MathCastle
Proof WritingHardContrapositive and Contradiction

Contrapositive and Contradiction · Hard problem

A minimal-counterexample argument proves that every integer n≥Nn \ge N is a sum of 55s and 77s (any number of each, including none): check N,N+1,…,N+4N, N + 1, \ldots, N + 4 by hand, and a smallest failure m≥N+5m \ge N + 5 would make m−5m - 5 a smaller failure. What is the smallest possible NN?