Erdős Problem #282

declared status 'open'. Formalized: yes. Let $A\subseteq \mathbb{N}$ be an infinite set and consider the following greedy algorithm for a rational $x\in (0,1)$: choose the minimal $n\in A$ such that $n\geq 1/x$ and repeat with $x$ replaced by $x-\frac{1}{n}$. If this terminates after finitely many steps then this produces a representation of $x$ as the sum of distinct unit fractions with denominators from $A$. Does this process always terminate if $x$ has odd denominator and $A$ is the set of odd numbers? More generally, for which pairs $x$ and $A$ does this process terminate? Prize: no. Tags: number theory, unit fractions.

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