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HMMT 二月 2004 · 团队赛 · 第 1 题

HMMT February 2004 — Team Round — Problem 1

专题
Contest Math / 竞赛数学
难度
L3
来源
HMMT

题目详情

英文原题

  1. [10] Show that any number in row n (for n > 0) is at most 2 .
解析

英文解析

    • S ( n − 1 , r ) equals
      (( ) ( )) (( ) ( ))
      n − 2 n − 2 n − 2 n − 2 + + + + · · ·
      r − 2 r − 1 r − 1 r
      (( ) ( )) ( )
      n − 2 n − 2 n − 2
      · · · + + +
      n − 3 n − 2 n − 2
      ( ) ( ) ( )
      n − 1 n − 1 n − 1 = + + · · · + = S ( n, r ) .
      r − 1 r n − 1
      Now we can prove the main statement by induction on n . The base case n = 1 is clear.
      If the statement holds for n − 1, then first suppose r > 1. Then the number in row n ,
      r columns to the left, is the sum of two of the three numbers above it, which, by theinduction hypothesis, are at most S ( n − 1 , r − 1) , S ( n − 1 , r ) , S ( n − 1 , r +1) respectively.
      Since the first two of these are greater than the last (because the summation formula
      ( ) ( )
      n − 1 n − 1
      gives S ( n − 1 , r − 1) = S ( n − 1 , r ) + and S ( n − 1 , r ) = S ( n − 1 , r + 1) + ),
      r − 2 r − 1
      we have an upper bound of S ( n − 1 , r − 1) + S ( n − 1 , r ) = S ( n, r ) by the above. Sothe result follows by induction. Finally, in the case r = 1, the quantity in question isn − 1
      just 2 , and the result holds by Problem 1.
      n − 1