1

Color any $67$ numbers in the set $M = \{1,2,\dots, 100 \}$ $\color{red}{\rm red}$ and the rest $\color{blue}{\rm blue}$.
If there exists a subset $A_{i,k} = \{i, i +1, \dots, i + 3k -1\}$ of $M$, with exactly $2k$ numbers in red and $k$ numbers in blue, find the maximum value of $k$ (meaning that such a subset exists regardless of how $M$ is colored).

By now, I claim that $k \not \ge 18$.

reasons were as follows

We could color $1\sim17$ and $85 \sim 100$ $\color{blue}{\rm blue}$, and the rest $\color{red}{\rm red}$.Then there don't exists a legal subset $A$ if $k\ge 18$.

CBot
  • 169
  • I think the answer is most likely $16$ or $17$, but I don't know how to prove it. – CBot Jan 27 '23 at 06:08
  • Hint: Let $T(i)$ be the number of red numbers in $A_{i, k}$. We want an $i$ such that $ i < 100 - 3k+1$ and $T(i) = 2k$. Try to reach a contradiction if no such $i$ exists. What can we say about $\sum T(i)$ and $ | T(i) - T(i+1) |$? Study the counter example that you came up with, to provide more insight as to how to continue. – Calvin Lin Jan 27 '23 at 08:45

0 Answers0