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VMO

Vietnam counting and probability

Problem

Given a positive integer . Let be the set of all ordered triples where and are different positive integers and . A set containing ordered pairs is called 'connected' to if for all then a) Find the number of elements of set . b) Prove that there exists a set connected to that has exactly elements. c) Prove that every set that connected to has at least elements.
Solution
a) The answer is .

b) Consider the set Clearly, . Furthermore, for all there always exist two in three numbers belong to the same set or . Without loss of generality, assume that belong to the same set then , which implies .

c) Consider the graph , is the set of vertices that represents for and are connected when a set which is connected with does not have the ordered pair . From the given condition, at least one of three numbers belongs to , otherwise there exists three segments which connect ; ; . Without loss of generality, suppose that then contains , , , which means when we consider the triple then none of these ordered pairs belong to , contradiction. Therefore, does not contain a triangle. By Mantel - Turan theorem, the number of edges in cannot exceed . Hence, the number of edges in the complementary graph is at least . Similarly, we can show that there are at least pairs in . Hence, has at least ordered pairs.
Final answer
a) |T| = 2n(2n−1)(2n−2). b) There exists a connected set A with |A| = 2n(n−1). c) Every connected set A has at least 2n(n−1) elements, so the minimum possible size is 2n(n−1).

Techniques

Turán's theoremColoring schemes, extremal arguments