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The famulus of a mathematical meta magician puts infinitely many cards into a top hat.
Each of these cards carries a non-negative integer. The top hat contains

  • exactly $n$ cards showing the integer $0$,
  • exactly $n$ cards showing the integer $1$,
  • exactly $n$ cards showing the integer $2$,
  • exactly $n$ cards showing the integer $3$,
  • exactly $n$ cards showing the integer $4$,
  • and so on.

Then the mathematical meta magician starts removing cards from the top hat.

  • In the $1$st step, the magician takes ten cards with total value $1$.
  • in the $2$nd step, the magician takes ten cards with total value $2$,
  • in the $3$rd step, the magician takes ten cards with total value $3$,
  • in the $4$th step, the magician takes ten cards with total value $4$,
  • in the $5$th step, the magician takes ten cards with total value $5$,
  • and so on,
  • in the $k$th step, the magician takes ten cards with total value $k$,
  • and so on.

Question: What is the smallest possible integer $n$, for which the mathematical meta magician can make an infinite number of such steps (without ever getting stuck)?

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1 Answer 1

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The following shows the optimal way to pull numbers out the hat, showing every $1$ that is used. Below, $n$ is $100$. This can obviously be continued forever.

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1
0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1
0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1
0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1
0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2
1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2
1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2
1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2
1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2

All that remains to be shown is that there is no way to do this with only $99$ copies of each card. Notice that on the $k^{th}$ day, the magician has drawn $10k$ cards with average value $\frac{k+1}{20}$. However, we can also bound the average of the first $10k$ cards, and if this is greater than $\frac{k+1}{20}$, the magician can't do their trick. In particular consider the $cn^{th}$ step. The lowest $10cn$ cards will be numbered from $0$ to $10c-1$, each having a set of $n$ cards. Thus, they average to $\frac{10c}2=5c$. This yields that we must have $$\frac{cn+1}{20}\geq 5c$$ $$cn+1 \geq 100 c$$ meaning $n\geq 100$.

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