1996 USAMO Problems/Problem 1
Problem
Prove that the average of the numbers is .
Solution
Solution 1
First, as we omit that term. Now, we multiply by to get, after using product to sum, . This simplifies to . Since this simplifies to . We multiplied by in the beginning, so we must divide by it now, and thus the sum is just , so the average is , as desired.
Solution 2
Notice that for every there exists a corresponding pair term , for not . Pairing gives the sum of all terms to be , and thus the average is We need to show that . Multiplying (*) by and using sum-to-product and telescoping gives . Thus, , as desired.
See Also
1996 USAMO (Problems • Resources) | ||
Preceded by First Question |
Followed by Problem 2 | |
1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 | ||
All USAMO Problems and Solutions |
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