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Belarus2022

Belarus 2022 counting and probability

Problem

The numbers are written on the blackboard. Ann makes the following operations: she erases any two numbers and from the blackboard, writes down to the blackboard one number — the sum , afterwards she writes the number to her notebook. After 49 such operations when only one number left on the blackboard, Ann found the sum of all 49 numbers which she wrote to her notebook.

a) Prove that doesn't depend on the order of Ann's operations.

b) Find .
Solution
Let's see how, as a result of Ann's actions, the sum of the cubes of the numbers written on the board changes. The identity implies that after each action of Ann, the sum of the cubes of all numbers written on the board increases by the number which is three times greater than the one that Ann writes down to her notebook. Therefore the sum of all numbers written in the notebook is equal to the difference between the cube of the last number remaining on the board and the sum of the cubes of all numbers written on the board initially. The number that remains on the board is equal to the sum of all numbers written on it initially which means that We use the well-known identity which is easy to prove by induction. Since , then So the number is equal to .
Final answer
690348750

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