Mathematics · the experiment
Colour with no floor
Two crayons, every whole number, and a question from Erdős and Sárközy about same-colour products. Four questions, from beginner to expert.
1 · State the answer
Beginner
What does the paper prove?
2 · Count up to 100
Colouring: odd numbers red, even numbers blue. The number of same-colour products up to n is (3n + 1)/4 rounded down to a whole number.
Intermediate
How many are there from 1 to 100?
3 · Apply the mirror rule
In the construction, below a cut-off N, a number x and its mirror N/x always have opposite colours. The real cut-offs are gigantic; apply the rule in miniature, with N = 100, and suppose 4 is red.
Expert
What colour is 25?
4 · Measure the unreachable
To get below 10%, the paper computes that, if 1 is red, the first 10^(10^41,823) numbers must all be red: the first cut-off lies beyond them.
Expert
What follows?
Floor broken
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