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Non-Dividing SetsSubmitted by Geoff, 30 July 2002. Original answer and this article by Allen Stenger.I am asked to find the largest number of elements that a set of integers from 1 through 100 can have so that no one element in the set is divisible by another. I was told a "hint:" Imagine all the numbers 1--100 in the form (2^k) * m where k ≥ 0 and m is odd. I have DONE this for nearly all the integers 1--100 but cannot see a viable pattern. I don`t want the answer to this question just help interpreting the hint or maybe some insight into a nother way to solve it. Any help would be great. Thanks! Hint 1Work on the following more general problem: Among the set of integers from 1 through 2n, what is the largest subset such that no element divides another element? The reason this is a better problem is that
Hint 2Experimentally the top half of the numbers is such a set; that is, no one of these numbers divides another: A = {n + 1, n + 2, ..., 2n} But adding any number to this set loses the property, because any additional number k is in the range 1, ..., n and therefore divides the 2k that is already in the set. Can you prove the following two statements?
Need another hint? Click here. Click here for the complete solution. |
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