There are $n!$ empty baskets in a row, labelled $1, 2, . . . , n!$. Caesar first puts a stone in every basket. Caesar then puts 2 stones in every second basket. Caesar continues similarly until he has put $n$ stones into every nth basket. In other words, for each $i = 1, 2, . . . , n,$ Caesar puts $i$ stones into the baskets labelled $i, 2i, 3i, . . . , n!.$ Let $x_i$ be the number of stones in basket $i$ after all these steps. Show that $n! \cdot n^2 \leq \sum_{i=1}^{n!} x_i^2 \leq n! \cdot n^2 \cdot \sum_{i=1}^{n} \frac{1}{i} $
Problem
Source: IMSC
Tags: number theory, inequalities
Kamikaze-1
05.07.2023 14:04
Any solution...
dgkim
05.07.2023 15:32
The left is easy but I'm stuck with the right
$\sum_{i=1}^{n!} x_i^2\geq \frac{1}{n!}\left(\sum_{i=1}^{n!}x_{i}\right)^{2}=\frac{1}{n!}\left(\sum_{k=1}^{n}k\cdot\frac{n!}{k}\right)=n!\cdot n^{2}$
ok1985
06.07.2023 11:14
Problem proposed by Kaarel Hänni (Estonia).
Kamikaze-1
07.07.2023 19:49
Do you have solution?
fire12324344
07.07.2023 20:53
looks similar to the solution for CMO 2022 #2 but working on it a bit it seems much harder.
Popescu
17.07.2023 15:37
See here: https://imscprogram.com/competition.html