How to reduce the original partition problem to one of its variation? Here's a statement of the set partition problem:
The set partition problem takes as input a set $S = \{ a_1, a_2, ..., a_n \}$(all positive integers). Can $S$ be partitioned into two sets $A$ and $B$ such that the sum of the numbers in $A$ is
equal to the sum of the numbers in $B$?
Here's a statement of a variation of the set partition problem:
Given an input set $S = \{ a_1, a_2, ..., a_n \}$ (all positive integers), can you partition $S$ into $A$ and $B$ such that $| \sum_{i \in A} a_i - \sum_{i \in B} a_i| &lt; 1000$?
My goal is to show that the variation is NP-complete by reducing the set partition problem to the variation, and here's what I've tried:

Given an instance of the set partition, $S$, let the total sum of its elements be $s$, then create a set $S \cup \{ s + 1000, s \}$ as an instance for the variation. But this doesn't seem to do the trick.
Given an instance of the set partition, $S$, do something to the elements in $S$ (for example, multiply by 2, subtract by 1000). This path feels promising but I'm again stuck.
Thanks to D.W.'s generous help, I managed to figure it out. Given an instance of the Partition problem, $S$, we can just scale every element in $S$ by 1000, and the new $S'$ becomes an instance of the variation. Then the reduction mapping holds, because scaling increases the difference between numbers. If $S$ is a YES instance, $S'$ can also be partitioned into two sets with equal sum, but if $S$ is a NO instance, all of the possible partitions of $S'$ must have difference $\geq 1000$. The reduction is clearly polynomial, and the variation is clearly in NP, so proof is complete.