Maths Olympiad Prep

Track / Stage 5 / 87 of 400 #687 of 1964

Problem 687

AIME late
Number theory Difficulty 5.2 Find the answer

How few numbers is it possible to cross out from the sequence
1,2,3,,2023 1,2,3, \ldots, 2023
so that among those left no number is the product of any two (distinct) other numbers?

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

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Official solution

Solution. It is clear that, if we remove 43 numbers 2,3,,442,3, \ldots, 44, then, since 452=45^{2}= 2025, among those left no one is the product of any two others. This is the minimal number. To prove that consider 43 triples (k,89k,(89k)k)(k, 89-k,(89-k) k), for k=2,,44k=2, \ldots, 44. They do not have numbers in common and we have to remove at least one number from every such triple.

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