Combinational Sum!!

Let, S = { 50 , 49 , 48 , , 0 , 1 , 2 , , 49 , 50 } S=\{-50,-49,-48,\dots,0,1,2,\dots,49,50\}

A A is a set of products of any three elements of S S . That mean A = { x , y , z S : x × y × z } A=\{x,y,z \in S : x\times y\times z\} .

Find i A i \sum\limits_{i\in A} i


The answer is 0.

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2 solutions

Ahmed Arup Shihab
Feb 13, 2015

Let , P ( x ) = ( x 1 ) ( x + 1 ) ( x + 2 ) ( x 2 ) ( x 50 ) ( x + 50 ) P(x)=(x-1)(x+1)(x+2)(x-2)\dots \dots (x-50)(x+50)

P ( x ) = ( x 2 1 ) ( x 2 2 2 ) ( x 2 5 0 2 ) \Rightarrow P(x)=(x^2-1)(x^2-2^2) \dots \dots (x^2-50^2)

All roots of P ( x ) P(x) are elements of set S S .

Now by veita, we can easily realize that i A i \sum \limits_{i \in A}{i} is coefficient of x 97 x^{97} .

But P ( x ) P(x) (after expanding) has no odd degree term. So the answer is 0 \fbox0

Nice solution!

Ashish Aapan - 6 years ago
Alex Li
Feb 12, 2015

Firstly, we can ignore all subsets that contain 0, because they don't affect the sum. Now, note that for any subset, we can negate one of the terms to get a different subset, which cancels with the sum. Therefore, the final sum is 0.

If i tell product of any four elements. Then??

Ahmed Arup Shihab - 6 years, 4 months ago

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