Combinatorial Maxima

For each positive integer n, let A n _{n} =max{ ( n r ) 0 r n \binom{n}{r}|0 \leq r \leq n }. Then the number of elements in {1, 2, 3, ....., 20} for which 1.9 A n A n 1 2 1.9 \leq \frac{A_{n}}{A_{n-1}} \leq 2

Note :This question is a part of set KVPY 2014 SB


The answer is 11.

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1 solution

Pranjal Jain
Nov 4, 2014

Its not too tough to figure out that we need two cases here on the basis of parity,

Case-1 , when 'n' is odd,

A n A n 1 = ( n n 1 2 ) ( n 1 n 1 2 ) = 2 n n + 1 \frac{A_{n}}{A_{n-1}}=\frac{\binom{n}{\frac{n-1}{2}}}{\binom{n-1}{\frac{n-1}{2}}}=\frac{2n}{n+1}

which gives n=19 as a solution

Case-2 , when 'n' is even,

A n A n 1 = ( n n 2 ) ( n 1 n 1 2 ) = 2 \frac{A_{n}}{A_{n-1}}=\frac{\binom{n}{\frac{n}{2}}}{\binom{n-1}{\frac{n-1}{2}}}=2

which gives n={2,4,6,8,...,20}

So total of 11 \boxed{11} solutions!

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