Russia Locally AP Problem

CAMP PSS 1

Rohan Goyal
August 7, 2021

§1 Russia 2017 11.7

Problem (Russia 2017 11.7)

2018
Given a sequence of positive integers a1 , a2 , a3 , ... defined by an = bn 2017 c. Show
that there exists a positive integer N such that among any N consecutive terms in
the sequence, there exists a term whose decimal representation contain digit 5.

Solution. Since the sequence doesn’t seem to grow fast enough, we will try to find large
sequences which locally behave almost like APs and if we skip the correct amount of
terms, we will get an AP. So, we do the proof in two parts-

First part, that there is an M such that within any non constant AP of size M , we will
have atleast one term with atleast one decimal digit 5 and then we will prove that there
exists an N such that in any N consecutive terms, there will be an M sized subsequence
which is an AP.

Lemma 1.1
Within any 10, 000 length non constant positive AP, there exists a term which has
atleast one digit in its decimal representation as 5.

Proof. WLOG, we can assume that the common difference is not a multiple of 10, else
you can look at the AP without the unit digit and so on.
Now, look at the sequence mod 10000. We infact claim that within this sequence
(mod 10, 000), we will find a term with a digit as 5.

Now, let the common difference be d (mod 10, 000) and a as the first term. Observe now,
that if for any c, we prove that a + cd (mod 10000) has a digit 5 then we will be done
since we can also look at c (mod 10000).

Case (5 | d). If 5|d, then 2 doesn’t. Now, pick c0 such that

c0 d ≡ 625 ≡ 0 (mod 625)

c0 d ≡ 625 (mod 16)

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Rohan Goyal (August 7, 2021) Russia Locally AP Problem

We can obviously do this so now consider x such that a+625x

   a+625x−625 
10000 − 10000 = 1. Such
an x again obviously exists. Now, we get that a + 625x < 1000 (mod 10, 000).

Now, let c = c0 x + 8c0 . Now, a + d(c0 x + 8c0 ) ≡ a + 5000 + 625x (mod 10, 000) which
clearly works.
If 5 - d, then we can repeat the argument with 625 replaced with 16 and 5000 replaced
with 5000 ± 8 and atleast one of the two situations will work.

Thus, the claim is proved.

Claim 1.2 — For any M > 1, we can find an N such that in any consecutive N
terms of the sequence, there’s an M AP. The M = 1 case is meaningless.

2018 2018
Let bn = (n + 1) 2017 − n 2017 .

Lemma 1.3
cn = bn+1 − bn is decreasing.

2018 2018 2018

Proof. cn = (n + 2) 2017 − 2(n + 1) 2017 + n 2017

Now, we look at cn = f (n) and showing that f has negative derivative which will imply
the result.

So, we want
1 1
(n + 2) 2017 + n 2017 1
< (n + 1) 2017
2
2017 2017
for n ≥ 0 which immediately follows as a +b2 ≥ ( a+b
2 )
2017 by AM-QM. The result is
1 1
now simply looking at a = n 2017 and b = (n + 2) 2017

Lemma 1.4
cn gets arbitrarily close to 0.

Proof. Assume that cn ≥ c for some c otherwise, thus bn+1 ≥ nc =⇒ b1 + b2 + · · · bn ≥

2 2018 2
c n 2+n =⇒ (n + 1) 2017 ≥ c n 2+n for all n which is impossible unless c ≤ 0.

Now, we have everything we need!

Pick N 0 such that ∀k ≥ N 0 , ck ≤ 1

10000M 1000000
.

Claim 1.5 — N = N 0 + 16M 2 is sufficient.

Proof. Let ak be the smallest term such that k > N 0 . Now, we have atleast 16M 2 + 1
terms in the sequence ai atleast as large as ak .
1
Pick t ≤ 4M such that min({tbk }, 1 − {tbk }) ≤ 4M
This is again easily possible by the following idea:

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Lemma 1.6
For any α ∈ R, n ∈ N, there exists m ∈ {1, 2, · · · n} such that
1
min({mα}, 1 − {mα}) ≤
n

Proof. FTSOC, assume this is impossible. Now, say r ∈ Si if ni {rα} ≤ i+1 n for i ∈
{0, 1, 2, · · · n − 1}. By our assumption, no r ∈ c0 . Thus, by PHP, there are i ∈
{0, 1, 2, · · · n − 1} and j =
6 k ∈ {1, 2, · · · n} such that j, k ∈ ci . Now, m = |i − j| just
works.

Claim 1.7 — There’s an M sized AP, in ak , ak+t , ak+4tM

2018
Proof. Let di = b(k + it)c 2017 . So, we just want there to be an M sized AP in
{bd0 c , bd1 c , · · · bd4M c}
1 1
Now, consider {tbk } ≤ 4M and 1 − {tbk } ≤ 4M .
1
Case ({tbk } ≤ 4M ). In this case, we will infact find an AP in first M terms.
Now, observe that

1 16M 2 1
{tbk+ti } ≤ {tbk } + 4tick ≤ + 1000000
≤
4M 10000M 2M
1
Thus, {di+1 − di } ≤ 2M
Also, btbk c = btbk+it c and thus bdi+1 − di c is constant. Let this constant be D.

Now, consider s in d0 , d2 , · · · dM −1 such that {ds }is minimum. By minimality, if this

value is not d0 , we must have {ds−1 } > {ds } but then {ds } = {ds−1 } + {ds − ds−1 } − 1 ≤
1 1
1 + 2M − 1 ≤ 2M .
Now, we can see that bds c , bds+1 c , bds+2 c , · · · bds+M −1 c is an M sized AP as

{ds+i+1 } ≥ {ds+i }

as

{ds+i+1 } = {{ds } + {ds+1 − ds } + · · · {ds+i+1 − ds+i }} =

{ds } + {ds+1 − ds } + · · · {ds+i+1 − ds+i } − b{ds } + {ds+1 − ds } + · · · {ds+i+1 − ds+i }c
i+1
But observe that {ds } + {ds+1 − ds } + · · · {ds+i+1 − ds+i } ≤ 2M <1
so b{ds } + {ds+1 − ds } + · · · {ds+i+1 − ds+i }c = 0.

Hence, {ds+i+1 } = {ds } + {ds+1 − ds } + · · · {ds+i+1 − ds+i }

=⇒ bds+i+1 c − bds+i c = ds+i+1 − {ds+i+1 } − ds+i + {ds+i }

= ds+i+1 − ds+i − {ds+i+1 − ds+i } = bds+i+1 − ds c = D
And if s = 0 then we simply have d0 , · · · dM −1 is an AP since,

bds+i+1 c − bds+i c = bds+i+1 − ds+i c

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1 1
Case (1 − {tbk } ≤ 4M ). Now, consider if 1 − {tbk+i } > 4M for any i. If this happens in
first 2M terms then we just look at last 2M terms of the series and finish as case 1.
1
Now, assume that 1 − {tbk+i } < 4M for i ∈ {1, 2, · · · 2M }. Now, we just repeat the
previous proof as is with first 2M terms and picking s such that {ds } is maximized.

Thus, we can find an M sized AP!

Now, just set M = 10000 and by 1.1, we can finish as we can pick an N , where we will
always get an N sized AP!