MathDB
partitions of N

Source: KJMO 2008 p4

May 2, 2019
combinatoricsSetspartitionsSet partitionpartition

Problem Statement

Let NN be the set of positive integers. If A,B,CA,B,C \ne \emptyset, AB=BC=CA=A \cap B = B \cap C = C \cap A = \emptyset and ABC=NA \cup B \cup C = N, we say that A,B,CA,B,C are partitions of NN. Prove that there are no partitions of N,A,B,CN, A,B,C, that satis fy the following: (i) aA,bB\forall a \in A, b \in B, we have a+b+1Ca + b + 1 \in C (ii) bB,cC\forall b \in B, c \in C, we have b+c+1Ab + c + 1 \in A (iii) cC,aA\forall c \in C, a \in A, we have c+a+1Bc + a + 1 \in B