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PrintRomanian Mathematical Olympiad
Romania counting and probability
Problem
Let be a subset with 673 elements of the set . Prove that one can find two distinct elements of , say and such that divides .
Solution
Consider the following sets, each containing 335 elements If contains two elements from or two elements from , their sum is divisible by . If not, the remaining sets contain at least elements from .
Consider the sets and , each containing elements. One of the intersections of with these, say , contains at least elements. Thus and contain each at least one element. Their sum is a multiple of , which is what was to be proven.
Consider the sets and , each containing elements. One of the intersections of with these, say , contains at least elements. Thus and contain each at least one element. Their sum is a multiple of , which is what was to be proven.
Techniques
Pigeonhole principleModular Arithmetic