Problem

Source: Spanish Communities

Tags: induction, algebra unsolved, algebra



Show that every natural number $n\leq2^{1\;000\;000}$ can be obtained first with 1 doing less than $1\;100\;000$ sums; more precisely, there is a finite sequence of natural numbers $x_0,\ x_1,\dots,\ x_k\mbox{ with }k\leq1\;100\;000,\ x_0=1,\ x_k=n$ such that for all $i=1,\ 2,\dots,\ k$ there exist $r,\ s$ with $0\leq{r}\leq{s}<i$ such that $x_i=x_r+x_s$.