1986 AIME Problem 12
Attempt Problem 12 of the 1986 AIME below, then check your answer against the professionally curated solution from LIVE by Po-Shen Loh. You can also try the full timed exam, view all 1986 AIME solutions, or check the answer key.
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12.
Let the sum of a set of numbers be the sum of its elements. Let be a set of positive integers, none greater than Suppose no two disjoint subsets of have the same sum. What is the largest sum a set with these properties can have?
Answer: 61
Small Hint:
If had six elements, compare the variance of its subset sums with that of consecutive integers
Big Hint:
After bounding the size of inspect the five-element subsets whose sums exceed the candidate
Solution:
First, has at most five elements. If it had six elements then its subset sums would all be distinct: equality between two subset sums, after cancelling their common elements, would violate the given condition.
Choose a subset uniformly at random and let be its sum. Then On the other hand, is uniform on distinct integers. The least possible variance for distinct integers occurs when they are consecutive, and is a contradiction.
A set with at most four elements has sum at most There are only seven five-element subsets of whose sums are at least Each fails, as witnessed by the following equal sums:
Thus the answer is at most
The set attains Its subset sums, in order, are all distinct. Equal sums from arbitrary subsets would, after deleting their intersection, give equal sums from disjoint subsets, so this verifies the required property.
Problem 12 in Other Years
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