olymmath

Putnam 2013 B3

  • Session B

Let P\mathcal{P} be a nonempty collection of subsets of {1,…,n}\{1,\dots, n\} such that:

(i) if S,S′∈PS, S' \in \mathcal{P}, then S∪S′∈PS \cup S' \in \mathcal{P} and S∩S′∈PS \cap S' \in \mathcal{P}, and

(ii) if S∈PS \in \mathcal{P} and S≠∅S \neq \emptyset, then there is a subset T⊂ST \subset S such that T∈PT \in \mathcal{P} and TT contains exactly one fewer element than SS.

Suppose that f:P→Rf: \mathcal{P} \to \mathbb{R} is a function such that f(∅)=0f(\emptyset) = 0 and f(S∪S′)=f(S)+f(S′)−f(S∩S′) for all S,S′∈P.f(S \cup S') = f(S) + f(S') - f(S \cap S') \text{ for all $S,S' \in \mathcal{P}$.} Must there exist real numbers f1,…,fnf_1,\dots,f_n such that f(S)=∑i∈Sfif(S) = \sum_{i \in S} f_i for every S∈PS \in \mathcal{P}?

Curated text Kedlaya Putnam archive. Quoted with source.

Solutions

No solution is on olymmath yet. Official and human solutions come first when they arrive. AI solutions come after them, with a label.

Add a solution

Locator putnam/2013/b3 · Tag HDYBG0E66S · Edit this page on GitHub · Keys: j next, k previous