Problem

Source: 2017 Taiwan TST Round 3

Tags: arithmetic sequence, algebra, floor function, function



Let $\{a_n\}_{n\geq 0}$ be an arithmetic sequence with difference $d$ and $1\leq a_0\leq d$. Denote the sequence as $S_0$, and define $S_n$ recursively by two operations below: Step $1$: Denote the first number of $S_n$ as $b_n$, and remove $b_n$. Step $2$: Add $1$ to the first $b_n$ numbers to get $S_{n+1}$. Prove that there exists a constant $c$ such that $b_n=[ca_n]$ for all $n\geq 0$, where $[]$ is the floor function.