Browse · MathNet
Print62nd Ukrainian National Mathematical Olympiad, Third Round, First Tour
Ukraine algebra
Problem
Is it possible to write five integers on a board so that for any two numbers, there exists a pair of numbers among the remaining three whose sum is equal to the sum of the original two numbers?
Solution
It's enough to choose the following numbers: , , , , . Then we can write down the sets of integers, but we can also apply the following reasoning: for any two numbers, say, , , selected by Petrik, from one side exists pair of numbers , whose sum is the opposite to the initial, and, from another side, there exists a triple of numbers except , , and their sum also is , as the sum of all five numbers is zero. So we get a correspondence between the numbers from the left and from the right parts of the board.
Final answer
Yes; for example: −2, −1, 0, 1, 2.
Techniques
Integers