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2005 AMC 10B Problem 25

Problem 25 of 25HarderCombinatoricsProblem-Solving Techniques

A subset BB of the set of integers from 11 to 100,100, inclusive, has the property that no two elements of BB sum to 125.125. What is the maximum possible number of elements in B?B?

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Solution

The pairs summing to 125125 are (25,100),(26,99),…,(62,63),(25, 100), (26, 99), \ldots, (62, 63), which is 62−25+1=3862 - 25 + 1 = 38 pairs. From each pair, BB may contain at most one element. The numbers 11 through 2424 cannot pair with anything in range to sum to 125,125, so all 2424 of them may be included. Thus BB has at most 38+24=6238 + 24 = 62 elements, and the set {1,2,…,62}\{1, 2, \ldots, 62\} achieves this. Thus, C is the correct answer.
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Tagged: subsets · pairing and grouping · extremal argument

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