IMO Shortlist 2014 problem A3


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7. svibnja 2017.
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For a sequence x_1, x_2, \ldots, x_n of real numbers, we define its price as \max_{1 \leq i \leq n} |x_1 + \dots + x_i| \text{.}

Given n real numbers, Dave and George want to arrange them into a sequence with a low price. Diligent Dave checks all possible ways and finds the minimum possible price D. Greedy George, on the other hand, chooses x_1 such that |x_1| is as small as possible; among the remaining numbers, he chooses x_2 such that |x_1 + x_2| is as small as possible, and so on. Thus, in the i^{\text{th}} step he chooses x_i among the remaining numbers so as to minimise the value of |x_1 + x_2 + \dots + x_i|. In each step, if several numbers provide the same value, George chooses one at random. Finally he gets a sequence with price G.

Find the least possible constant c such that for every positive integer n, for every collection of n real numbers, and for every possible sequence that George might obtain, the resulting values satisfy the inequality G \leq c D.

(Georgia)

Izvor: https://www.imo-official.org/problems/IMO2014SL.pdf