Maths Olympiad Prep

Track / Stage 5 / 210 of 400 #810 of 1964

Problem 810

AIME late
Number theory Difficulty 5.4 Find the answer

Several (more than one) consecutive natural numbers are written on the board, the sum of which is 2016. What can the largest of these numbers be?

A number or a short expression. Fractions can be typed as 3/2, and spacing doesn't matter.

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Official solution

Answer: 63, 106, 228, 291, or 673.

Solution. Suppose that for some nn there exist nn consecutive natural numbers aa, a+1,,a+(n1)a+1, \ldots, a+(n-1), the sum of which is 2016. Then na+(n1)n/2=2016n a + (n-1) n / 2 = 2016, or, after algebraic transformations, n(2a+n1)=4032=26327n(2 a + n - 1) = 4032 = 2^{6} \cdot 3^{2} \cdot 7.

Note that nn and 2a+n12 a + n - 1 have different parities. Therefore, if nn is even, then nn must be divisible by 26=642^{6} = 64, hence n64,2a+n14032/64=63n \geq 64, 2 a + n - 1 \leq 4032 / 64 = 63, which contradicts 2a+n1>n2 a + n - 1 > n.

Thus, nn is an odd divisor of the number 4032, i.e., a divisor of the number 63. Let's check that each of them works and find the corresponding value of a+(n1)a + (n-1). If n=3:2a+31=1344,a=671n=3: 2 a + 3 - 1 = 1344, a = 671, a+(n1)=673a + (n-1) = 673; if n=7:2a+71=576,a=285,a+(n1)=291n=7: 2 a + 7 - 1 = 576, a = 285, a + (n-1) = 291; if n=9:2a+91=448n=9: 2 a + 9 - 1 = 448, a=220,a+(n1)=228a = 220, a + (n-1) = 228; if n=21:2a+211=192,a=86,a+(n1)=106n=21: 2 a + 21 - 1 = 192, a = 86, a + (n-1) = 106; if n=63n=63: 2a+631=64,a=1,a+(n1)=632 a + 63 - 1 = 64, a = 1, a + (n-1) = 63.

Source: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty, ordering) added by this project.