MathLabs

Problem 6

An international society has its members from six different countries. The list of members contains 19781978 names, numbered 1,2,…,19781,2,\ldots,1978. Prove that there is at least one member whose number is the sum of the numbers of two members from his own country, or twice as large as the number of one member from his own country.
Step 4 of 6: Continue through all six countries
In plain words

The counts are chosen so that one country remains at the end.

330→66→17→6→3330\to66\to17\to6\to3
Detailed analysis

The same argument gives successive group sizes 66 (among 1616 differences in 33 countries) and then 33 (among 55 differences in 22 countries). At each stage, any difference in an earlier country closes the argument by unwinding the nested differences.