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No Monochrome Arithmetic Sequence (Posted on 2009-10-19) Difficulty: 3 of 5
Color each of the numbers 1 through n either red or blue such that if a, b and c are consecutive numbers in an arithmetic sequence then they are not all the same color.

For example with n=6 the sequence rbrbrb does not work because 1,3,5 are all red and 2,4,6 are all blue. Whereas rbrbbr does work.

What is the largest value of n for which such a sequence exists?

Note: Since the colors can be swapped, make the number 1 red.

Add a third color (green.) What is the new maximum value of n?

Instead of a third color, add a fourth term (d) so that a, b, c, and d cannot all be the same color if they are in an arithmetic sequence.

  Submitted by Jer    
Rating: 4.0000 (1 votes)
Solution: (Hide)
I did this by hand with tree diagrams, trimming branches as needed.

2 colors with no 3 in sequence you may have a string of 8.

3 colors with no 3 in sequence you may have a string of 26.

2 colors with no 4 in sequence you may have a string of 34.

You can see the sole post by Charlie for the actual strings.

Comments: ( You must be logged in to post comments.)
  Subject Author Date
Puzzle Thoughts K Sengupta2023-07-20 22:55:22
Solutioncomputer solutionCharlie2009-10-19 18:21:33
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