Maths Olympiad Prep

Track / Stage 5 / 308 of 400 #908 of 1964

Problem 908

AIME late
Combinatorics Difficulty 5.7 Prove it

(USS 2) IMO1A{ }^{\mathrm{IMO1}} \mathrm{A} set of 10 positive integers is given such that the decimal expansion of each of them has two digits. Prove that there are two disjoint subsets of the set with equal sums of their elements.

This one wants a proof. Work it on paper, then read the official solution and mark yourself. Be honest about it: the record is only any use to you if it is.

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Official solution

12. First we observe that it is not essential to require the subsets to be disjoint (if they aren't, one simply excludes their intersection). There are 2101=2^{10}-1= 1023 different subsets and at most 990 different sums. By the pigeonhole principle there are two different subsets with equal sums.

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