2016 is absolutely awesome 9
2016 cards are arranged in a row on a table. One of the numbers ‘1’, ‘2’ and ‘3’ is printed on each card.
It is found that there is at least one card between any two cards labelled ‘1’, at least two cards between any two cards labelled ‘2’, and at least three cards between any two cards labelled ‘3’.
If the smallest and greatest possible numbers of cards labelled ‘3’ are and respectively, find the value of .
This is a part of the Set .
The answer is 1008.
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1 solution
Consider any 4 consecutive cards.
There can be at most one ‘3’ since there are at least three cards between any two ‘3’s.
On the other hand, there is at least one ‘3’, for otherwise they have to be ‘1’s and ‘2’ subject to the required conditions, which can easily be seen to be impossible.
In other words, there is exactly one ‘3’ among any 4 consecutive cards.
Since 2 0 1 6 = 4 × 5 0 4 , the number of ‘3’s must be 5 0 4 .
Hence, m + M = 5 0 4 + 5 0 4 = 1 0 0 8 .
The sequence 1 , 2 , 1 , 3 , 1 , 2 , 1 , 3 , 1 , 2 , 1 , 3 , . . . , 1 , 2 , 1 , 3 satisfies all of above conditions.