S)=13, and there is a positive integer ar+1a_{r+1} such that m(S{ar+1})=49m\left(S \cup\left\{a_{r+1}\right\}\right)=49. Determine the values of a1,a2,,ara_{1}, a_{2}, \cdots, a_{r} and ar+1a_{r+1}.

A number or a short expression. Spacing, $ signs and \frac vs / are all fine.

Official solution

[Solution] For any natural number nn and A={a1,a2,,an}A=\left\{a_{1}, a_{2}, \cdots, a_{n}\right\}. The sum of the products of the elements of all non-empty subsets of AA is
a1+a2++an+(a1a2++a1an++an1an)+(a1a2a3++an1ana1)++a1a2an=(1+a1)(1+a2)(1+an)1. \begin{aligned} a_{1} & +a_{2}+\cdots+a_{n}+\left(a_{1} a_{2}+\cdots+a_{1} a_{n}+\cdots+a_{n-1} a_{n}\right)+\left(a_{1} a_{2} a_{3}\right. \\ & \left.+\cdots+a_{n-1} a_{n} a_{1}\right)+\cdots+a_{1} a_{2} \cdots a_{n} \\ = & \left(1+a_{1}\right)\left(1+a_{2}\right) \cdots\left(1+a_{n}\right)-1 . \end{aligned}
The number of all non-empty subsets of AA is 2n12^{n}-1. Therefore,
m(A)=(1+a1)(1+an)12n1, m(A)=\frac{\left(1+a_{1}\right) \cdots\left(1+a_{n}\right)-1}{2^{n}-1},

which implies
(1+a1)(1+an)1=m(A)(2n1). \left(1+a_{1}\right) \cdots\left(1+a_{n}\right)-1=m(A)\left(2^{n}-1\right) .

From this equation, when n=r+1n=r+1,
(2r+11)m(S{ar+1})+1=(1+a1)(1+ar)(1+ar+1)=[m(S)(2r1)+1](1+ar+1). \begin{aligned} & \left(2^{r+1}-1\right) m\left(S \cup\left\{a_{r+1}\right\}\right)+1 \\ = & \left(1+a_{1}\right) \cdots\left(1+a_{r}\right)\left(1+a_{r+1}\right) \\ = & {\left[m(S)\left(2^{r}-1\right)+1\right]\left(1+a_{r+1}\right) . } \end{aligned}

Given m(S)=13,m(S{ar+1})=49m(S)=13, m\left(S \cup\left\{a_{r+1}\right\}\right)=49,
49(2r+11)+1=[13(2r1)+1](1+ar+1). 49\left(2^{r+1}-1\right)+1=\left[13\left(2^{r}-1\right)+1\right]\left(1+a_{r+1}\right) .

From this equation, we can derive
2r=12(ar+13)13ar+185. 2^{r}=\frac{12\left(a_{r+1}-3\right)}{13 a_{r+1}-85} .

Notice that the right-hand side of the above equation is a function of ar+1a_{r+1}, and it is a decreasing function in the intervals (,8513)\left(-\infty, \frac{85}{13}\right) and (8513\left(\frac{85}{13}\right., +)+\infty).

When ar+1=1a_{r+1}=1, the right-hand side of (1) equals 2472=13\frac{24}{72}=\frac{1}{3}. Therefore, when ar+1=1,2,3,4,5,6a_{r+1}=1,2,3,4,5,6, the right-hand side of (1) is less than 1. Thus, we only need to consider the case where ar+17a_{r+1} \geqslant 7. When ar+18a_{r+1} \geqslant 8, the right-hand side of (1) is not an integer, so we must have ar+1=7a_{r+1}=7.
From (1), we get
2r=12×49185=8 2^{r}=\frac{12 \times 4}{91-85}=8

Thus, r=3r=3.
Therefore,
(1+a1)(1+a2)(1+a3)=(231)m(S)+1=7×13+1=92. \begin{aligned} & \left(1+a_{1}\right)\left(1+a_{2}\right)\left(1+a_{3}\right)=\left(2^{3}-1\right) m(S)+1 \\ = & 7 \times 13+1=92 . \end{aligned}

Hence,
(1+a1)(1+a2)(1+a3)=92=2×2×23. \left(1+a_{1}\right)\left(1+a_{2}\right)\left(1+a_{3}\right)=92=2 \times 2 \times 23 .

From this, we obtain the unique positive integer solution.

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