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k a April Highlights and 2025 AoPS Online Class Information
jlacosta   0
Apr 2, 2025
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0 replies
jlacosta
Apr 2, 2025
0 replies
k i Adding contests to the Contest Collections
dcouchman   1
N Apr 5, 2023 by v_Enhance
Want to help AoPS remain a valuable Olympiad resource? Help us add contests to AoPS's Contest Collections.

Find instructions and a list of contests to add here: https://artofproblemsolving.com/community/c40244h1064480_contests_to_add
1 reply
dcouchman
Sep 9, 2019
v_Enhance
Apr 5, 2023
k i Zero tolerance
ZetaX   49
N May 4, 2019 by NoDealsHere
Source: Use your common sense! (enough is enough)
Some users don't want to learn, some other simply ignore advises.
But please follow the following guideline:


To make it short: ALWAYS USE YOUR COMMON SENSE IF POSTING!
If you don't have common sense, don't post.


More specifically:

For new threads:


a) Good, meaningful title:
The title has to say what the problem is about in best way possible.
If that title occured already, it's definitely bad. And contest names aren't good either.
That's in fact a requirement for being able to search old problems.

Examples:
Bad titles:
- "Hard"/"Medium"/"Easy" (if you find it so cool how hard/easy it is, tell it in the post and use a title that tells us the problem)
- "Number Theory" (hey guy, guess why this forum's named that way¿ and is it the only such problem on earth¿)
- "Fibonacci" (there are millions of Fibonacci problems out there, all posted and named the same...)
- "Chinese TST 2003" (does this say anything about the problem¿)
Good titles:
- "On divisors of a³+2b³+4c³-6abc"
- "Number of solutions to x²+y²=6z²"
- "Fibonacci numbers are never squares"


b) Use search function:
Before posting a "new" problem spend at least two, better five, minutes to look if this problem was posted before. If it was, don't repost it. If you have anything important to say on topic, post it in one of the older threads.
If the thread is locked cause of this, use search function.

Update (by Amir Hossein). The best way to search for two keywords in AoPS is to input
[code]+"first keyword" +"second keyword"[/code]
so that any post containing both strings "first word" and "second form".


c) Good problem statement:
Some recent really bad post was:
[quote]$lim_{n\to 1}^{+\infty}\frac{1}{n}-lnn$[/quote]
It contains no question and no answer.
If you do this, too, you are on the best way to get your thread deleted. Write everything clearly, define where your variables come from (and define the "natural" numbers if used). Additionally read your post at least twice before submitting. After you sent it, read it again and use the Edit-Button if necessary to correct errors.


For answers to already existing threads:


d) Of any interest and with content:
Don't post things that are more trivial than completely obvious. For example, if the question is to solve $x^{3}+y^{3}=z^{3}$, do not answer with "$x=y=z=0$ is a solution" only. Either you post any kind of proof or at least something unexpected (like "$x=1337, y=481, z=42$ is the smallest solution). Someone that does not see that $x=y=z=0$ is a solution of the above without your post is completely wrong here, this is an IMO-level forum.
Similar, posting "I have solved this problem" but not posting anything else is not welcome; it even looks that you just want to show off what a genius you are.

e) Well written and checked answers:
Like c) for new threads, check your solutions at least twice for mistakes. And after sending, read it again and use the Edit-Button if necessary to correct errors.



To repeat it: ALWAYS USE YOUR COMMON SENSE IF POSTING!


Everything definitely out of range of common sense will be locked or deleted (exept for new users having less than about 42 posts, they are newbies and need/get some time to learn).

The above rules will be applied from next monday (5. march of 2007).
Feel free to discuss on this here.
49 replies
ZetaX
Feb 27, 2007
NoDealsHere
May 4, 2019
Diophantine eq.
User335559   12
N 42 minutes ago by Burak0609
Source: European Mathematical Cup 2017
Solve in integers the equation :
$x^2y+y^2=x^3$
12 replies
+1 w
User335559
Jan 3, 2018
Burak0609
42 minutes ago
floor of (an+b)/(cn+d) is surjective
Miquel-point   3
N an hour ago by Rohit-2006
Source: Romanian NMO 2021 grade 10 P2
Let $a,b,c,d\in\mathbb{Z}_{\ge 0}$, $d\ne 0$ and the function $f:\mathbb{Z}_{\ge 0}\to\mathbb Z_{\ge 0}$ defined by
\[f(n)=\left\lfloor \frac{an+b}{cn+d}\right\rfloor\text{ for all } n\in\mathbb{Z}_{\ge 0}.\]Prove that the following are equivalent:
[list=1]
[*] $f$ is surjective;
[*] $c=0$, $b<d$ and $0<a\le d$.
[/list]

Tiberiu Trif
3 replies
Miquel-point
Apr 15, 2023
Rohit-2006
an hour ago
evan chen??
Captainscrubz   1
N an hour ago by Captainscrubz
Let point $D$ and $E$ be on sides $AB$ and $AC$ respectively in $\triangle ABC$ such that $BD=BC=CE$. Let $O_1$ be the circumcenter of $\triangle ADE$ and let $S=DC\cap EB$. Prove that $O_1S \perp BC$
1 reply
Captainscrubz
Today at 3:50 AM
Captainscrubz
an hour ago
SMO 2015 open q3
dominicleejun   13
N an hour ago by jasperE3
Source: SMO 2015 open
Find all functions $f : \mathbb{R} \rightarrow \mathbb{R}$, where $\mathbb{R}$ is the set of real numbers, such that
$f(x)f(yf(x) - 1) = x^2 f(y) - f(x) \quad\forall x,y \in \mathbb{R}$
13 replies
dominicleejun
Mar 31, 2018
jasperE3
an hour ago
thank you
Piwbo   1
N an hour ago by CHESSR1DER
Let $p_n$ be the n-th prime number in increasing order for $n\geq 1$. Prove that there exists a sequence of distinct prime numbers $q_n$ satisfying $q_1+q_2+...+q_n=p_n$ for all $n\geq 1 $
1 reply
Piwbo
Yesterday at 11:22 AM
CHESSR1DER
an hour ago
Difficult lattice point coloring problem
CBMaster   0
an hour ago
Source: Own
Is it possible to color all lattice points in plane into 3 colors such that

1. every line passing through lattice points and parallel to x axis has these three colors infinitely many(that is, every color appears infinitely many times in those lines).

2. every line passing through lattice points and not parallel to x axis cannot have three different color lattice points on it.
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CBMaster
an hour ago
0 replies
Stop Projecting your insecurities
naman12   52
N an hour ago by ihategeo_1969
Source: 2022 USA TST #2
Let $ABC$ be an acute triangle. Let $M$ be the midpoint of side $BC$, and let $E$ and $F$ be the feet of the altitudes from $B$ and $C$, respectively. Suppose that the common external tangents to the circumcircles of triangles $BME$ and $CMF$ intersect at a point $K$, and that $K$ lies on the circumcircle of $ABC$. Prove that line $AK$ is perpendicular to line $BC$.

Kevin Cong
52 replies
naman12
Dec 12, 2022
ihategeo_1969
an hour ago
Digit sum
Disjeje   3
N an hour ago by jasperE3
Let’s say S(n) is digit sum of n does n exists thatS(n)>S(n^2)?
3 replies
Disjeje
5 hours ago
jasperE3
an hour ago
R+ Functional Equation
Mathdreams   3
N an hour ago by jasperE3
Source: Nepal TST 2025, Problem 3
Find all functions $f : \mathbb{R}^+ \rightarrow \mathbb{R}^+$ such that \[f(f(x)) + xf(xy) = x + f(y)\]for all positive real numbers $x$ and $y$.

(Andrew Brahms, USA)
3 replies
Mathdreams
5 hours ago
jasperE3
an hour ago
TST Junior Romania 2025
ant_   0
an hour ago
Source: ssmr
Consider the isosceles triangle $ABC$, with $\angle BAC > 90^\circ$, and the circle $\omega$ with center $A$ and radius $AC$. Denote by $M$ the midpoint of side $AC$. The line $BM$ intersects the circle $\omega$ for the second time in $D$. Let $E$ be a point on the circle $\omega$ such that $BE \perp AC$ and $DE \cap AC = {N}$. Show that $AN = 2AB$.
0 replies
ant_
an hour ago
0 replies
Functional equation
Pmshw   16
N an hour ago by jasperE3
Source: Iran 2nd round 2022 P2
Find all functions $f:\mathbb{R}\rightarrow \mathbb{R}$ such that for any real value of $x,y$ we have:
$$f(xf(y)+f(x)+y)=xy+f(x)+f(y)$$
16 replies
Pmshw
May 8, 2022
jasperE3
an hour ago
Line passes through the fix point
moony_   1
N 2 hours ago by GioOrnikapa
Source: idk
Let $ABC$ be a triangle. $P$ and $Q$ are points, such that $PA = PB$, $QA$ = $QC$ and $\angle{PBC} =\angle{QCB}$ ($P$ - inside $\triangle{ABC}$ and $Q$ - oitside). Proove that line $PQ$ passes through the fix point.
1 reply
moony_
5 hours ago
GioOrnikapa
2 hours ago
Subsets of points lying in disks
oVlad   4
N 2 hours ago by Andyexists
Source: Romania TST 2023 Day 2 P4
Fix a positive integer $n.{}$ Consider an $n{}$-point set $S{}$ in the plane. An eligible set is a non-empty set of the form $S\cap D,{}$ where $D$ is a closed disk in the plane. In terms of $n,$ determine the smallest possible number of eligible subsets $S{}$ may contain.

Proposed by Cristi Săvescu
4 replies
oVlad
Apr 7, 2024
Andyexists
2 hours ago
hard ...
REGNA   3
N 2 hours ago by KenWuMath
find function $f:\mathbb{R^+}\rightarrow \mathbb{R^+}$ such that :
$f()\frac{f(x)}{y}=yf(y)f(f(x)) \;\;\;\;\;(x,y> 0)$
3 replies
REGNA
Oct 21, 2022
KenWuMath
2 hours ago
APMO 2016: Sum of power of 2
shinichiman   28
N Apr 6, 2025 by ray66
Source: APMO 2016, problem 2
A positive integer is called fancy if it can be expressed in the form $$2^{a_1}+2^{a_2}+ \cdots+ 2^{a_{100}},$$where $a_1,a_2, \cdots, a_{100}$ are non-negative integers that are not necessarily distinct. Find the smallest positive integer $n$ such that no multiple of $n$ is a fancy number.

Senior Problems Committee of the Australian Mathematical Olympiad Committee
28 replies
shinichiman
May 16, 2016
ray66
Apr 6, 2025
APMO 2016: Sum of power of 2
G H J
G H BBookmark kLocked kLocked NReply
Source: APMO 2016, problem 2
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shinichiman
3212 posts
#1 • 5 Y
Y by Davi-8191, Amir Hossein, megarnie, Adventure10, Mango247
A positive integer is called fancy if it can be expressed in the form $$2^{a_1}+2^{a_2}+ \cdots+ 2^{a_{100}},$$where $a_1,a_2, \cdots, a_{100}$ are non-negative integers that are not necessarily distinct. Find the smallest positive integer $n$ such that no multiple of $n$ is a fancy number.

Senior Problems Committee of the Australian Mathematical Olympiad Committee
This post has been edited 1 time. Last edited by MellowMelon, May 18, 2017, 3:30 AM
Reason: add proposer
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shinichiman
3212 posts
#2 • 14 Y
Y by baopbc, svatejas, Ankoganit, oceanmath99, adityaguharoy, the_referee, Not_real_name, Abidabi, Elyson, megarnie, centslordm, Wizard0001, Adventure10, Ulapu_Kanama
Solution
This post has been edited 2 times. Last edited by shinichiman, May 17, 2016, 5:41 AM
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62861
3564 posts
#3 • 11 Y
Y by anantmudgal09, MellowMelon, AMN300, mathwizard888, laegolas, Smita, the_referee, Aryan-23, megarnie, centslordm, Adventure10
Some WOOTers might have been happy to see this problem...
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Thgx
2 posts
#4 • 8 Y
Y by bobthesmartypants, shinichiman, mihaith, SidVicious, ring_r, the_referee, Adventure10, Mango247
alternate solution xD

(1) any number in $[2^{100}-1,2^{101}-2]$ is a fancy number
Pf:
consider $2^{a_1}+2^{a_2}+\cdots+2^{a_{100}}$ where $a_i \in \left\{ i-1, i \right\}$, hence $a_1 =1 \text{ or } 2$, $a_2=2 \text{ or } 3$ and so on
we can write this alternately as
$(2^0+x_12^0)+(2^1+x_12^1)+\cdots+(2^{99}+x_i2^{99})$ where $x_i \in \left\{ 0, 1 \right\}$
this equals to
$(2^0+2^1+\cdots + 2^{99})+(x_12^0+x_22^1+\cdots+x_{100}2^{99})$

notice that $x_12^0+x_22^1+\cdots+x_{100}2^{99}$ can take on any number in $[0,2^{100}-1]$
thus $(2^0+2^1+\cdots + 2^{99})+(x_12^0+x_22^1+\cdots+x_{100}2^{99})$ can be any number in $[2^{100}-1,2^{101}-2]$

(2) any positive integer less than $2^{101}-1$ have a multiple in $[2^{100}-1,2^{101}-2]$
obviously if it isn't in this range we can multiply it by 2 until it get into this range

(3) $2^{101}-1 \nmid 2^{a_1}+2^{a_2}+\cdots + 2^{a_{100}}$
suppose $k$ is the minimum number that there exists $a_1,a_2,...,a_k$ such that
$$2^{101}-1 \mid 2^{a_1}+2^{a_2}+\cdots + 2^{a_k}$$suppose $k \le 100$
Notice that $2^{a_i} \equiv 2^0,2^1,...,2^{100} \pmod {2^{101}-1}$

if there is $i,j$ that $2^{a_i}$ and $2^{a_j}$ have the same modulo i.e $2^{a_i} \equiv 2^{a_j} \equiv 2^m \pmod {2^{101}-1}$
then $2^{a_i}+2^{a_j} \equiv 2^{m+1} \pmod{2^{101}-1}$
so we can change $a_i,a_j$ to $m+1$ which is still divided by $2^{101}-1$ but with only $k-1$ terms, a contradiction

if there is no $i,j$ that $2^{a_i}$ and $2^{a_j}$ have the same modulo
then $2^{a_1}+2^{a_2}+\cdots + 2^{a_k} \equiv 2^{b_1}+2^{b_2}+\cdots + 2^{b_k} \pmod {2^{101}-1}$ where $b_1,b_2,...b_k$ are different number in $\left\{ 1,2,...,100 \right\}$

but $0<2^{b_1}+2^{b_2}+\cdots + 2^{b_k} \le 2^{101-k}+\cdots+2^{99}+2^{100} \le 2^1+\cdots+2^{99}+2^{100} = 2^{101}-2$
thus $2^{a_1}+2^{a_2}+\cdots + 2^{a_k}$ cannot be divided by $2^{101}-1$, a contradiction
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MathPanda1
1135 posts
#5 • 1 Y
Y by Adventure10
What is the motivation for proving that no multiple of $2^{101}-1$ is fancy? Thanks!
This post has been edited 1 time. Last edited by MathPanda1, May 22, 2016, 6:44 PM
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Shaddoll
688 posts
#6 • 3 Y
Y by ring_r, Adventure10, Mango247
Because it's the smallest number that is possibly a fancy number. Then you check that the multiple has to be at least $2^{101} \cdot (2^{101}-1)$, which makes you suspect it's fancy. Then, you proceed to use the lemma from PFTB(it's basically a generalization for any number of digits and any base, and the proof is by infinite descent using the fact that the multiple obviously has to be big enough).
This post has been edited 1 time. Last edited by Shaddoll, May 22, 2016, 4:58 PM
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bobthesmartypants
4337 posts
#7 • 2 Y
Y by Adventure10, Mango247
MathPanda1 wrote:
What is the motivation for proving that $2^{101}-1$ is fancy? Thanks!

Sorry if I'm misunderstanding, but isn't $2^{101}-1$ not a fancy number?
This post has been edited 1 time. Last edited by bobthesmartypants, May 22, 2016, 5:03 PM
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62861
3564 posts
#8 • 3 Y
Y by USA5_2016, Adventure10, Mango247
bobthesmartypants wrote:
MathPanda1 wrote:
What is the motivation for proving that $2^{101}-1$ is fancy? Thanks!

Sorry if I'm misunderstanding, but isn't $2^{101}-1$ not a fancy number?

He means the motivation for proving that $2^{101}-1$ is the answer.
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MathPanda1
1135 posts
#9 • 2 Y
Y by Adventure10, Mango247
Thank you CantonMathGuy, that is what I mean. So, does anyone have any motivation, assuming that I have not been to WOOT or read PFTB? Thank you very much!
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bobthesmartypants
4337 posts
#10 • 2 Y
Y by Adventure10, Mango247
Well it is the smallest non-trivial non-fancy number, so one would reasonably predict that it was also the correct answer for $n$.
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MathPanda1
1135 posts
#11 • 2 Y
Y by Adventure10, Mango247
Sorry, I said it wrong. How does one come up with the proof that no multiple of $2^101-1$ is fancy?
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Ankoganit
3070 posts
#13 • 6 Y
Y by MathPanda1, TheOneYouWant, ring_r, SenorIncongito, Adventure10, Mango247
My solution:

We claim that the answer is $2^{101}-1$. We'll prove our claim in two steps.
Proof that no smaller number works

Proof that this works - with some motivation
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shinichiman
3212 posts
#14 • 2 Y
Y by MathPanda1, Adventure10
MathPanda1 wrote:
Sorry, I said it wrong. How does one come up with the proof that no multiple of $2^101-1$ is fancy?
Some motivation
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WizardMath
2487 posts
#15 • 1 Y
Y by Adventure10
The basic motivation comes from the fact that only 1 appears in the binary representation of the number.
This post has been edited 1 time. Last edited by WizardMath, May 19, 2019, 9:12 PM
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Complex2Liu
83 posts
#16 • 3 Y
Y by Joy_Gomuj, enhanced, Adventure10
Another approach:
First we look at some small value of $n,$ let's see $n=2$
\[\begin{array}{ccccc}
2=2^0+2^0&3=2^1+2^0&4=2^1+2^1&5=2^2+2^0&6=2^2+2^1
\end{array}\]So I find that $7$ is not fancy when $n=2.$ Analogously we analyze the case that $n=3,$ and we can find that $15$ is not fancy. So I conjecture that the answer is $2^{n+1}-1$ for general $n.$ We consider module $2^{n+1}-1.$

Notice that $2^{n+1}\equiv 2^0 \pmod{2^{n+1}-1}.$ Hence it suffices to prove that
\[2^{a_1}+2^{a_2}+\dots+2^{a_n}\neq 0 \pmod{2^{n+1}-1}.\]Where $0\le a_i \le n$ for each $i=1,2,\dots,n.$ Let \[s_2(n)\stackrel{\text{def}}{=}\text{the sum of the digits of $n$ when it is written in base $2$.}\]Clearly $s_2(\text{fancy number})\le n,$ but $s_2(2^{n+1}-1)=s_2\left(\overline{\underbrace{11\dots11}_{n+1\,\text{terms}}}\right)=n+1.$ Contradiction.

To show the number that less than $2^{n+1}-1$ is fancy, see #2. $\square$
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kjytay
26 posts
#17 • 2 Y
Y by Adventure10, Mango247
For motivation, you can consider smaller sums.

The question asks for the smallest $n$ s.t. no multiple of $n$ can be expressed in the form $2^{a_1} + 2^{a_2} + \dots 2^{a_{100}}$.

What is the smallest $n$ s.t. no multiple can be expressed in the form $2^{a_1}$? How about $2^{a_1} + 2^{a_2}$? And $2^{a_1} + 2^{a_2} + 2^{a_3}$? Working out these small cases can give you enough intuition for the given problem.
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nikolapavlovic
1246 posts
#18 • 4 Y
Y by rafayaashary1, SidVicious, Adventure10, Mango247
Never got around to doing this problem when it was posted.

First to remove the tehnicallity of having two numbers in the $\{ a_1,a_2,...a_{100} \}$ we do the following
$\bullet$ if $a_i=a_j$ merge $\{a_i,a_j\}$ into $\{a_j+1\}$
And keep doing this until all of the numbers are different (note by this two numbers that weren't equal could become equal).
The former procedure allows to write every fancy in binary with no more than 100 non-zero digits .Now we prove a lemma:
Lemma: In any base $b$,a number $a$ that satisfies $b^n-1\mid a$ has at least $n$ non-zero digits.
Lemma isn't anything new as it appeared in PEN A33 and in ISL 1993.
Proof of the lemma:
Consider the smallest number with the smallest number of non-zero digits, call it $w$.Now if this number is at least $n$ then there's nothing to talk about.Assume the opposite ,let the number of non-zero digits be $f(w)$.If there exist two indexes $i,j$ such that $i\equiv_n j $ than:

$\bullet  a_{\max_{i,j}}>1 \vee  a_{\min_{i,j}}<b-1 \implies a'_{\max_{i,j}}=a_{\max_{i,j}}-1,a'_{\min_{i,j}}=a_{\min_{i,j}}+1$
$\bullet  a_{\max_{i,j}}=1 \wedge  a_{\min_{i,j}}=b-1 \implies \text{erase both of numbers and write 1 in the  max (i,j) +1 place}$

Both of the above actions either decrease number in the size or decrease the number of zeroes hence a contradiction.Hence there are no such indexes ,so now drop all the zero digits and we obtain a number with $f(w)<n$ digits a contradiction.Hence the lemma is proved.

By the Lemma the number for which the assertation fails is $2^{101}-1$.Proving that all the numbers less than $2^{101}-1$ follows from the fact that they have at most $100$ non-zero digits so by writing them in binary and replace $\{a_i\}$ with $\{a_i-1,a_i-1\}$ if needed.
This post has been edited 1 time. Last edited by nikolapavlovic, Dec 4, 2016, 6:13 PM
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ngv
251 posts
#19 • 3 Y
Y by oneteen11, Adventure10, Mango247
MathPanda1 wrote:
What is the motivation for proving that no multiple of $2^{101}-1$ is fancy? Thanks!

Actually, the motivation is realizing that you need to consider binary representation. After that, you can easily realize why all $n<2^{101}-1$ is fancy using $2^x=2^{x-1}+2^{x-1}$.
shinichiman wrote:
A positive integer is called fancy if it can be expressed in the form $$2^{a_1}+2^{a_2}+ \cdots+ 2^{a_{100}},$$where $a_1,a_2, \cdots, a_{100}$ are non-negative integers that are not necessarily distinct. Find the smallest positive integer $n$ such that no multiple of $n$ is a fancy number.

I am not sure why but most of the solutions look fancy and flashy :-p . This problem is actually a classic one IMHO (mine is the same as official, so will use their notation). As pointed out already, if $n<2^{101}-1$ then $2^sn$ can be written as a sum of $100$ powers of $2$ if we choose $s$ appropriately. For proving that $n=2^{101}-1$ works, we can use Infinite descent. Assume that $kn=2^{b_1}+2^{b_2}+\cdots+2^{b_r}$ after merging same powers of $2$. So we have $r\leq100$ and WLOG $1\leq b_1<b_2<\cdots<b_r$. Consider the smallest $k$ for which $kn$ is fancy. If $b_r\leq100$ then we have $kn<2^0+2^1+\cdots+2^{100}=n$, contradiction. If $b_r\geq101$, then $2^{b_1}+\cdots+2^{b_{r-1}}=2^{b_r}-2^{b_r-101} = 2^{b_r-101}n$. Infinite Descent :)
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smy2012
688 posts
#20 • 2 Y
Y by Adventure10, Mango247
Similar problem: s(n) is n's sum of digits in decimal.
Then prove $s((10^l-1)k)>=s(10^l-1)$

It can be proved in a similar way.
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WizardMath
2487 posts
#21 • 1 Y
Y by Adventure10
For the problem above, take the least number contradicting the fact. Then construct a smaller one.
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Plops
946 posts
#22 • 2 Y
Y by Adventure10, Mango247
Nikolapavlovic said
Quote:
Consider the smallest number with the smallest number of non-zero digits, call it $w$.Now if this number is at least $n$ then there's nothing to talk about.Assume the opposite ,let the number of non-zero digits be $f(w)$.If there exist two indexes $i,j$ such that $i\equiv_n j $ than:

$\bullet  a_{\max_{i,j}}>1 \vee  a_{\min_{i,j}}<b-1 \implies a'_{\max_{i,j}}=a_{\max_{i,j}}-1,a'_{\min_{i,j}}=a_{\min_{i,j}}+1$
$\bullet  a_{\max_{i,j}}=1 \wedge  a_{\min_{i,j}}=b-1 \implies \text{erase both of numbers and write 1 in the  max (i,j) +1 place}$

Can someone explain what he means
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sa2001
281 posts
#23 • 2 Y
Y by Adventure10, Mango247
We say that a positive integer $a$ is $k-fancy$ if there exists a multiple of $a$ that can be represented as the sum of $k$ positive integers, each of which is a power of $2$. We call any such representation of a multiple of $a$ a $k-fancy$ representation of $a$.

Lemma 1: If $a$ is $k-fancy$, then $a$ is $(k+1)-fancy$ .
Proof: Take any $k-fancy$ representation of $a$. If it consists of all $1$s, multiply all the powers of $2$ by $2$ to get another $k-fancy$ representation of $a$. Now, break any power of $2$ greater than $1$ into two parts to get a $(k+1) fancy$ representation of $a$.

Lemma 2: Any positive integer $m$ less than $2^{k+1}-1$ is $k-fancy$.
Proof: Consider the binary representation of $m$ and use Lemma 1.

Lemma 3: $n = 2^{101} - 1$ isn't $100-fancy$
Proof: The possibles values (called residues from now on) of a power of $2$ modulo $n$ are $1, 2, ..., 2^{100}$. Any residue has a corresponding 'successor residue' obtained by multiplying the residue by $2$, with $2^{100}$'s successor residue being $1$. Now, consider any $100-fancy$ representation of $n$. We claim that if such a representation exists, we can get a corresponding $l-fancy$ representation of $n$ with $l \le 100$, such that each power of $2$ in this representation corresponds to a unique residue modulo $n$. This can be achieved if we keep adding two occurrences of the same residue to get a successor residue, and stopping if the successor residue was absent from the representation until now, otherwise repeating the same step again, this time with the newly obtained successor residue, until we obtain a residue which was absent from the representation before. This process is iterated till we get the required $l-representation$. Then, we'd have $\le 100$ distinct residues whose sum is congruent to zero modulo $n$, which is a contradiction considering the equality $1 + 2 +4 + ... 2^{100} = 2^{101} -1$, and we're done.

Using Lemmas 2 and 3, the answer is $2^{101} -1$.
This post has been edited 2 times. Last edited by sa2001, Nov 30, 2018, 8:32 PM
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Mathotsav
1508 posts
#24 • 2 Y
Y by Adventure10, Mango247
My solution:
If $n$ has less than $101$ digits in binary representation, then just take $n*2^7$ and use the fact that $2^k$ can be split into $2^{k-1}+2^{k-1}$ to obtain the $100$ numbers. Hence, $n$ must have atleast $101$ digits. The smallest such number is $2^{101}-1$. Suppose a multiple of $2^{101}$ is fancy. This is just equivalent to the multiple having $100$ or fewer ones in binary and being more than $100$. Now just use the fact that $2^{101} \equiv 1$ mod $2^{101}-1$ to see that we can "shift" any of the ones by 101 places to the right (replacing $2^{101+k}$ by $2^k$) and still get a multiple of $2^{101}-1$. Hence, we can eventually get a binary number less than or equal to $2^{101}-1$ having at most 100 ones, and being a multiple of $2^{101}-1$. This is a contradiction, as the largest number satisfying said condition(being less than or equal to $2^{101}-1$, having at most $100$ ones) is $2^{101}-2$. As this contradiction arose on assuming that there is a multiple of $2^{101}-1$ being fancy, we can say that $2^{101}-1$ is the smallest integer satisfying the property that none of its multiples are fancy.
This post has been edited 1 time. Last edited by Mathotsav, May 19, 2019, 4:26 PM
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mathleticguyyy
3217 posts
#25 • 2 Y
Y by Bassiskicking, v4913
We claim that the answer is $2^{101}-1$. As every positive integer $a$ less than $2^{101}-1$ has at most 100 1's in their binary representation, we can consider $b=\overline{a0a0a\ldots 0a}$ where $a$ is written $\lfloor\frac{100}{s_2(a)}\rfloor$ times; $s_2(b)$ is at least 51 but at most 100, so we can separate exactly $100-s_2(b)$ of the 1's from $2^x$ into $2^{x-1}+2^{x-1}$. Now, it suffices to prove that $s_2(k(2^{101}-1))\ge 101$ for all $k$ which is a subcase of this problem.

Turns out that I overcomplicated the first step oops
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Sprites
478 posts
#26
Y by
shinichiman wrote:
A positive integer is called fancy if it can be expressed in the form $$2^{a_1}+2^{a_2}+ \cdots+ 2^{a_{n}},$$where $a_1,a_2, \cdots, a_{n}$ are non-negative integers that are not necessarily distinct. Find the smallest positive integer $\chi$ such that no multiple of $\chi$ is a fancy number.(n is prime)

Senior Problems Committee of the Australian Mathematical Olympiad Committee


We prove the answer is $\boxed{\chi=2^n-1}$
First of we show that $2^n-1$ works.Clearly this is fancy re-write this as $$2^n-1=1+2(1+2(1+2(1+............)))$$i.e $\overline{(\chi)}_2=\underbrace{1111111..........1111}_{n-1}0$ i.e $s_2(\chi) \ge \max(a_i) \stackrel{\text{WLOG}}{=} a_{n-1}$ yet
$\;\;\;\;\;\;\;\ \bullet$ If $j$ is even then $s_2(j \chi)=a_{n-1}<a_{n-1}+1$
$\;\;\;\;\;\;\;\ \bullet$ If $j$ is odd then $s_2(j \chi) \le \frac{a_{n-1}}{2}$,contradiction.
Moreover for all $\chi<2^n-1$ the $s_2<n-1$,contradiction so we are done.
This post has been edited 1 time. Last edited by Sprites, Nov 26, 2021, 5:11 AM
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john0512
4178 posts
#27 • 1 Y
Y by shafikbara48593762
First, we will rigidly characterize all fancy positive integers.

Claim: A positive integer $n$ is fancy if and only if its binary representation contains at most $100$ 1's and the number itself is at least $100$. Let $s_2(n)$ denote the sum of the digits in binary. The smallest number of powers of 2 required to make $n$ is $s_2(n)$, while the largest is $n$. Since we can start with the $s_2(n)$ construction and "split" powers of 2 one at a time, anything in between is achievable. Thus, $n$ is fancy if and only if $$s_2(n)\leq 100\leq n.$$
We claim the answer is $n=2^{101}-1$. For $n\leq 100$, take the smallest multiple of $n$ larger than 100. Then, for $101\leq n\leq 2^{101}-2$, take $n$ itself, as $2^{101}-1$ is the smallest positive integer with more than 100 ones in binary.

Thus, it suffices to show that a sum of 100 powers of 2 cannot be divisible by $2^{101}-1$. Since $2^{101}\equiv 1\pmod{2^{101}-1}$, we can WLOG all exponents are at most 100.

Note that the first say 2024 multiples of $2^{101}-1$ all have exactly 101 1's in binary, since $$k(2^{101}-1)=k\cdot 2^{101}-k=(k-1)\cdot 2^{101} + (2^{101}-k),$$which means that the stuff above $2^{101}$ will be the compliment string of the stuff after it, and thus contain at total of 101 1's, so none of these multiples are achievable by a sum of 100 powers of 2. Furthermore, since we are WLOGging that each term out of the 100 is at most $2^{100}$, multiples higher than the first 2024 are also not achievable due to size, so we are done.
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Inconsistent
1455 posts
#28
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I claim the answer is $2^{101} - 1$.

Let $m$ be the answer to the problem. If $m$ has at most 100 digits in its binary representation, we can multiply it by $2^{\infty}$ and freely split powers of $2$ to fill up to $100$ summands. Thus $m \geq 2^{101} - 1$. Now we show $2^{101} - 1$ suffices.

Suppose some multiple $s(2^{101} - 1)$ can be written as $2^{a_1} + \cdots + 2^{a_{100}}$. Let $k$ be minimal over all choices $s$ where $s(2^{101} - 1) = 2^{a_1} + \cdots + 2^{a_k}$, then take the minimal $k$ and choose the minimal $s$.

Then in this case, we must have $a_i < 101$ for all $i$ since otherwise we can subtract $2^{a_i - 101} (2^{101} - 1)$ to reduce $s$. Now we furthermore have that for any distinct $i, j$ we have $a_i \neq a_j$ since otherwise $2^{a_i}, 2^{a_j}$ can be combined into $2^{a_i + 1}$ to reduce $k$, giving contradiction. Hence all the $a_i$ are distinct, so since $k \leq 100$ we have $s(2^{101} - 1) < 2^{101} - 1$, giving contradiction as desired.

So $m = 2^{101} - 1$.
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megarnie
5559 posts
#29
Y by
The answer is $\boxed{2^{101} - 1}$.

Suppose $n < 2^{101} - 1$. Fix $b_1, b_2, \ldots, b_k$ as distinct positive integers so that $2^{b_1} + 2^{b_2} + \cdots + 2^{b_k} = n$ and $b_1 < b_2 < \cdots < b_k$ (which is possible by expressing $n$ in binary).

Now let $b_{k + 1}$ be a number so that $2^{b_{k+1}} \equiv 2^{b_k} \pmod n$ and $b_{k + 1}$ is greater than $10^{1434}$ (this has to exist because $b_k \ge \nu_2(n)$).

Claim: For any positive integers $x > y$, we can write $2^x$ as the sum of $y$ powers of $2$ (not necessarily distinct).
Proof: This follows by considering \[2^{x-y} + 2^{x-y } + 2^{x-y + 1} + 2^{x-y + 2} + \cdots + 2^{x - y + (y - 1) } \ \ \ \ \square\]
Since $n$ has at most $100$ digits in binary, $k \le 100$. Write $2^{b_{k + 1}}$ as the sum of $101 - k $ powers of $2$. We have that \[ \left( \sum_{i=1}^{k - 1} 2^{b_i}  \right) + 2^{b_{k + 1}}\]is both the sum of $100$ powers of $2$ and the same as $\sum_{i=1}^k 2^{b_i} \pmod n$, so $n$ must divide a sum of $100$ powers of $2$, meaning that $n < 2^{101} - 1$ fail.

We now show that no multiple of $2^{101} - 1$ is fancy. Suppose otherwise. Perform the following algorithm on the fancy number that is a multiple of $2^{101} - 1$: The list starts at the $100$ powers of $2$ used to make this fancy number. In the first step, take all the exponents modulo $101$. For each move, whenever there are two numbers with the same value in the list, take any two (say they are $2^k$), and replace them with $2^{k + 1}$ if $0 \le k < 100$ and $2^0$ if $k = 100$.

Notice that each move preserves the sum of elements in the list modulo $2^{101} - 1$ and the process must terminate (as each move decreases the number of elements in the list). Therefore, once this process finishes, we have at most $100$ distinct powers of $2$ less than $2^{101}$ adding up to a multiple of $2^{101} - 1$, which is absurd since their sum is less than $2^0 + 2^1 + \cdots + 2^{100} = 2^{101} - 1$. Thus, no multiple of $2^{101} -1$ is fancy, and we are done.
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ray66
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#30
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The answer is $\boxed{n=2^{101}-1}$

sketch
First $s_2(n)>100$ giving the minimum value $2^{101}-1$
Now to show this works, take $(2^{101}-1)\cdot k$ for some integer $k$. For example, if $k=7$, then $(2^{101}-1)\cdot 7=2^{103}+2^{102}+2^{101}-1-6$, so there are still $101$ 1's. In general, for $1 \le k \le 2^{101}$, we can write $k=\overline{b_1b_2b_3 \ldots}$ in binary, so the expanded sum looks something like $2^{101}-1 + 2^{b_1}+2^{b_2}+\ldots - \overline{b_1b_2b_3 \ldots} + 1$, so there are still 101 1's. For $k > 2^{101}$, we can just argue that $(2^{101}-1)\cdot k$ has more 1's than $(2^{101}-1)\cdot k'$ where $k' \equiv k \pmod{2^{101}}$.
This post has been edited 1 time. Last edited by ray66, Apr 6, 2025, 2:15 AM
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