## Putnam 2003 A2

Let $a_1, \ldots, a_n$ and $b_1, \ldots, b_n$ be non-negative real numbers. Show that $$(a_1\ldots a_n)^{1/n} + (b_1\ldots b_n)^{1/n} \le [(a_1 + b_1) \cdots (a_n + b_n)]^{1/n}.$$

Solution: we will use the generalized Holder’s inequality which states that
$$||f_1\ldots f_n ||_1 \le ||f_1||_{\lambda_1} \cdots ||f_n||_{\lambda_n}$$
for lambda weights $\lambda_1^{-1} + \cdots + \lambda_n^{-1} = 1$ all greater than 1.

Assuming this is true, let $f_i = (a_i^{1/n}, b_i^{1/n})$ and the norms be the discrete $l^p$ norm. This will give us $||f_1 \ldots f_n||_1 = (a_1\ldots a_n)^{1/n} + (b_1\ldots b_n)^{1/n}$ as everything is non-negative. The weight will be uniform $\lambda_i = n$, then the right hand side will be
$$||f_i||_{n} = (a_i + b_i)^{1/n}$$
and we have our inequality.

The sole remaining thing to prove is the generalized Holder’s inequality. We will assume the famous base case of the two element case. In the inductive case, we have
\begin{align*}
||f_1\cdots f_{n+1}||_1 &\le ||f_1 \cdots f_n||_{\lambda_{n+1}/(\lambda_{n+1} – 1)} ||f_{n+1}||_{\lambda_{n+1}} \\
&= ||(f_1 \cdots f_n)^{\lambda_{n+1}/(\lambda_{n+1} – 1)}||_1^{(\lambda_{n+1} – 1)/\lambda_{n+1}} ||f_{n+1}||_{\lambda_{n+1}}.
\end{align*}
From here, just change the weights and use the inductive case and we are done.

## Putnam 2003 A1

Let $n$ be a fixed positive integer. How many ways are there to write $n$ as a sum of positive integers, $n = a_1 + a_2 + \cdots + a_k,$ with $k$ an arbitrary positive integer and $a_1 \le a_2 \le \cdots \le a_k \le a_1 + 1$? For example with $n = 4$, there are 4 ways: $4, 2 + 2, 1 + 1+ 2, 1+1+1+1.$

Solution: Denote $K_n$ to be the set of tuples of $(a_1, \ldots, a_k)$ with the above properties. We claim that $|K_n| = n$. We will use induction. It is easy to verify the claim for $|K_n| = 1,2,3,4$ for $n = 1,2,3,4$ respectively.

Assume that $|K_{l}| = l$ for some positive integer $l$, then for a given tuple $(a_1, \ldots, a_k) \in K_l$ we can add 1 to one of the elements in the tuple, and still preserve the property that $a_1 \le a_2 \le \cdots \le a_k \le a_1 + 1$. If $a_1 \not = a_k$, then we simply can add 1 where the integers jump, otherwise $a_1 = a_2 = \cdots = a_k$ and we can just have $a_k + 1$. This gives rise to tuples which are in $K_{l+1}$. Finally, we have a tuple of 1s to add; this results in $|K_{l+1}| = l+1$.

We are not done here, as we would need to show that there exists no other tuples in $K_{l+1}$ that we cannot construct as above. This is easy to see, as we can do the inverse operation of subtracting one (with the exception of the tuple of all 1s).

## /r/math Problem of the Week 2

Two real numbers x and y are chosen at random in the interval (0, 1) with respect to the uniform distribution. What is the probability that the closest integer to x/y is even? Express your answer in terms of pi.

If one were to draw the area where x/y is even, it’s pretty clear from the get-go that we will have something like the following:

I looked at the problem from the viewpoint of lines (x/y = 1/2, x/y = 3/2, …). This results in the following series from summing the area of the triangles (don’t forget to divide by 2):

Luckily, the series at the end is basically from the arctan series expansion. Thus the answer is .