Consider an arithmetic progression with terms a 1 , a 2 , … , a n .
Define S m = a 1 + a 2 + ⋯ + a m and T m = S 1 + S 2 + ⋯ + S m .
If we are given the value of S 2 0 1 9 , we are able to uniquely determine the value of T m for some integer m .
What is the value of m ?
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Wonderful exposition!
Let the first term of the progression be a and the common difference be d. Then S 2 0 1 9 =2019a+2037171d; T m = 3 1 m(m+1)[3a+(m-1)d]. Comparing the coefficients of a and d in the two equations, we get 3 2 0 1 9 = m − 1 2 0 3 7 1 7 1 or m=1+3027=3028.
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Nice question!
It is interesting to note the following:
If we define hypersums R q = i = 1 ∑ q T i and Z k = i = 1 ∑ k R i , then
2 a 1 + a p = ( 1 p ) S p = ( 2 m + 1 ) T m = ( 3 q + 2 ) R q = ( 4 k + 3 ) Z k
where 2 p − 1 = 3 m − 1 = 4 q − 1 = 5 k − 1 .
It can be shown this relationship is true for higher order hypersums as well.
For this case, solving 2 p − 1 = 3 m − 1 gives m = 1 + 2 3 ( p − 1 ) and substituting p = 2 0 1 9 gives m = 3 0 2 8 .
Details added:
Note that
S n T m R q Z k = r = 1 ∑ n a r = n = 1 ∑ m S n = m = 1 ∑ q T m = q = 1 ∑ k R q = ( 1 n ) a + ( 2 n ) d = ( 2 m + 1 ) a + ( 3 m + 1 ) d = ( 3 q + 2 ) a + ( 4 q + 2 ) d = ( 4 k + 3 ) a + ( 5 k + 3 ) d = ( 1 n ) ( a + 2 n − 1 ⋅ d ) = ( 2 m + 1 ) ( a + 3 m − 1 ⋅ d ) = ( 3 q + 2 ) ( a + 4 q − 1 ⋅ d ) = ( 4 k + 3 ) ( a + 5 k − 1 ⋅ d )