# Divisibility and Pigeonhole principle

Given a sequence of $p$ integers $a_1, a_2, \ldots, a_p$, show that there exist consecutive terms in the sequence whose sum is divisible by $p$. That is, show that there are $i$ and $j$, with $1 \leq i \leq j \leq p$, such that $a_i + a_{i+1} + \cdots + a_j$ is divisible by $p$.

I'm having trouble with labeling which entities are the pigeons, and which are the pigeonholes. I think somewhere down the line, there has to be more different sums than $p$, but that is just a guess.

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You may find of interest a similar Pigeonhole argument: if $\rm\:n\:$ is coprime to $10\,$ then every integer with at least $\rm\:n\:$ digits $\ne 0$ has a contiguous digit subsequence that forms an integer $\ne 0$ divisible by $\rm\:n.\ \$ –  Bill Dubuque Sep 30 '12 at 18:29
Hint: The holes are remainders on division by $p$. Consider $\sum_{i=1}^k a_i$ for $k=1,2,3 \ldots,p$ If any are divisible by $p$ you are done. If not, You have $p$ sums with only $p-1$ values of remainder allowed.
@user1526710: Exactly. Then if the two that match are $k_1$ and $k_2$, the sum from $k1+1 through$k_2\$ is the one you want. –  Ross Millikan Sep 30 '12 at 17:47