Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 130 1 iii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Use the cyclic logarithmic coloringHere the floor function places in the unique half-open real interval . If , thenbecause . For any real and , is either or . Applying this to the logarithms of and shows that their bin indices differ by or , and hence have different residues in modular arithmetic modulo . This proves the required separation, including both endpoints of the prescribed ratio interval. The half-open bins remove any ambiguity at their boundaries.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 130 1 iv Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Let be the cyclic logarithmic coloring from part (iii). Define a finite coloring of the positive integers byThe inner logarithm is at least whenever , so this is defined everywhere. Suppose an increasing infinite sequence made every product with distinct indices monochromatic. Fix an index with and write . The sequence is unbounded, so choose with . Both ordered products are among the supposedly monochromatic values, but their logarithms satisfyIndeed, the first inequality is equivalent to , and the second uses . Part (iii) therefore gives , a contradiction. Thus the assertion with all distinct ordered indices is false. The obstruction needs an infinite unbounded sequence; it does not assert that every pair of different positive integers gives different colors.