Advanced book on Mathematics Olympiad

(ff) #1
684 Number Theory

or

rn≤
r 1
1

+

r 2
2

+

r 3
3

+···+

rn
n

.

Truncate the sum on the right to the(q− 1 )st term. Sincepandqare coprime, the
numbersr 1 ,r 2 ,...,rq− 1 are a permutation of 1, 2 ,...,q−1. Applying this fact and the
AM–GM inequality, we obtain


r 1
1

+

r 2
2

+

r 3
3

+···+

rq− 1
q− 1

≥(q− 1 )

(

r 1
1

·

r 2
2

·

r 3
3

···

rq− 1
q− 1

) 1 /(q− 1 )
=(q− 1 )≥rn.

This proves the (weaker) inequality
r 1
1

+

r 2
2

+

r 3
3

+···+

rn
n
≥rn,

and consequently the inequality from the statement of the problem.
(O.P. Lossers)
722.Letx 1 be the golden ratio, i.e., the (unique) positive root of the equationx^2 −x− 1 =


  1. We claim that the following identity holds:

    x 1



x 1 n+

1

2


+

1

2


=


x 1 +

1

2


+n.

If this were so, then the functionf (n)=x 1 n+^12 would satisfy the functional equation.

Also, sinceα=^1 +


√ 5
2 >1,fwould be strictly increasing, and so it would provide an
example of a function that satisfies the conditions from the statement.
To prove the claim, we only need to show that

(x 1 − 1 )


x 1 n+

1

2


+

1

2


=n.

We have

(x 1 − 1 )


x 1 n+

1

2


+

1

2




(x 1 − 1 )

(

x 1 n+

1

2

)

+

1

2


=


x 1 n+n−x 1 n+

x 1
2


=n.

Also,


n=


n+

2 −x 1
2




(x 1 − 1 )

(

x 1 n−

1

2

)

+

1

2




(x 1 − 1 )


x 1 n+

1

2


+

1

2


.
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