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Let be a finite set and
Is it true that, for every ,
Source: erdosproblems.com/488
A full solution has been claimed but not yet accepted. The statement is false.
The site's label is FALSIFIABLE, which the site explains as an
open problem that a finite counterexample could settle; it is recorded here as
the site's label, not as the standing. The standing derives from the claim
pages. The full claim of 5 September 2026 on the site's proof-claim tab,
Gessel's
counterexample, asserts a disproof: the statement is a universal statement
over , and , and the claim exhibits a counterexample built on the
-smooth integers in at a scale with that
its pigeonhole argument guarantees but does not name. The site has not reviewed
or acted on that claim (its label and the commentary of 8 April 2026 were
unchanged on 2026-09-18), its Lean file is neither built nor audited here, and
no referee or named expert has examined it, so the claim is claimed and the
problem's standing is claimed, disproved. The four partial claims, of 20 March
2026, Chojecki's
note for sets with at most three primitive elements, excess at most five or
at most nine covered integers up to ; of 30 April 2026,
MalekZ's note
for the three-element family ; of 27 August 2026 (submitted to
the tab on 28 August),
Ewing's candidate
proof for sets with at most seven primitive elements; and of 5 September
2026 (submitted to the tab on 29 September),
the shoal-rat
project's proof for primitive sets whose covered integers up to exceed
the members by at most , are positive results for restricted classes
consistent with the counterexample and derive nothing. No refereed source
proving or disproving the statement was found in the search whose scope
the Current assessment records; the positive results in hand
are forum items for restricted classes of (two-element sets, primitive
sets containing , sets of primes in the limit with an
unspecified constant), consistent with the counterexample, whose set is
neither of those.