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k a April Highlights and 2025 AoPS Online Class Information
jlacosta   0
Apr 2, 2025
Spring is in full swing and summer is right around the corner, what are your plans? At AoPS Online our schedule has new classes starting now through July, so be sure to keep your skills sharp and be prepared for the Fall school year! Check out the schedule of upcoming classes below.

WOOT early bird pricing is in effect, don’t miss out! If you took MathWOOT Level 2 last year, no worries, it is all new problems this year! Our Worldwide Online Olympiad Training program is for high school level competitors. AoPS designed these courses to help our top students get the deep focus they need to succeed in their specific competition goals. Check out the details at this link for all our WOOT programs in math, computer science, chemistry, and physics.

Looking for summer camps in math and language arts? Be sure to check out the video-based summer camps offered at the Virtual Campus that are 2- to 4-weeks in duration. There are middle and high school competition math camps as well as Math Beasts camps that review key topics coupled with fun explorations covering areas such as graph theory (Math Beasts Camp 6), cryptography (Math Beasts Camp 7-8), and topology (Math Beasts Camp 8-9)!

Be sure to mark your calendars for the following events:
[list][*]April 3rd (Webinar), 4pm PT/7:00pm ET, Learning with AoPS: Perspectives from a Parent, Math Camp Instructor, and University Professor
[*]April 8th (Math Jam), 4:30pm PT/7:30pm ET, 2025 MATHCOUNTS State Discussion
April 9th (Webinar), 4:00pm PT/7:00pm ET, Learn about Video-based Summer Camps at the Virtual Campus
[*]April 10th (Math Jam), 4:30pm PT/7:30pm ET, 2025 MathILy and MathILy-Er Math Jam: Multibackwards Numbers
[*]April 22nd (Webinar), 4:00pm PT/7:00pm ET, Competitive Programming at AoPS (USACO).[/list]
Our full course list for upcoming classes is below:
All classes run 7:30pm-8:45pm ET/4:30pm - 5:45pm PT unless otherwise noted.

Introductory: Grades 5-10

Prealgebra 1 Self-Paced

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0 replies
jlacosta
Apr 2, 2025
0 replies
k i Peer-to-Peer Programs Forum
jwelsh   157
N Dec 11, 2023 by cw357
Many of our AoPS Community members share their knowledge with their peers in a variety of ways, ranging from creating mock contests to creating real contests to writing handouts to hosting sessions as part of our partnership with schoolhouse.world.

To facilitate students in these efforts, we have created a new Peer-to-Peer Programs forum. With the creation of this forum, we are starting a new process for those of you who want to advertise your efforts. These advertisements and ensuing discussions have been cluttering up some of the forums that were meant for other purposes, so we’re gathering these topics in one place. This also allows students to find new peer-to-peer learning opportunities without having to poke around all the other forums.

To announce your program, or to invite others to work with you on it, here’s what to do:

1) Post a new topic in the Peer-to-Peer Programs forum. This will be the discussion thread for your program.

2) Post a single brief post in this thread that links the discussion thread of your program in the Peer-to-Peer Programs forum.

Please note that we’ll move or delete any future advertisement posts that are outside the Peer-to-Peer Programs forum, as well as any posts in this topic that are not brief announcements of new opportunities. In particular, this topic should not be used to discuss specific programs; those discussions should occur in topics in the Peer-to-Peer Programs forum.

Your post in this thread should have what you're sharing (class, session, tutoring, handout, math or coding game/other program) and a link to the thread in the Peer-to-Peer Programs forum, which should have more information (like where to find what you're sharing).
157 replies
jwelsh
Mar 15, 2021
cw357
Dec 11, 2023
k i C&P posting recs by mods
v_Enhance   0
Jun 12, 2020
The purpose of this post is to lay out a few suggestions about what kind of posts work well for the C&P forum. Except in a few cases these are mostly meant to be "suggestions based on historical trends" rather than firm hard rules; we may eventually replace this with an actual list of firm rules but that requires admin approval :) That said, if you post something in the "discouraged" category, you should not be totally surprised if it gets locked; they are discouraged exactly because past experience shows they tend to go badly.
-----------------------------
1. Program discussion: Allowed
If you have questions about specific camps or programs (e.g. which classes are good at X camp?), these questions fit well here. Many camps/programs have specific sub-forums too but we understand a lot of them are not active.
-----------------------------
2. Results discussion: Allowed
You can make threads about e.g. how you did on contests (including AMC), though on AMC day when there is a lot of discussion. Moderators and administrators may do a lot of thread-merging / forum-wrangling to keep things in one place.
-----------------------------
3. Reposting solutions or questions to past AMC/AIME/USAMO problems: Allowed
This forum contains a post for nearly every problem from AMC8, AMC10, AMC12, AIME, USAJMO, USAMO (and these links give you an index of all these posts). It is always permitted to post a full solution to any problem in its own thread (linked above), regardless of how old the problem is, and even if this solution is similar to one that has already been posted. We encourage this type of posting because it is helpful for the user to explain their solution in full to an audience, and for future users who want to see multiple approaches to a problem or even just the frequency distribution of common approaches. We do ask for some explanation; if you just post "the answer is (B); ez" then you are not adding anything useful.

You are also encouraged to post questions about a specific problem in the specific thread for that problem, or about previous user's solutions. It's almost always better to use the existing thread than to start a new one, to keep all the discussion in one place easily searchable for future visitors.
-----------------------------
4. Advice posts: Allowed, but read below first
You can use this forum to ask for advice about how to prepare for math competitions in general. But you should be aware that this question has been asked many many times. Before making a post, you are encouraged to look at the following:
[list]
[*] Stop looking for the right training: A generic post about advice that keeps getting stickied :)
[*] There is an enormous list of links on the Wiki of books / problems / etc for all levels.
[/list]
When you do post, we really encourage you to be as specific as possible in your question. Tell us about your background, what you've tried already, etc.

Actually, the absolute best way to get a helpful response is to take a few examples of problems that you tried to solve but couldn't, and explain what you tried on them / why you couldn't solve them. Here is a great example of a specific question.
-----------------------------
5. Publicity: use P2P forum instead
See https://artofproblemsolving.com/community/c5h2489297_peertopeer_programs_forum.
Some exceptions have been allowed in the past, but these require approval from administrators. (I am not totally sure what the criteria is. I am not an administrator.)
-----------------------------
6. Mock contests: use Mock Contests forum instead
Mock contests should be posted in the dedicated forum instead:
https://artofproblemsolving.com/community/c594864_aops_mock_contests
-----------------------------
7. AMC procedural questions: suggest to contact the AMC HQ instead
If you have a question like "how do I submit a change of venue form for the AIME" or "why is my name not on the qualifiers list even though I have a 300 index", you would be better off calling or emailing the AMC program to ask, they are the ones who can help you :)
-----------------------------
8. Discussion of random math problems: suggest to use MSM/HSM/HSO instead
If you are discussing a specific math problem that isn't from the AMC/AIME/USAMO, it's better to post these in Middle School Math, High School Math, High School Olympiads instead.
-----------------------------
9. Politics: suggest to use Round Table instead
There are important conversations to be had about things like gender diversity in math contests, etc., for sure. However, from experience we think that C&P is historically not a good place to have these conversations, as they go off the rails very quickly. We encourage you to use the Round Table instead, where it is much more clear that all posts need to be serious.
-----------------------------
10. MAA complaints: discouraged
We don't want to pretend that the MAA is perfect or that we agree with everything they do. However, we chose to discourage this sort of behavior because in practice most of the comments we see are not useful and some are frankly offensive.
[list] [*] If you just want to blow off steam, do it on your blog instead.
[*] When you have criticism, it should be reasoned, well-thought and constructive. What we mean by this is, for example, when the AOIME was announced, there was great outrage about potential cheating. Well, do you really think that this is something the organizers didn't think about too? Simply posting that "people will cheat and steal my USAMOO qualification, the MAA are idiots!" is not helpful as it is not bringing any new information to the table.
[*] Even if you do have reasoned, well-thought, constructive criticism, we think it is actually better to email it the MAA instead, rather than post it here. Experience shows that even polite, well-meaning suggestions posted in C&P are often derailed by less mature users who insist on complaining about everything.
[/list]
-----------------------------
11. Memes and joke posts: discouraged
It's fine to make jokes or lighthearted posts every so often. But it should be done with discretion. Ideally, jokes should be done within a longer post that has other content. For example, in my response to one user's question about olympiad combinatorics, I used a silly picture of Sogiita Gunha, but it was done within a context of a much longer post where it was meant to actually make a point.

On the other hand, there are many threads which consist largely of posts whose only content is an attached meme with the word "MAA" in it. When done in excess like this, the jokes reflect poorly on the community, so we explicitly discourage them.
-----------------------------
12. Questions that no one can answer: discouraged
Examples of this: "will MIT ask for AOIME scores?", "what will the AIME 2021 cutoffs be (asked in 2020)", etc. Basically, if you ask a question on this forum, it's better if the question is something that a user can plausibly answer :)
-----------------------------
13. Blind speculation: discouraged
Along these lines, if you do see a question that you don't have an answer to, we discourage "blindly guessing" as it leads to spreading of baseless rumors. For example, if you see some user posting "why are there fewer qualifiers than usual this year?", you should not reply "the MAA must have been worried about online cheating so they took fewer people!!". Was sich überhaupt sagen lässt, lässt sich klar sagen; und wovon man nicht reden kann, darüber muss man schweigen.
-----------------------------
14. Discussion of cheating: strongly discouraged
If you have evidence or reasonable suspicion of cheating, please report this to your Competition Manager or to the AMC HQ; these forums cannot help you.
Otherwise, please avoid public discussion of cheating. That is: no discussion of methods of cheating, no speculation about how cheating affects cutoffs, and so on --- it is not helpful to anyone, and it creates a sour atmosphere. A longer explanation is given in Seriously, please stop discussing how to cheat.
-----------------------------
15. Cutoff jokes: never allowed
Whenever the cutoffs for any major contest are released, it is very obvious when they are official. In the past, this has been achieved by the numbers being posted on the official AMC website (here) or through a post from the AMCDirector account.

You must never post fake cutoffs, even as a joke. You should also refrain from posting cutoffs that you've heard of via email, etc., because it is better to wait for the obvious official announcement. A longer explanation is given in A Treatise on Cutoff Trolling.
-----------------------------
16. Meanness: never allowed
Being mean is worse than being immature and unproductive. If another user does something which you think is inappropriate, use the Report button to bring the post to moderator attention, or if you really must reply, do so in a way that is tactful and constructive rather than inflammatory.
-----------------------------

Finally, we remind you all to sit back and enjoy the problems. :D

-----------------------------
(EDIT 2024-09-13: AoPS has asked to me to add the following item.)

Advertising paid program or service: never allowed

Per the AoPS Terms of Service (rule 5h), general advertisements are not allowed.

While we do allow advertisements of official contests (at the MAA and MATHCOUNTS level) and those run by college students with at least one successful year, any and all advertisements of a paid service or program is not allowed and will be deleted.
0 replies
v_Enhance
Jun 12, 2020
0 replies
k i Stop looking for the "right" training
v_Enhance   50
N Oct 16, 2017 by blawho12
Source: Contest advice
EDIT 2019-02-01: https://blog.evanchen.cc/2019/01/31/math-contest-platitudes-v3/ is the updated version of this.

EDIT 2021-06-09: see also https://web.evanchen.cc/faq-contest.html.

Original 2013 post
50 replies
v_Enhance
Feb 15, 2013
blawho12
Oct 16, 2017
Diophantine equation !
ComplexPhi   6
N a minute ago by Mr.Sharkman
Source: Romania JBMO TST 2015 Day 1 Problem 4
Solve in nonnegative integers the following equation :
$$21^x+4^y=z^2$$
6 replies
ComplexPhi
May 14, 2015
Mr.Sharkman
a minute ago
Cool sequence problem
AlephG_64   1
N 7 minutes ago by FarrukhKhayitboyev
Source: 2025 Finals Portuguese Mathematical Olympiad P3
A computer science teacher has asked his students to write a program that, given a list of $n$ numbers $a_1, a_2, ..., a_n$, calculates the list $b_1, b_2, ..., b_n$ where $b_k$ is the number of times the number $a_k$ appears in the list. So, for example, for the list $1,2,3,1$, the program returns the list $2,1,1,2$.

Next, the teacher asked Alexandre to run the program for a list of $2025$ numbers. Then he asked him to apply the program to the resulting list, and so on, until a number greater than or equal to $k$ appears in the list. Find the largest value of $k$ for which, whatever the initial list of $2025$ positive integers $a_1, a_2, ..., a_{2025}$, it is possible for Alexander to do what the teacher asked him to do.
1 reply
AlephG_64
Apr 5, 2025
FarrukhKhayitboyev
7 minutes ago
Inequality
hlminh   1
N 8 minutes ago by arqady
Let $a,b,c>0$ such that $a^2+b^2+c^2=3.$ Prove that $\sum \frac a{\sqrt{b^2+b+c}}\leq \sqrt 3.$
1 reply
hlminh
Yesterday at 9:36 AM
arqady
8 minutes ago
combinatorial geo question
SAAAAAAA_B   1
N 11 minutes ago by SAAAAAAA_B
Kuba has two finite families $\mathcal{A}, \mathcal{B}$ of convex polygons (in the plane). It turns out that every point of the plane lies in the same number of elements of $\mathcal{A}$ as elements of $\mathcal{B}$. Prove that $|\mathcal{A}| = |\mathcal{B}|$.

\textit{Note:} We treat segments and points as degenerate convex polygons, and they can be elements of $\mathcal{A}$ or $\mathcal{B}$.
1 reply
SAAAAAAA_B
Apr 14, 2025
SAAAAAAA_B
11 minutes ago
Predicted AMC 8 Scores
megahertz13   167
N 3 hours ago by KF329
$\begin{tabular}{c|c|c|c}Username & Grade & AMC8 Score \\ \hline
megahertz13 & 5 & 23 \\
\end{tabular}$
167 replies
megahertz13
Jan 25, 2024
KF329
3 hours ago
Discuss the Stanford Math Tournament Here
Aaronjudgeisgoat   290
N Today at 6:09 AM by techb
I believe discussion is allowed after yesterday at midnight, correct?
If so, I will put tentative answers on this thread.
By the way, does anyone know the answer to Geometry Problem 5? I was wondering if I got that one right
Also, if you put answers, please put it in a hide tag

Answers for the Algebra Subject Test
Estimated Algebra Cutoffs
Answers for the Geometry Subject Test
Estimated Geo Cutoffs
Answers for the Discrete Subject Test
Estimated Cutoffs for Discrete
Answers for the Team Round
Guts Answers
290 replies
Aaronjudgeisgoat
Apr 14, 2025
techb
Today at 6:09 AM
Tennessee Math Tournament (TMT) Online 2025
TennesseeMathTournament   77
N Today at 4:34 AM by Ruegerbyrd
Hello everyone! We are excited to announce a new competition, the Tennessee Math Tournament, created by the Tennessee Math Coalition! Anyone can participate in the virtual competition for free.

The testing window is from March 22nd to April 12th, 2025. Virtual competitors may participate in the competition at any time during that window.

The virtual competition consists of three rounds: Individual, Bullet, and Team. The Individual Round is 60 minutes long and consists of 30 questions (AMC 10 level). The Bullet Round is 20 minutes long and consists of 80 questions (Mathcounts Chapter level). The Team Round is 30 minutes long and consists of 16 questions (AMC 12 level). Virtual competitors may compete in teams of four, or choose to not participate in the team round.

To register and see more information, click here!

If you have any questions, please email connect@tnmathcoalition.org or reply to this thread!

Thank you to our lead sponsor, Jane Street!

IMAGE
77 replies
TennesseeMathTournament
Mar 9, 2025
Ruegerbyrd
Today at 4:34 AM
How many people get waitlisted st promys?
dragoon   25
N Today at 4:25 AM by maxamc
Asking for a friend here
25 replies
dragoon
Apr 18, 2025
maxamc
Today at 4:25 AM
2025 ELMOCOUNTS - Mock MATHCOUNTS Nationals
vincentwant   92
N Today at 3:52 AM by vincentwant
text totally not copied over from wmc (thanks jason <3)
Quick Links:
[list=disc]
[*] National: (Sprint) (Target) (Team) (Sprint + Target Submission) (Team Submission) [/*]
[*] Miscellaneous: (Leaderboard) (Private Discussion Forum) [/*]
[/list]
-----
Eddison Chen (KS '22 '24), Aarush Goradia (CO '24), Ethan Imanuel (NJ '24), Benjamin Jiang (FL '23 '24), Rayoon Kim (PA '23 '24), Jason Lee (NC '23 '24), Puranjay Madupu (AZ '23 '24), Andy Mo (OH '23 '24), George Paret (FL '24), Arjun Raman (IN '24), Vincent Wang (TX '24), Channing Yang (TX '23 '24), and Jefferson Zhou (MN '23 '24) present:



[center]IMAGE[/center]

[center]Image credits to Simon Joeng.[/center]

2024 MATHCOUNTS Nationals alumni from all across the nation have come together to administer the first-ever ELMOCOUNTS Competition, a mock written by the 2024 Nationals alumni given to the 2025 Nationals participants. By providing the next generation of mathletes with free, high quality practice, we're here to boast how strong of an alumni community MATHCOUNTS has, as well as foster interest in the beautiful art that is problem writing!

The tests and their corresponding submissions forms will be released here, on this thread, on Monday, April 21, 2025. The deadline is May 10, 2025. Tests can be administered asynchronously at your home or school, and your answers should be submitted to the corresponding submission form. If you include your AoPS username in your submission, you will be granted access to the private discussion forum on AoPS, where you can discuss the tests even before the deadline.
[list=disc]
[*] "How do I know these tests are worth my time?" [/*]
[*] "Who can participate?" [/*]
[*] "How do I sign up?" [/*]
[*] "What if I have multiple students?" [/*]
[*] "What if a problem is ambiguous, incorrect, etc.?" [/*]
[*] "Will there be solutions?" [/*]
[*] "Will there be a Countdown Round administered?" [/*]
[/list]
If you have any other questions, feel free to email us at elmocounts2025@gmail.com (or PM me)!
92 replies
vincentwant
Sunday at 6:29 PM
vincentwant
Today at 3:52 AM
MathILy 2025 Decisions Thread
mysterynotfound   16
N Today at 1:18 AM by cweu001
Discuss your decisions here!
also share any relevant details about your decisions if you want
16 replies
mysterynotfound
Yesterday at 3:35 AM
cweu001
Today at 1:18 AM
Titu Factoring Troll
GoodMorning   76
N Yesterday at 11:02 PM by megarnie
Source: 2023 USAJMO Problem 1
Find all triples of positive integers $(x,y,z)$ that satisfy the equation
$$2(x+y+z+2xyz)^2=(2xy+2yz+2zx+1)^2+2023.$$
76 replies
GoodMorning
Mar 23, 2023
megarnie
Yesterday at 11:02 PM
2025 PROMYS Results
Danielzh   29
N Yesterday at 6:34 PM by niks
Discuss your results here!
29 replies
Danielzh
Apr 18, 2025
niks
Yesterday at 6:34 PM
2025 USA IMO
john0512   68
N Yesterday at 3:19 PM by Martin.s
Congratulations to all of you!!!!!!!

Alexander Wang
Hannah Fox
Karn Chutinan
Andrew Lin
Calvin Wang
Tiger Zhang

Good luck in Australia!
68 replies
1 viewing
john0512
Apr 19, 2025
Martin.s
Yesterday at 3:19 PM
k VOLUNTEERING OPPORTUNITY OPEN TO HIGH/MIDDLE SCHOOLERS
im_space_cadet   0
Yesterday at 2:42 PM
Hi everyone!
Do you specialize in contest math? Do you have a passion for teaching? Do you want to help leverage those college apps? Well, I have something for all of you.

I am im_space_cadet, and during the fall of last year, I opened my non-profit DeltaMathPrep which teaches students preparing for contest math the problem-solving skills they need in order to succeed at these competitions. Currently, we are very much understaffed and would greatly appreciate the help of more tutors on our platform.

Each week on Saturday and Wednesday, we meet once for each competition: Wednesday for AMC 8 and Saturday for AMC 10 and we go over a past year paper for the entire class. On both of these days, we meet at 9PM EST in the night.

This is a great opportunity for anyone who is looking to have a solid activity to add to their college resumes that requires low effort from tutors and is very flexible with regards to time.

This is the link to our non-profit for anyone who would like to view our initiative:
https://www.deltamathprep.org/

If you are interested in this opportunity, please send me a DM on AoPS or respond to this post expressing your interest. I look forward to having you all on the team!

Thanks,
im_space_cadet
0 replies
im_space_cadet
Yesterday at 2:42 PM
0 replies
Maximum number of m-tastic numbers
Tsukuyomi   30
N Apr 10, 2025 by cursed_tangent1434
Source: IMO Shortlist 2017 N4
Call a rational number short if it has finitely many digits in its decimal expansion. For a positive integer $m$, we say that a positive integer $t$ is $m-$tastic if there exists a number $c\in \{1,2,3,\ldots ,2017\}$ such that $\dfrac{10^t-1}{c\cdot m}$ is short, and such that $\dfrac{10^k-1}{c\cdot m}$ is not short for any $1\le k<t$. Let $S(m)$ be the set of $m-$tastic numbers. Consider $S(m)$ for $m=1,2,\ldots{}.$ What is the maximum number of elements in $S(m)$?
30 replies
Tsukuyomi
Jul 10, 2018
cursed_tangent1434
Apr 10, 2025
Maximum number of m-tastic numbers
G H J
Source: IMO Shortlist 2017 N4
The post below has been deleted. Click to close.
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Tsukuyomi
31 posts
#1 • 6 Y
Y by a28546, anantmudgal09, donotoven, megarnie, RedFlame2112, Adventure10
Call a rational number short if it has finitely many digits in its decimal expansion. For a positive integer $m$, we say that a positive integer $t$ is $m-$tastic if there exists a number $c\in \{1,2,3,\ldots ,2017\}$ such that $\dfrac{10^t-1}{c\cdot m}$ is short, and such that $\dfrac{10^k-1}{c\cdot m}$ is not short for any $1\le k<t$. Let $S(m)$ be the set of $m-$tastic numbers. Consider $S(m)$ for $m=1,2,\ldots{}.$ What is the maximum number of elements in $S(m)$?
This post has been edited 2 times. Last edited by v_Enhance, Jan 20, 2022, 1:01 AM
Reason: fix "the the"
Z K Y
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Generic_Username
1088 posts
#2 • 9 Y
Y by qubatae, pad, PIartist, donotoven, RedFlame2112, sabkx, Adventure10, Mango247, MS_asdfgzxcvb
We claim that the largest possible value of $|S(m)|$ is $807.$ Since powers of $2,5$ that divide $c,m$ don't change the short-ness of a rational number, we only consider $\gcd(c,10)=\gcd(m,10)=1.$ Then for each $(c,m),$ by the uniqueness of the order, $t$ is uniquely determined. This proves that $$|S(m)|\leq |\{1\leq c\leq 2017 | \gcd(c,10)=1\}|=2017-\left\lfloor\frac{2017}{2}\right\rfloor-\left\lfloor\frac{2017}{5}\right\rfloor+\left\lfloor\frac{2017}{10}\right\rfloor=807.$$
We now show this is achieveable by choosing $m$ such that $\text{ord}_{10}(cm)$ is distinct for all $c$ with $\gcd(10,c)=1,c\leq 2017.$ Indeed, let $P$ be the set of all primes less than or equal to $2017,$ and let $m=\left(\prod_{p \in P}p\right)^{n}$ for sufficiently large $n.$ Before showing this works, we need two lemmas on orders:

Lemma 1: For relatively prime integers $a,b,$ we have $\text{ord}_{10}(ab)=\text{lcm}(\text{ord}_{10}(a),\text{ord}_{10}(b)).$
Proof: Since $a|10^{\text{ord}_{10}(ab)}-1,$ we see that $\text{ord}_{10}(a)|\text{ord}_{10}(ab)$ (else minimality is contradicted by Euclidean algorithm). Similarly, $\text{ord}_{10}(b)|\text{ord}_{10}(ab)$ and minimality concludes.

Lemma 2: Let $p$ be a prime relatively prime to $10,$ and let $k=\nu_p(10^{\text{ord}_{10}(p)}-1).$ Then for all $m\geq k,$ $\nu_p(10^{\text{ord}_{10}(p^m)}-1)=m.$
Proof: We proceed by induction on $m.$ Since $\text{ord}_{10}(p^k)|\text{ord}_{10}(p^{k+1}),$ LTE gives us
\begin{align*}m+1&\geq \nu_p(10^{\text{ord}_{10}(p^{m+1})}-1)\\&=\nu_p((10^{\text{ord}_{10}(p^m)})^{\frac{\text{ord}(p^{m+1})}{\text{ord}(p^m)}}-1)
\\&=\nu_p\left(\frac{\text{ord}_{10}(p^{m+1})}{\text{ord}_{10}(p^{m})}\right)+\underbrace{\nu_p(10^{\text{ord}_{10}(p^m)}-1)}_{=m}.\end{align*}
But $\text{ord}_{10}(p^{m+1})=p\cdot\text{ord}_{10}(p^m)$ works, and it is minimal. This proves the lemma, and it proves the more useful fact that $\boxed{\text{ord}_{10}(p^m)=p^{m-k}\cdot\text{ord}_{10}(p^{k})}$ for $m>k.$

Returning back to the problem at hand, assume $\text{ord}_{10}(am)=\text{ord}_{10}(bm)$ for some $a\neq b.$ Let $p$ be a prime s.t. $\nu _p(a)>\nu _p(b),$ and let $a=\prod_{p_i\in P}p_i^{a_i}$ By lemma 1, we have
$$\nu_p(\text{ord}_{10}(am))=\nu_p(\text{lcm}_i(\text{ord}_{10}(p_i^{a_i+n})))=\text{max}(\nu_p(\text{ord}_{10}(p_i^{a_i+n}))).$$
By the boxed statement in lemma 2, taking $n$ sufficiently large will cause the maximum power of $p$ among the $\text{ord}(p_i),$ to come from $p_i=p,$ since increasing $n$ increases only $\text{ord}_{10}(p^{\nu_p(a)+k}).$ But now lemma 2 again gives \begin{align*}\nu_p(\text{ord}_{10}(am))&=\nu_p(\text{ord}_{10}(p^{\nu_p(a)+k}))\\&=\nu_p(a)+n-k+\nu_p(\text{ord}(p^k))\\&>\nu_p(b)+n-k+\nu_p(\text{ord}(p^k))\\&=\nu_p(\text{ord}_{10}(p^{\nu_p(b)+k}))\\&=\nu_p(\text{ord}_{10}(bm)),\end{align*}an evident contradiction.
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juckter
323 posts
#3 • 4 Y
Y by donotoven, RedFlame2112, Adventure10, Mango247
First, some definitions. Say a number is simple if it is relatively prime to $10$. Denote by $d(n)$ the largest simple divisor of a number $n$. Given a positive integer $k \in \{1, 2, \dots, 2017\}$, we will say that $k$ enables $t$ if $t$ is $m$-tastic when choosing $c = k$. Notice that a rational number $r$ is short if and only if $10^nr \in \mathbb{Z}$ for some $n$. This implies that $\frac{10^t - 1}{cm}$ is short if and only if

$$v_p(cm) \leq v_p(10^t - 1)$$
Holds for every prime $p$ other than $2$ and $5$. Notice that each element of $\{1, 2, \dots 2017\}$ enables at most one integer, because if it enabled two integers $a < b$ then $a$ being $m$-tastic would contradict the fact that $b$ is the smallest integer $t$ such that $\frac{10^t - 1}{cm}$ is short. We now claim that for any $k$, if $k$ enables $t$ then $d(k)$ enables $t$. Assume for the sake of contradiction that $t$ is not $m$-tastic for $c = d(k)$. Clearly

$$\frac{10^t - 1}{md(k)}$$
Is short, because it is an integer multiple of $\frac{10^t - 1}{mk}$, which is short. Because $t$ is not $m$-tastic under $c = d(k)$, it follows that there must exist an $s < t$ such that $\frac{10^s - 1}{md(k)}$ is short. Because $\frac{k}{d(k)}$ has no primes other than $2$ or $5$, it follows that $\frac{10^s - 1}{mk}$ is also short. However this contradicts the fact that $t$ is $m$-tastic. Thus the claim is proven. It follows that every $m$-tastic number has a simple enabler, and thus the quantity of $m$-tastic numbers is less than or equal to the number of simple elements of $\{1, 2,\dots, 2017\}$, which is

$$2017 - \left\lfloor \frac{2017}{2} \right\rfloor - \left\lfloor \frac{2017}{5} \right\rfloor + \left\lfloor \frac{2017}{10} \right\rfloor = 2017 - 1008 - 403 + 201 = 807$$
We now exhibit an $m$ for which there exist $807$ $m$-tastic numbers, which completes the problem. Let $S$ be the set of primes less than or equal to $2017$ and let $P$ be the product of all elements of $S$. Then $\gcd(P, 10) = 1$ and thus $10$ has a multiplicative order $\pmod{P}$. Let $g$ be this order, and set

$$m = \prod_{p \in S} p^{v_p(10^g - 1)}$$
We claim that each simple $c \in \{1, 2, \dots, 2017\}$ enables $gc$. Assume that $\frac{10^t - 1}{cm}$ is short, then $v_p(c) + v_p(m) = v_p(cm) \leq v_p(10^t - 1)$. In particular every prime in $S$ must divide $10^t - 1$, and therefore $g$ must divide $t$. Let $t = gk$. Then by LTE, for every $p \in S$ we have $v_p(10^{gk} - 1) = v_p(10^g - 1) + v_p(k) = v_p(m) + v_p(k)$ by our choice of $m$. Thus $v_p(k) \geq v_p(c)$ for each $p \in S$, and because all prime factors of $c$ are in $S$ it follows that this happens if and only if $c$ divides $k$, and so $gc$ is indeed the smallest number for which the required expression is short. It follows that $c$ enables $gc$, implying that there are exactly $807$ $m$-tastic numbers, because the numbers $gc$ are all distinct.
This post has been edited 1 time. Last edited by juckter, Jul 10, 2018, 7:57 PM
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MarkBcc168
1595 posts
#4 • 3 Y
Y by neyft, RedFlame2112, Adventure10
Really tastic problem, with rich flavor of number theory.

The answer is $\boxed{807}$. First, we can made the assumption that $\gcd(m,10)=1$. Call the number $c$ as \emph{chef} of $t$. For convenience, let $\mathcal{C}=\{n\in\mathbb{Z}^+\mid n\leqslant 2017,\ \gcd(n,10)=1\}$

Note that if $c$ is a chef of $t$, then $c'= \frac{c}{2^a5^b}$ is also a chef of $t$. Thus WLOG, we can assume that $\gcd(c,10)=1$.

Now observe that if $c\in\mathcal{C}$ is a chef of $t$ then $\gcd(cm,10)=1$ so
$$cm\mid 10^t-1 \text{ but } cm\nmid 10^k-1\text{ for any }k<t \implies t=\mathrm{ord}_{cm}(10).$$Thus each $c\in\mathcal{C}$ is a chef of a unique tastic number $t$. Hence $S(m)\leqslant |\mathcal{C}| = 807$ claimed.

Now we have to construct $m$ which $\mathrm{ord}_{cm}(10)$ are all distinct for each $c\in\mathcal{C}$. To do that, we enumerate primes $p_1<p_2<...<p_k = 2017$, disregarding $2,5$. And define
$$a_i = \nu_{p_i}(10^{p_i-1}-1)\text{ for each } i =1,2,...,k$$By Lifting The Exponent Lemma, we easily find that
$$\nu_{p_i}(a^n-1) = a_i + \nu_{p_i}(n)\implies \mathrm{ord}_{p^t}(10) = {p_i}^{t-a_i}(p_i-1)$$for any $t\geqslant a_i$. Now for each $i=1,2,...,k$, let $b_i= a_i + 2018$ and let $m=\prod\limits_{i=1}^k {p_i}^{b_i}$. From discussions above, we get
$$\mathrm{ord}_{cm}(10) = \mathrm{lcm} \{{p_i}^{c_i+2018}(p_i-1)\} $$where $c_i = \nu_{p_i}(c)$. Since $v_{p_i}(p_j-1)<2018$ for any $i,j\leqslant k$, we get
$$\nu_{p_i}(\mathrm{ord}_{cm}(10)) = c_i+2018 = \nu_{p_i}(c)+2018$$so for any prime $p\in \{p_1,p_2,...,p_k\}$,
$$\nu_{p}(\mathrm{ord}_{c_1m}(10)) = \nu_{p}(\mathrm{ord}_{c_2m}(10)) \iff \nu_{p}(c_1) = \nu_{p}(c_2).$$But this is true for arbitrary prime $p$ which may divide some elements in $\mathcal{C}$ so the numbers $\{\mathrm{ord}_{cm}(10)\mid c\in\mathcal{C}\}$ are distinct as desired.
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v_Enhance
6874 posts
#5 • 9 Y
Y by pavel kozlov, mijail, v4913, PIartist, HamstPan38825, RedFlame2112, sabkx, Adventure10, Funcshun840
The answer is $807$.

We restrict our attention to $c$ and $m$ such that $\gcd(c,10) = \gcd(m,10) = 1$, since stripping factors of $2$ or $5$ doesn't change anything. In that case, since $t$ is determined by $c$ and $m$ in a fantastic triple (the order of $10 \pmod{cm}$), we have \begin{align*} 	\#S(m) &\le \#\{ 1 \le c \le 2017 \mid \gcd(c,10) = 1 \} \\ 	&= 2017 - \left\lfloor \frac{2017}{2} \right\rfloor 		- \left\lfloor \frac{2017}{5} \right\rfloor 		+ \left\lfloor \frac{2017}{10} \right\rfloor \\ 	&= 807. \end{align*}The main point of the problem is to achieve this bound.

Let $T$ be a large composite integer such that $M = 10^T - 1$ is divisible by every primes at most $2017$ other than $2$ and $5$. (Thus $T$ is the order of $10 \pmod M$.)

Claim: The order of $10 \pmod{cM}$ is $cT$.

Proof. This essentially follows by exponent lifting lemma. Indeed, the order of $10 \pmod{cM}$ must be divisible by $T$. Now pick a prime $p \mid c$. If $T'$ is the order of $10 \pmod{cM}$, then $T'$ must be divisible by $T$; now compute \begin{align*} 		\nu_p(c) + \nu_p(M) &\le\nu_p(10^{T'}-1) \\ 		&= \nu_p\left( (10^T)^{T'/T} - 1 \right) \\ 		&= \nu_p (10^T-1) + \nu_p(T') - \nu_p(T) \\ 		\iff \nu_p(T') &\ge \nu_p(cT). 	\end{align*}This completes the proof. $\blacksquare$

Hence, the relevant fantastic triples are $(cT,c,M)$ for each $c \le 2017$ relatively prime to $10$.
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anantmudgal09
1980 posts
#6 • 3 Y
Y by RedFlame2112, Adventure10, Mango247
Tsukuyomi wrote:
Call a rational number short if it has finitely many digits in its decimal expansion. For a positive integer $m$, we say that a positive integer $t$ is $m-$tastic if there exists a number $c\in \{1,2,3,\ldots ,2017\}$ such that $\dfrac{10^t-1}{c\cdot m}$ is short, and such that $\dfrac{10^k-1}{c\cdot m}$ is not short for any $1\le k<t$. Let $S(m)$ be the the set of $m-$tastic numbers. Consider $S(m)$ for $m=1,2,\ldots{}.$ What is the maximum number of elements in $S(m)$?

Answer. $807$.

Note that $x \in \mathbb{Q}$ is short if for all primes $p \nmid 10$ we have $v_p(x) \ge 0$. Now we show $\max_{m \in \mathbb{N}} |S(m)| \le 807$. Let $X \overset{\text{def}}{:=} \{ 1 \le c \le 2017 | \gcd(c,10)=1\}$ then we have $|X|=807$.

Suppose $|S(m)| \ge 808$ for some $m \in \mathbb{N}$. To each $t$ that is $m$-tastic, assign the maximum divisor of the corresponding $c$ that is coprime to $10$. Note that this assignment is a function from $S(m)$ to $X$; so it cannot be injective. However if $t_1<t_2$ are both assigned the same $c \in X$ then $\frac{10^k-1}{c \cdot m}$ is not short for all $k<t_2$ and $\frac{10^{t_1}-1}{c\cdot m}$ is short; contradiction!

Now we prove equality can be obtained. Let $M=\phi\left(\prod_{x \in X} x\right)$ and $m=10^{M}-1$. Then $c \in X \implies c \mid m$. Now we pick any $p \nmid 10$ prime; let $d$ be the order of $10$ mod $cm$. Then $m \mid 10^d-1 \implies M \mid d$ so let $d=Mj$ with $j$ minimal. Now $$c \cdot m \mid 10^{Mj}-1 \iff v_p(c)+v_p(m) \le v_p(10^{M}-1)+v_p(j)$$for all primes $p \nmid 10$; so $v_p(c)  \le v_p(j) \implies c \mid j$. Thus, $d=Mc$ as $j$ is minimal. Now for all $t \in \{Mx | x \in X\}$ we conclude that there is some $c \in X$ such that $\frac{10^{t}-1}{cm}$ is short but for any $k<t$ the number $\frac{10^k-1}{cm}$ isn't; proving the equality.
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yayups
1614 posts
#7 • 3 Y
Y by RedFlame2112, Adventure10, Mango247
WOW this problem is amazing! Idk why I like it so much but I do :-D Anyways, here it is in all its glory.

First, note that the problem is a little contrived in its wording, as it is clear that $\frac{a}{b}$ is short if and only if $\frac{a}{\frac{b}{2^{\nu_2(b)}5^{\nu_5(b)}}}$ is short. The point is, $S(m)=S\left(\frac{m}{2^{\nu_2(m)}5^{\nu_5(m)}}\right)$, and we can restrict our attention to $c\in[2017]$ such that $\gcd(c,10)=1$. Let $S$ be the set of such $c$, and its easy to see that $|S|=807$.

Now, WLOG we have $\gcd(m,10)=1$ and $\gcd(c,10)=1$. Then, $\frac{10^r-1}{cm}$ is short if and only if $cm\mid 10^r-1$. Therefore, the statement of the problem is saying that $t=\mathrm{ord}_{cm}(10)$. Thus,
\[S(m) = \{\mathrm{ord}_{cm}(10):c\in S\}.\]Thus, we have $|S(m)|\le|S|=807$, and we show that equality is in fact achieved, making the answer $\boxed{807}$.

Here are the key lemmas.

Lemma 1: Suppose $\gcd(a,b)=\gcd(a,10)=\gcd(b,10)=1$. Then, $\mathrm{ord}_{ab}(10)=\mathrm{lcm}(\mathrm{ord}_a(10),\mathrm{ord}_b(10))$.

Proof of Lemma 1: Let $t_1=\mathrm{ord}_a(10)$, $t_2=\mathrm{ord}_b(10)$, and $t=\mathrm{ord}_{ab}(10)$. We see that $10^t\equiv 1\pmod{ab}$, so $10^t\equiv 1\pmod{a}$ and $10^t\equiv 1\pmod{b}$, so $t_1,t_2\mid t$. Also, if $t_1,t_2\mid t$, then $10^t\equiv 1\pmod{a}$ and $10^t\equiv 1\pmod{b}$, so by CRT, $10^t\equiv 1\pmod{ab}$. Therefore, we have that $ab\mid 10^t-1$ if and only if $\mathrm{lcm}(t_1,t_2)\mid t$, so the minimum such $t$ is $\mathrm{lcm}(t_1,t_2)$, as desired. $\blacksquare$

Lemma 2: Let $p$ be a prime and let $w=\mathrm{ord}_p(10)$. Then,
\[\mathrm{ord}_{p^\ell}(10)=w\cdot p^{\max\{0,\ell-\nu_p(10^w-1)\}}.\]In particular, there exists a constants $f(p)\in\mathbb{Q}$ and $g(p)$ (read: don't depend on $\ell$) such that $\mathrm{ord}_{p^\ell}(10)=f(p)p^\ell$ for all $\ell\ge g(p)$.

Proof of Lemma 2: Suppose $t=\mathrm{ord}_{p^\ell}(10)$. Then, we see that $10^t\equiv 1\pmod{p}$, so $w\mid t$. Therefore, by LTE,
\[\nu_p(10^t-1) = \nu_p((10^w)^{t/w}-1) = \nu_p(10^w-1)+\nu_p(t/w).\]Thus,
\[p^\ell\mid 10^t-1\iff\nu_p(t/w)+\nu_p(10^w-1)\ge \ell,\]so the minimum $t$ that works is $w\cdot p^{\max\{0,\ell-\nu_p(10^w-1)\}}$, as desired. $\blacksquare$

Now, pick $m=\prod_{\substack{p\text{ prime}\\ p\le 2017}}p^{g(p)}$. Suppose $c=p_1^{e_1}\cdots p_k^{e_k}$ where $p_1,\ldots,p_k$ are all the primes that are at most $2017$. Then,
\[cm=\prod_{i=1}^k p_i^{g(p_i)+e_i},\]so by Lemmas 1 and 2, we have that
\[\mathrm{ord}_{cm}(10) = \mathrm{lcm}\left(h(p_i)p_i^{e_i}\right)_{i=1}^k\]where $h(p_i)=f(p_i)p_i^{g(p_i)}$, and note that $h(p_i)\in\mathbb{Z}$ (actually I think that $h(p_i)=w=\mathrm{ord}_{p_i}(10)$ though I'm not sure). The point then is that there is a constant $A$ such that
\[\mathrm{ord}_{cm}=Ac,\]so each $c\in S$ produces a different values of $t$, so then $S(m)=S$ as desired. Therefore the maximum size of $S(m)$ is $|S|=\boxed{807}$.
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IndoMathXdZ
691 posts
#8 • 2 Y
Y by RedFlame2112, Adventure10
Thought this was ugly but this is a really nice Number Theory problem! :D

The answer is $\textbf{807}$.
Firstly, notice that we could let $(c,10) = (m,10) = 1$ as it won't affect the short-ness of a fraction. Therefore, we define a number short if and only if for every prime $p \not= 2, 5$, we have
\[ \nu_p \left( \frac{10^t - 1}{cm} \right) \ge 0 \]and therefore, we could redefine $S(m)$ as:
\[ S(m) = \{ \text{ord}_{10} (cm) | c \le 2017 , \ (c,10) = 1, \ (m,10) = 1 \} \]We will now set the obvious upper bound, which is
\[ S(m) \le 2017 - \left \lfloor \frac{2017}{2} \right \rfloor - \left \lfloor \frac{2017}{5} \right \rfloor + \left \lfloor \frac{2017}{10} \right \rfloor = \textbf{807}\]We will now show it is attainable by constructing a value $m$ such that for all values $(c,10) = 1$ and $c \le 2017$, we have $ord_{10} (cm)$ being distinct.
We'll start off by a few lemmas.
$\textbf{Lemma 01.}$ For relatively prime positive integers $a$ and $b$, we have
\[ \text{ord}_{10} (ab) = \text{lcm} \{ \text{ord}_{10} (a) , \text{ord}_{10} (b) \} \]$\textit{Proof.}$ Notice that
\[ a | ab | 10^{\text{ord}_{10} (ab)} - 1 \]Therefore, $\text{ord}_{10} (a) | \text{ord}_{10} (ab)$. Similarly, $\text{ord}_{10} (b) | \text{ord}_{10} (ab)$. We are then done by the definition of order.

$\textbf{Lemma 02.}$ Let $v_p (10^{\text{ord}_{10} (p)} - 1 ) = m$. Therefore, for all values $k \ge m$, we have
\[ v_p (10^{\text{ord}_{10} (p^k)}  - 1) = k\]$\textit{Proof.}$ We'll prove that $\text{ord}_{10} (p^k) = p^{k - m} \cdot \text{ord}_{10} (p^m) $.
We know that by Lifting The Exponent Lemma,
\[ p^{k + 1} | 10^{\text{ord}_{10} (p^m )\cdot p^{k - m}} - 1 \]Suppose for some $k \ge m$, we have $\text{ord}_{10} (p^k) = p^{\alpha} \cdot x$, where $x \not= \text{ord}_{10} (p^m)$ and not divisible by $\text{ord}_{10} (p^m)$, then we have
\[ p^m | 10^{\gcd(p^{k-m} \cdot \text{ord}_{10} (p^m), p^{\alpha} \cdot x)} - 1 \]Then it must be divisible by $\text{ord}_{10} (p^m)$. Moreover, by the definition of order and lifting the exponent lemma, we have $\text{ord}_{10} (p^k) = p^{k - m} \cdot \text{ord}_{10} (p^m)$. This contradicts the definition of order.

Let $\mathbb{P}$ be set of all primes less than or equal to $2017$. Now, we consider taking $$m = \prod_{p \in \mathbb{P}} p^K$$with $K$ being arbitrarily large.
Define $m_p = v_p (10^{ord_{10} (p) } - 1)$.
This gives us
\begin{align*}
 \text{ord}_{10} (cm) &= \text{lcm}_{p \le 2017} \ \text{ord}_{10} \left( p^{K + v_p(c)} \right)  \\ 
 &=  \text{lcm}_{p \le 2017} \ p^{K - m_p + v_p(c)} \cdot \text{ord}_{10} \left( p^{m_p} \right) \\
\end{align*}Since $m_p$ is fixed for every prime $p$, therefore we could choose $K$ such that
\[ K \ge  v_p \left( \text{ord}_{10} (p^{m_p})  \right) \]By choosing such value of $K$, we can have
\[ \text{lcm}_{p \le 2017} \ p^{K - m_p + v_p(c)} \cdot \text{ord}_{10} \left( p^{m_p} \right) = \prod_{p \le 2017} p^{K - m_p + v_p(c)} = c \cdot \prod_{p \le 2017} p^{K - m_p} \]Therefore, for every $c$, we can ensure that $\text{ord}_{10} (cm)$ are all distinct for $c \le 2017$.
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Stormersyle
2785 posts
#9 • 1 Y
Y by RedFlame2112
We claim the answer is $807$. First note that $x$ is short iff for all $p\ne 2, 5$, $\nu_p(x)\ge 0$. Next, note that powers of of 2 and 5 dividing $c$ or $m$ have no impact on whether $\frac{10^i-1}{cm}$ is short and thus are pretty much irrelevant, so we can WLOG let $c, m$ not be divisible by 2 or 5. Thus, $(t, c, m)$ is fantastic iff $ord_{cm} 10=t$, so $S(m)$ is the number of distinct values $ord_{cm}10$ can take on as $c$ runs through all the integers in $[1, 2017]$ which are prime to 10. By PIE there are $807$ such integers, so thus we have the bound $S(m)\le 807$.

Now, for the construction, let $m=10^T-1$, such that $m$ is divisible by all the primes $\le 2017$ except for $2, 5$. We claim that for all $c$, $ord_{c(10^T-1)}10=cT$, which would immediately imply that the construction works. To prove this claim, let $d=ord_{c(10^T-1)}10$; then, we first need $10^T-1|10^d-1$, so $T|d$, so let $d=zT$. We are trying to minimize $z$. Now, for $z$ to work, note that the following is necessary and sufficient: for all $p|c$, $\nu_p(10^{zT}-1)\ge \nu_p(c(10^T-1))$. But since $p|10^T-1$, by LTE this inequality becomes $\nu_p(10^T-1)+\nu_p(z)\ge \nu_p(c)+\nu_p(10^T-1)\iff \nu_p(z)\ge \nu_p(c)$, and hence the minimum value of $z$ is $c$, which also works. Thus, $d=cT$, and we are done.
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math_pi_rate
1218 posts
#10 • 3 Y
Y by amar_04, MatBoy-123, RedFlame2112
Great problem! Here's my solution: Call such a $c$ to be a friend of an $m$-tastic number. Note that for each $c \in [2017]$, it is the friend of at most $1$ $m$-tastic integer. Also, if $c$ has $t$ as its friend, then $\frac{c}{2^x5^y}$ also has $t$ as its friend, where $x=\nu_2(c)$ and $y=\nu_2(5)$. So WLOG take $\gcd(c,10)=1$. Similarly, we can assume $\gcd(m,10)=1$. In particular, this means that $\frac{10^t-1}{cm}$ is short iff $cm \mid 10^t-1$, or in other words, $t=\text{ord}_{cm}(10)$. Now, as $c \leq 2017$ with $\gcd(c,10)=1$ for any element of $S(m)$, so using Principal of Inclusion-Exclusion, we have $$|S(m)| \leq 2017-1008-403+201=807$$We claim that $807$ is achievable. Let $e=\text{ord}_m(10)$, and for each $c \leq 2017$ with $\gcd(c,10)=1$, let $em_c=\text{ord}_{cm}(10)$. It suffices to show that all such $m_c$'s are distinct for a suitable $m$. Let $m=10^e-1$ for $e=\text{lcm}(\text{ord}_p(10))$ where $p$ is a prime less than $2018$ with $\gcd(p,10)=1$. Then, for all such primes $p$, we have $p \mid 10^e-1$. So LTE gives $$\nu_p(m)+\nu_p(c)\leq \nu_p(10^{em_c}-1)=\nu_p(10^e-1)+\nu_p(m_c)=\nu_p(m)+\nu_p(m_c) \Rightarrow \nu_p(m_c) \geq \nu_p(c)$$Since this is true for all prime divisors of $c$, and $m_c$ is the smallest such number, so we must have $m_c=c$. Thus, all $m_c$'s are distinct, as desired, giving the required answer as $807$. $\blacksquare$
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1671 posts
#11 • 1 Y
Y by RedFlame2112
Solved with william122.

The condition tells us that $t$ is the order of 10 mod $cm$. So $t$ is a unique function of $c$, assuming we fix $m$. If $\gcd(c,10)>1$, then the order is not well-defined, so $t$ is not $m$-tastic. Therefore, there are at most $2017-\lfloor \tfrac{2017}{2} \rfloor-\lfloor \tfrac{2017}{5} \rfloor+\lfloor \tfrac{2017}{10} \rfloor=807$ elements of $S(m)$. We can achieve this bound if we can do the following.
New Problem wrote:
We want to find an $m$ such that the order of 10 mod $cm$ is different for each $c\le 2017$ coprime of 10.
Let $\mathrm{ord}_{10}(x)$ be the order of 10 mod $x$. Suppose $a,b\le 2017$ both coprime to 10, such that $\mathrm{ord}_{10}(a)=\mathrm{ord}_{10}(b)$. We want to pick an $m$ such that $\mathrm{ord}_{10}(am) > \mathrm{ord}_{10}(bm)$.

Lemma: If $x,y$ are coprime numbers, then $\mathrm{ord}_{10}(xy) = \text{lcm} \{ \mathrm{ord}_{10}(x), \mathrm{ord}_{10}(y) \}$.
Proof: Trivial by CRT. $\blacksquare$

Claim: $\mathrm{ord}_{10}(p^{\ell+1}) = p\cdot \mathrm{ord}_{10}(p^{\ell})$ for all $\ell \ge L$ for some constant $L$.
Proof: We induct on $\ell$ to show that $v_p(10^{\mathrm{ord}_{10}(p^\ell)}-1) = \ell$ for $\ell \ge L$ for some $L$. We will show how this implies the desired result.
  • Base case: The following is quite tricky. We claim $L=v_p(10^{\mathrm{ord}_{10}(p)}-1)$ works. Then $p^L = 10^{\mathrm{ord}_{10}(p)}-1$. Let $k=\mathrm{ord}_{10}(p^L)$, then $k$ is the minimal number such that $10^k \equiv 1 \pmod{p^L}$. But by construction, this is simply $k=\mathrm{ord}_{10}(p)$. Now, $\mathrm{ord}_{10}(p^{L+1})$ cannot be $k$, since we would then have $10^k \equiv 1 \pmod{p^{L+1}}$, which would imply $L = v_p(10^{\mathrm{ord}_{10}(p)}-1)+1$. This proves the base case.
  • Inductive step: We know $\mathrm{ord}_{10}(p^{\ell}) \mid \mathrm{ord}_{10}(p^{\ell+1})$, so let $\mathrm{ord}_{10}(p^{\ell+1}) = p' \cdot \mathrm{ord}_{10}(p^{\ell})$. Therefore, $p'$ is the minimal number such that \[ 10^{\mathrm{ord}_{10}(p^\ell) \cdot p'} \equiv 1 \pmod{p^{\ell+1}}. \]By LTE, \[ v_p(10^{\mathrm{ord}_{10}(p^\ell) \cdot p'}-1) = v_p(10^{\mathrm{ord}_{10}(p^\ell)}-1) + v_p(p') \ge \ell+1. \]We know $v_p(10^{\mathrm{ord}_{10}(p^\ell)}-1) = \ell$ by induction, so $v_p(p') \ge 1$. Since $p'$ is minimal, we have $p'=p$. Now, the inductive step follows, and we have shown that $\mathrm{ord}_{10}(p^{\ell+1}) = p \cdot \mathrm{ord}_{10}(p^{\ell})$, as desired.
This proves the claim. $\blacksquare$

In particular, the claim tells us that $v_p(\mathrm{ord}_{10}(p^{\ell})) = \ell + C$ for some constant $C$ for large enough $\ell$.
Suppose $\mathrm{ord}_{10}(a) = \mathrm{ord}_{10}(b)$ for some $a,b$. Let $v_p(a)=e$. Choose a prime $p$ with $v_p(a) > v_p(b)$, and multiply $a$ and $b$ by $m=p^N$ for a sufficiently large $N$. Let $a=p_1^{e_1}\cdots p_f^{e_f} p^e$ be the prime factorization of $a$. Now, \begin{align*}     \mathrm{ord}_{10}(am) &= \mathrm{ord}_{10}(ap^N) = \mathrm{ord}_{10}(p_1^{e_1} \cdots p_f^{e_f} p^{e+N}) \\     &= \text{lcm} \{ \mathrm{ord}_{10}(p_1^{e_1}),\ldots, \mathrm{ord}_{10}(p_f^{e_f}), \mathrm{ord}_{10}(p^{e+N})\} \\     \implies v_p(\mathrm{ord}_{10}(am)) &= \max \{ v_p(\mathrm{ord}_{10}(p_1^{e_1})),\ldots, v_p(\mathrm{ord}_{10}(p_f^{e_f})), \ \  v_p(\mathrm{ord}_{10}\left(p^{e+N})\right)\}. \end{align*}All the terms above except the last are fixed. Hence, making $N$ sufficiently large makes the $p$-term dominate, and we get \begin{align*}     v_p(\mathrm{ord}_{10}(am)) &= v_p(\mathrm{ord}_{10}(p^{e+N})) = e+N+C = v_p(a) + N + C \\     &> v_p(b) + N + C = v_p(\mathrm{ord}_{10}(p^{e+N}))= v_p(\mathrm{ord}_{10}(bm)).  \end{align*}Therefore, $v_p(\mathrm{ord}_{10}(am)) > v_p(\mathrm{ord}_{10}(bm))$. And multiplying by $m$ again and again will not change this fact; clearly multiplying by coprime numbers won't, and multiplying by more multiples of $p$ won't either, since we took sufficiently large powers of $p$ as $m$ anyways. Now, iterate this over all primes $p\le 2017$ (this utilizes the bounded part!), to get $\mathrm{ord}_{10}(am) > \mathrm{ord}_{10}(bm)$. Continue this process for all equal pairs $(a,b)$, and eventually we will get all distinct orders.

Remarks
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jj_ca888
2726 posts
#12 • 1 Y
Y by RedFlame2112
Note that if a rational number has a repeating block then it is not short. Hence, all short rational numbers in lowest terms have denominators of the form $2^a5^b$ where $a, b$ are nonnegative integers. In other words, $v_p(r)$ for a short rational $r$ is nonnegative. Furthermore, it is clear that powers of $2$ or $5$ do not affect shortness so assume WLOG that $\gcd(c, 10) = \gcd(m, 10) = 1$.

Next we clear up a bit of notation. The set $S(m)$ is just the set of all positive integers $t$ for which there exists $c \leq 2017$ so that $t$ is the order of $10$ modulo $cm$, or in other words, the set of distinct values $\text{ord}_{cm}(10)$ can take as $c$ runs through numbers relatively prime to $10$ from $1 \to 2017$. We see that by PIE, $c$ runs through at most\[2017 - \left\lfloor\frac{2017}{2}\right\rfloor - \left\lfloor\frac{2017}{5}\right\rfloor + \left\lfloor\frac{2017}{10}\right\rfloor = 807\]distinct values. We now prove that it is possible to achieve this bound. Consider $M = 10^n - 1$ for some large composite number $n = \prod (p - 1)$ over all primes $\leq 2017$ that are not $2$ or $5$. By size the order of $10$ modulo $cM$ is clearly $n$. The key claim is that for each $c \leq 2017$ relatively prime to $10$ that the order of $10$ modulo $M$ is $cn$.

We will do this with LTE. First of all note that $p \mid 10^n - 1$ for all primes $p \leq 2017$ not $2$ or $5$. By our definition of $M$, the primeset of $M$ and $cM$ is the same so it is necessary that $n \mid \text{ord}_{cM} 10$. Next we take a prime $q \mid c$. If $kn$ is the desired order, then by LTE,\begin{align*}
    v_q(c) + v_q(M) &\leq v_q(10^{kn} - 1)\\& = v_q(10^n - 1) + v_p(k)
\end{align*}and since by definition $M = 10^n - 1$ we get $v_q(c) \leq v_p(k)$ hence the order is $cn$ as desired. $\square$

Lastly, we do see that each $c \leq 2017$ relatively prime to $10$ provides a distinct order, and thus our answer of $\boxed{807}$ is indeed achievable. $\blacksquare$
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Aryan-23
558 posts
#13 • 1 Y
Y by RedFlame2112
We claim that the answer is $807$.

We can obviously assume $(m,10)=1$.
Call $c$ to be a parent of $t$. First note that if $c$ is a $t$-parent, so is $\tfrac {c}{2^{\nu_2(c)}5^{\nu_5(c)}}$, so we can WLOG assume that $(c,10)=1$. Hence, after removing all multiples of $2$ or $5$ from $\{1,2,\dots,2017\}$, we get $\vert S(m) \vert \leq 807$.

We know construct a $m$ such that $807$ is attainable.

Motivation

Choose $m=10^x-1$ , such that $m$ is divisible by all primes $\leq 2017$ (excluding $2,5$). We claim that the order of $10\pmod (cm)$ is just $cx$. This obviously finishes. Firstly note that $x \mid \operatorname {ord}_{cm}10$ , so suppose the order is $xy$. We prove that $v_p(y) =v_p(c)$ for all primes $p\mid c$, which finishes.

We have :
$$v_p(c)+v_p(10^x-1) \leq v_p(10^{xy}-1) = v_p(10^x-1) + v_p(y) \implies v_p(y) \ge v_p(c)$$
In the above step we only used the fact that $p\mid 10^{xy}-1$. Hence when $xy$ is order, equality must hold in the above expression so $y=c$ . Done.$\blacksquare$
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IAmTheHazard
5001 posts
#14 • 2 Y
Y by centslordm, RedFlame2112
The largest possible value of $|S(m)|$ is $807$. Powers of 2 and 5 dividing $cm$ don't change the shortness of $\tfrac{10^k-1}{cm}$, so we only need to consider $\gcd(cm,10)=1$. It is then clear that for a fixed $m$, the value of $t$ is determined by the choice of $c$. Since there are
$$2017-\left\lfloor\frac{2017}{2}\right\rfloor-\left\lfloor\frac{2017}{5}\right\rfloor+\left\lfloor\frac{2017}{10}\right\rfloor=807$$choices of $c$ with $\gcd(c,10)=1$, it follows that $|S(m)|\leq 807$. It remains to show that $|S(m)|=807$ is achievable. Let $P$ be the set of primes at most $2017$ which are not equal to $2$ or $5$. Next, define $f(p)=\nu_p(10^{\operatorname{ord}_p(10)}-1)$ for primes $p \neq 2,5$ and let
$$X=\operatorname{max}\{f(p)\}_{p \in P},$$and consider $m=\left(\prod_{p \in P}p\right)^X$. I claim that this works. Note that $\tfrac{10^k-1}{cm}$ is short if and only if $\nu_p(cm) \leq \nu_p(10^k-1)$ for all $p \in P$. Let $q$ be a prime in $P$, which must divide $m$ and therefore $cm$. Then if $\tfrac{10^k-1}{cm}$ is short, we clearly must have $\operatorname{ord}_q(10) \mid k$, otherwise $q \nmid 10^k-1$. Then, from Lifting the Exponent:
$$\nu_q(10^k-1)=\nu_q((10^{\operatorname{ord}_q(10)})^{k/\operatorname{ord}_q(10)}-1)=\nu_q(10^{\operatorname{ord}_q(10)}-1)+\nu_q\left(\frac{k}{\operatorname{ord}_q(10)}\right)=\nu_q(10^{\operatorname{ord}_q(10)}-1)+\nu_q(k),$$where the last equality comes from the fact that $\operatorname{ord}_q(10)<q$, so $\nu_q(\operatorname{ord}_q(10))=0$. It follows that it is necessary and sufficient to have
$$\nu_q(k) \geq \nu_q(c)+\nu_q(m)-\nu_q(10^{\operatorname{ord}_q(10)}-1).$$Observe that the RHS is always positive by our definition of $m$, hence the least possible value of $k$ occurs when equality holds everywhere. Now note that for values of $c$ whose prime factorization differs for primes other than $2,5$, the resulting minimal values of $k$ will be different. Thus, for this choice of $m$, all $807$ values of $c$ with $\gcd(c,10)=1$ give a unique value of $t$, so there are $807$ $m$-tastic numbers. $\blacksquare$
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TheUltimate123
1740 posts
#15 • 1 Y
Y by RedFlame2112
Solved with Elliott Liu and Raymond Feng.

The answer is 807.

Proof of upper bound: Let \(f(x)\) denote the largest divisor of \(x\) not divisible by 2 or 5. If \(t\) is \(m\)-tastic for a particular choice of \(c\), then \(t=\operatorname{ord}(10\bmod f(cm))\). In particular \begin{align*}     S(m)&=\{\operatorname{ord}(cm\bmod10)\mid 1\le c\le2017\}\\     &=\{\operatorname{ord}(cm\bmod10)\mid c=1,3,7,9,\ldots,2017\}, \end{align*}which has at most 807 distinct elements.

Proof of lower bound: It will suffice to find \(m\) such that \(\operatorname{ord}(cm\bmod10)\) are distinct over \(c=1,3,7,9,\ldots,2017\). Indeed, take \[m=10^t-1\quad\text{such that}\quad p\mid m\;\forall p\le2017,\; p\ne2,5.\]It follows that \(\operatorname{ord}(m\bmod10)=t\), and moreover \[\nu_p(10^{tk}-1)=t+\nu_p(k),\]implying for all \(c=p_1^{e_1}\cdots p_k^{e_k}\) with \(p_i\le2017\) and \(p_i\ne2,5\), we have \[\operatorname{ord}(cm\bmod10)=p_1^{e_1}\cdots p_k^{e_k}\operatorname{ord}(m\bmod10)=c\operatorname{ord}(m\bmod10),\]which are all distinct.
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HamstPan38825
8857 posts
#16 • 2 Y
Y by RedFlame2112, Lcz
The answer is $\boxed{807}$.

Proof of Bound. Observe that for every pair $(m, c)$, there exists exactly one unique $t$ satisfying the fantastic condition. Furthermore, if $(t, qc, m)$ is fantastic for some $t$ and $$q = 2^{k_1} \cdot 5^{k_2},$$then $(t, c, m)$ is fantastic as well. Hence we can ignore all multiples of 2 and 5 because they give nonunique $t$, for at most $$2017 - \left \lfloor \frac{2017}2 \right \rfloor - \left \lfloor \frac{2017}5 \right \rfloor + \left \lfloor \frac{2017}{10} \right \rfloor = 807$$distinct $t$.

Construction. Take $m$ to be the product of sufficiently large powers of all the primes less than or equal to 2017. First, note that the minimum $$t = \text{ord}_{cm} 10,$$which is obvious by definition. Now, take some $c_1 \neq c_2$. Then there must exist some prime $p$ such that $\nu_p(c_2) \neq \nu_p(c_1)$.

Claim. For prime $p$, we have $$\nu_p\left(\text{ord}_{p^k}10\right)= k-\nu_p\left(10^{\text{ord}_p 10}-1\right).$$Proof. Set $r = \text{ord}_p(10)$ and $s$ such that $r \mid s$. By the LTE lemma $$\nu_p(10^s - 1) = \nu_p\left(\frac sr \right) + \nu_p(10^r-1),$$so the order of 10 mod $p^k$ for $k > \nu_p(10^r-1)$ is unique. Now set $s = \text{ord}_{p^k} 10$, and rearrange to get $$\nu_p\left(\frac sr\right) = \nu_p(10^s-1) - \nu_p(10^r-1) = k - \nu_p(10^r-1).$$Note that $\nu_p(r) = 0$ because $r<p$, from where we obtain the desired conclusion. $\blacksquare$

In addition, obviously $$\text{ord}_{ab} 10 = \text{lcm}(\text{ord}_a 10, \text{ord}_b 10)$$for $a, b$ relatively prime.

Back to the problem. Consider $$\nu_p(\text{ord}_{cm} 10) = \nu_p(\text{ord}_{p^{\nu_p(cm)}} 10)$$for $\nu_p(m)$ sufficiently large. We can make this conversion because splitting $\text{ord}_{cm} 10$ into its LCM form, all the terms are of the form $$q^k \text{ord}_q 10$$for a prime $q \leq 2017$ (because $cm$ contains no prime factors over 2017 by our construction). Because $\text{ord}_q 10 < 2017$ and $\nu_p(m)$ is sufficiently large, this term is unable to override the $\text{ord}_{p^{\nu_p(cm)}}$ term. By the claim, we can rewrite $$\nu_p(\text{ord}_{p^{\nu_p(cm)}} 10) = \nu_p(c) + \nu_p(m) - \nu_p(10^{\text{ord}_p 10} - 1).$$Replacing $c$ with $c_1$ and $c_2$ respectively, the $\nu_p$ of the two orders are distinct, and thus the two orders must be distinct. Across all possible $c_1, c_2$, this finishes the proof. $\square$
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Inconsistent
1455 posts
#17
Y by
How many points off for forgetting to WLOG out $\gcd(m, 10) \neq 1$ cases? :P

Sentence: Death by LTE.
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Mogmog8
1080 posts
#18 • 2 Y
Y by centslordm, Mango247
Solved with a LOT of hints

WLOG let $\gcd(m,10)=1.$ For any $n\in\mathbb{N},$ let $n'=\frac{n}{2^{\nu_2(n)}\cdot 5^{\nu_5(n)}}.$ For any $c,$ notice $t=\operatorname{ord}_{c'm}10$ so the number of $t$ for any fixed $m$ is at most the number of $c',$ which is $$2017-\left\lfloor\frac{2017}{2}\right\rfloor-\left\lfloor\frac{2017}{5}\right\rfloor+\left\lfloor\frac{2017}{10}\right\rfloor=807.$$We claim $807$ is achievable, letting $m=10^T-1$ where we choose $T$ such that $p\mid m$ for all primes $p\le 2017.$ This can be done by having $p-1\mid T$ for all such primes. Notice $T\mid\operatorname{ord}_{c'm}10$ as $T=\operatorname{ord}_m 10.$ Hence, let $\operatorname{ord}_{c'm}10=\ell T.$ By LTE, $$\nu_p(c'm)\le\nu_p(10^{\ell T}-1)=\nu_p(10^T-1)+\nu_p(\ell),$$where $p\le 2017$ is a prime. Therefore, $\nu_p(c')\le\nu_p(\ell)$ so $c'\mid\ell.$ Since we are looking for the minimal $\ell,$ we see $\ell=c'$ and $\operatorname{ord}_{c'm}10=c'T.$ This means $t$ is distinct for all distinct $c',$ so there are $807$ values for $t.$ $\square$
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akasht
83 posts
#19 • 2 Y
Y by Mango247, Mango247
The answer is $807$.

Bound: Let $f(m)$ be the largest divisor of $m$ which is not divisible by $2$ or $5$. A rational number is short if its denominator $d$ satisfies $f(d)=1$. Thus, notice that if $f(c_1)=f(c_2)$, then the $m$-tastic number given by $c=c_1$ and $c=c_2$ will be the same. Hence $|S(m)|$ is at most the number of values of $f$ from $1$ to $2017$, which is precisely the number of integers from $1$ to $2017$ that are not divisible by $2$ or $5$. Using PIE, we get that this number is \[2017 - \left \lfloor \frac{2017}2 \right \rfloor - \left \lfloor \frac{2017}5  \right \rfloor + \left \lfloor \frac{2017}{10} \right \rfloor =807 \]
Construction: Let $P$ be a large number such that all primes (except $2,5$) $\le 2017$ divide $10^P-1$. Write $P=Mk$, where $k$ is some integer which is coprime to $2017!$, and $M|2017!$. I claim $S(M)=807$. Consider a value of $c$ with $\gcd(c,10)=1$ (there are $807$ of these from earlier)I

Claim: The order of $10$ modulo $cM$ is $cP$ (which implies $cP$ is $m$-tastic)

Proof: Clearly the order of $10$ modulo $cM$ is divisible by $P$, say it is $aP$ for some integer $a$. By LTE, for any prime $p \le 2017$, \[v_p(10^{aP}-1) = v_p(10^P-1)+v_p(a)=v_p(M)+v_p(a) \implies v_p(a)=v_p(c)\]which implies $a=c$.

Hence, for each $c$ with $\gcd(c,10)=1$, $cP$ is $m$-tastic, which leads to $S(M)=807$ as desired.
This post has been edited 1 time. Last edited by akasht, Dec 20, 2022, 5:52 AM
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cj13609517288
1891 posts
#20
Y by
The answer is $\boxed{807}$. Clearly there exists exactly one fantastic $t$ for any $cm$.

Construction: First define $f(p)=10^{\text{ord}_p(10)}-1$. Then I claim that
\[m=\prod_{p\text{ prime},\,p\le 2017,\,p\notin\{2,5\}}p^{\nu_p\left(f(p)\right)}\]works. In fact, $\text{ord}_{cm}(10)=\text{ord}_m(10)\cdot c$ for all positive integers $c\le 2017$ where $\gcd(c,10)=1$ due to a direct application of LTE.

Proof of maximality: Simply note that multiplying $c$ by a number of the form $2^a 5^b$ does not change the fantastic $t$. So the answer has to be at most the number of positive integers $c\le 2017$ such that $2\nmid c$ and $5\nmid c$, which is just
\[\phi(10)\cdot\left\lfloor\frac{2017}{10}\right\rfloor+3=807.\]
This post has been edited 3 times. Last edited by cj13609517288, Feb 21, 2023, 2:36 PM
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VicKmath7
1388 posts
#21
Y by
Solution
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trying_to_solve_br
191 posts
#22
Y by
Solution with the walkthrough

This is a weird problem since I didn't know what to expect from it. Firstly, I thought "why can't $S(m)$ be infinite?", then I saw it was trivial: The numbers on the set $S$ is disjoint on $c$'s, that is, if $x,y \in S(m)$ had the same $c$ with $x>y$, then $y=k$ on the statement of the problem would lead to a contradiction. Also, I noticed fastly that if $c$ had a 2 or 5 factor wouldn't matter. If for some $t$ his $c$ was a multiple of 2,5, we could take those factors away and just work with the $c$ we had.

Hence, I knew that there were at most $807$ numbers on $S(m)$ for all $m$, since this is the numbers of integers coprime to 10 from 1 to 2017.

Now, let's solve the hard part: the construction!

Notice that we want, for each $c$ on the mentioned set, a number $t$ for which the number $\dfrac{10^t-1}{c\cdot m}$ is short; and since there are at most 807 $t$'s, we want a bijection between each $t$ and $c$. Now, let's construct our $m$ in a way that for all $p\neq 2,5$, $$v_p(c)+v_p(m) \leq v_p(10^t - 1)$$.

For each $c$ we will create a vector $(x_1,x_2,...,x_i)$ with $x_i=v_{p_i}(c)$, with $x_i \ge 0$ and $p_i \leq 2017$. The idea here is to make equality occur on the inequality above. To do this, we make $m=(p_1p_2...p_i)^W$, where $W$ is a big integer. To generate our $t$'s, we make $C=\{c_1,...,c_{807}\}$ the set of the coprime to 2,5 integers between 1 and 2017. I will show some $t_i$ exists, and that for each $c$ they are all different.

I will try to construct formally, but the idea is to use LTE on $ord_p 10=o$ and making $t=o.z$, and controlling $v_p(10^o - 1)+v_p(z)$.

Now, take $t_i=\prod_{\substack{p_j\text{ prime}\\ p_j\le 2017}}p_j^{v_j}.X$. I will choose $v_j,X$ in such a way that as we vary $p_j$ by the primes, $W+x_j=v_{p_j}(10^{t_i}-1)$.
Now, denote $o_j=ord_{p_j^W} 10 = p_j^{r_j}.d_j$ for some $d_j$ coprime to $p_j$, $v_{p_j}(10^{o_j}-1)=l_j$; taking $$X=\prod d_j/Y$$, $$v_j=W+x_j-l_j+r_j$$, then by LTE we have:
$$v_{p_j}(10^{t_i} -1)=v_p(10^{o_j} - 1)+v_p(t_i/o_j)=l_j+v_p(t_j)-v_p(o_j)=l_j+v_p(t_j)-r_j=W+x_j$$, as we wanted. Notice here the importance of having a big $W$: $W>l_j$ for all $j$ is necessary for $v_j$ to be positive.


Now, notice this choice of $X,v_j$ might not generate the minimal $t_i$ for which this works. But the exponent of $v_p(10^t -1)$ must be at least what we generated. Hence the prime exponents can't change, because if they did, something would go wrong with the orders of 10.

To solve this issue, we just take $X$ to be the minimal integer such that this whole product is multiple of all the orders, with $X$ coprime to all $p's$, that is, make $Y$ so that $X$ is coprime to $p_j$ and is still a multiple of all the orders.

Now, we've shown/created a construction that generates minimal $t's$ for each $c$. But why does this choices of $t_i$ only work each for one $c$? Notice that, as we made equality true, for each $c$ there is at least one $x_j$ that is different from the other $c$'s: that is, each vector is unique and as $r_j,X,l_j,W$ are all fixed, for each $c_i \in C$ a different $t_i$ is created, as at least one exponent of one the primes must be different, since all of them depend only on $x_j$. $\blacksquare$
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huashiliao2020
1292 posts
#23
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Literally this construction is so weird

The answer is 807. There's obviously exactly one t per c with fixed m, and since an extra factor of 2 or 5 does not influence the finiteness of 0s in the fraction, we see that the answer is at most the number of c relatively prime to 10; there are 807 of these such numbers.

For construction, choose $m=10^k-1$, where $m=\prod_{\text{primes p}\le 2017}p$ (excluding $2,5$). We claim that the order of $10\pmod{cm}$ is $ck$. Indeed, note that $k\mid \text{ord}_{cm}10=kx$ (since 10^{ord_{cm}10}-1 is divisible by m, so the order of 10 mod m which is k divides that); we'll prove that $\nu_p(x) =\nu_p(c)$ for all primes $p\mid c$: $$\nu_p(c)+\nu_p(10^k-1) \le \nu_p(10^{kx}-1) = \nu_p(10^k-1) + \nu_p(x) \implies \nu_p(x) \ge \nu_p(c).$$Since $p\mid 10^{kx}-1$, for $kx$ to be the order, equality must hold; in particular, $x=c$, as desired. $\blacksquare$
This post has been edited 6 times. Last edited by huashiliao2020, Sep 3, 2023, 4:31 PM
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awesomeming327.
1698 posts
#24
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We change the definition of $m-$tastic to suit our needs. Call a number $t$ $m-$tastic if $\tfrac{10^t-1}{m}$ is short, and such that $\tfrac{10^k-1}{m}$ is not short for any $1\le k<t$. Clearly, for any $m$, there exists exactly one value of $t$ that works. Let this number be $f(m)$. The value $|S(m)|$ becomes the number of distinct values in $\{f(m),f(2m),\dots,f(2017m)\}$. Note that if a rational number $q$ is short, then $2^a5^bq$ is short for all integers $a$, $b$. Thus, $f(m)=f(2^a5^bm)$ for any $m$ coprime to $10$ and nonnegative integers $a$ and $b$. Thus, if $x$ is not coprime to $10$ then there exists a positive integer $y<x$ such that $f(ym)=f(xm)$, so $f(xm)$ is not a distinct value. Thus, the number of total distinct values is at most the number of positive integers coprime to $10$, at most $2017$, which is $807$.

To prove that $807$ is achievable, we simply have to find a construction for which $f(cm)$ is distinct for all $c$ coprime to $10$. Let $N$ be a number such that for all $p\le 2017$ and $\gcd(p,10)=1$, $p\mid 10^N-1$. Let $N'$ be the result if we divide out all primes not less than $2017$ from $10^N-1$. Suppose $\gcd(c,10)=1$ then we claim that $f(cN')=cN$.

Evidently, $cN'\mid 10^{f(cN')}-1$, since if a rational number's denominator is coprime to $10$ and the rational number is short, then it is an integer. Note that $N\mid f(cN')$. By LTE,
\[\nu_p(10^{f(cN')}-1) = \nu_p(10^N-1)+\nu_p\left(\frac{f(cN')}{N}\right)=\nu_p(N')+\nu_p\left(\frac{f(cN')}{N}\right)\]for all primes $p\le 2017$. This implies that $f(cN')=cN$, so it is distinct.
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john0512
4181 posts
#25
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For this entire solution, assume when a prime $p$ is mentioned, $p\neq 2$ and $p\neq 5$.

The answer is $807$. The problem is asking essentially asking for all values of $m$, find the maximum possible number of distinct orders of 10 mod $cm$ for $c$ from 1 to $2017$.

Factors of 2 and 5 are irrelevant, so we only needed to consider the $807$ values of $c$ that are relatively prime to 10. We claim that there exist $m$ such that the orders of $10$ mod $m$, $3m$, $7m$, $9m$, $11m$, all the way to $2017m$ are all distinct.

Consider $m=2017!^n$ for sufficently large $n$. For any given prime $p$, eventually by LTE the order of 10 mod $p^k$ will just multiply by $p$ each time we increase the exponent. Due to this, if $m$ has sufficently many copies of each prime, for any given $p$ the prime $p$ itself will be the decider of the exponent of $p$ in the LCM of the orders of 10 mod each prime power, since adding factors of other primes will eventually stop increasing the $v_p$ of its order but adding factors of $p$ will keep increasing the $v_p$ of the order. This means, combined with the LTE fact, that the order of $cm$ is just $c$ times the order of $m$, once this happens the multiplier to the order is the same as the multiplier to the modulus.
This post has been edited 1 time. Last edited by john0512, Jan 2, 2024, 4:24 AM
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joshualiu315
2513 posts
#26
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The answer is $\boxed{807}$.

Notice that multiplying factors of $2$ or $5$ to $c$ does not change the fantastic $t$, hence we can assume we are only working with numbers $c$ and $m$ relatively prime to $10$.

Each $c$ can result in at most one $t$. Then, it is clear that

\[|S(m)| \le | \{ 1 \le c \le 2017 \mid \gcd(c, 10) = 1 \}| = 807. \]
To show this bound, we make a claim.


Claim: Let $x$ be the smallest positive integer such that $n=10^x-1$ is divisible by every prime less than or equal to $2017$. The order of $10$ modulo $cn$ is $cx$.

Proof: Pick an arbitrary prime $p \mid c$. If we let the order of $10$ modulo $cn$ be $x'$, we must have $x \mid x'$; by LTE, compute that

\begin{align*}
\nu_p(cn) = \nu_p(c)+\nu_p(n) & \le \nu_p(10^{x'}-1) \\
& = \nu_p(10^{x \cdot (x'/x)}-1) \\
& = \nu_p(10^x-1)+ \nu_p \left(\frac{x'}{x} \right) \\
& = \nu_p(n)+\nu_p(x')-\nu_p(x).
\end{align*}
This implies that

\[\nu_p(x') \ge \nu_p(cx),\]
so we are done. $\square$


At this point, the triples $(cx,c,n)$ are the desired solution set.
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atdaotlohbh
184 posts
#27
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We will use the following obvious lemma without proof:
Lemma: a positive rational number is short iff in the denominator of its irreducible fraction all prime factors are $2$ and $5$

Now note that we don't care about all twos and fives in $c$, so let's delete all of them. Now we have $(c,10)=1$ and $c \leq 2017$. There are exactly $2017-1008-403+201=807$ such numbers, that is our bound.
Now let $MS=\prod_{p \leq 2017, p \neq 2,5} p$ be product of almost all primes not exceeding $2017$. Let $d=ord_{MS} (10)$.
Let $X$ be a super big number.
We will construct $m$ as follows:
$m=MS^X$
Then by LTE we clearly must have $D=ord_{m} (10)=d\prod_{p \leq 2017, p \neq 2,5} p^{X-v_p(10^d-1)}$ and here $v_p(10^D-1)=v_p(m)$ for every prime $p \leq 2017, p\neq 2,5$
And now we just need to check that if we have $c_1 \neq c_2, (c_1,10)=1, (c_2,10)=1$, then $ord_{c_1m} (10) \neq ord_{c_2m} (10)$
It is true because by LTE once again we must have $ord_{c_1m} (10)=Dc_1$ and $ord_{c_2m} (10)=Dc_2$ and this two numbers are different. Done.
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kotmhn
58 posts
#28
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Claim:
$$2017 - \lfloor\frac{2017}{2}\rfloor - \lfloor \frac{2017}{5}\rfloor + \lfloor \frac{2017}{10}\rfloor = 807$$is the desired value.
Clearly this is the best as the $2,5$ exponents in the denominator do not matter.
Construction:
Let $S = \prod_{p \leq 2017}$
Let $M = 10^{T} -1$ where $T = \operatorname{ord}_{S}(10)$. We are omitting all the $c$ divisible by $2,5$ as mentioned earlier, and henceforth
c obeys this condition
\begin{claim}
$\forall c$ the ord of 10 $\pmod{cM}$ is a just $cT$
\end{claim}
\begin{proof}
Let $t$ be the order of $10 \pmod{cM}$ then clearly $T\mid t$ and then taking a prime $p$ that divides $c$ we get
\begin{align*}
  \nu_p(cM) &\leq \nu_p(10^t -1)\\&= \nu_p((10^{T})^{\frac{t}{T}} -1)\\&= \nu_p(10^T - 1) + \nu_p(t) - \nu_p(T)\\ &\iff \nu_p(t) \geq \nu_p(cT)
\end{align*}And this show that the $\operatorname{ord}_{cM}(10) = cT$
\end{proof}
Hence we get $807$ distinct vals and are done.
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megarnie
5587 posts
#29
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Solved a while ago but forgot to post


The answer is $\boxed{807}$.

We can assume that $\gcd(c,10)$ is $1$, because otherwise we get the same value of $t$ if we replace $c$ with $\frac{c}{c^{\nu_2(c)}\cdot c^{\nu_5(c)} }$.

There are \[201\cdot \phi(10) + 3 = 807\]values of $c\le 2017$ that are relatively prime to $10$. Thus, $|S(m)|\le 807$.

We now give a construction for $S(m) = 807$.

Set $m = 10^k - 1$, so that \[\mathrm{lcm}(1,3,7,9,11,13,17,19,\ldots, 2013,2017)\mid m\]
Notice that if $\frac{10^t - 1}{cm}$ is short, then it is an integer because $\gcd(cm,10) = 1$. Thus $S(m)$ is the set of all $\mathrm{ord}_{cm}(10)$ as $c$ varies.

Claim: For $c\le 2017$ relatively prime to $10$, $\mathrm{ord}_{cm}(10) = ck$.
Proof: It's clear that this order must be a multiple of $k$ because \[\mathrm{ord}_m{10} = k\]Now suppose the order is $a\cdot k$. Then $cm\mid 10^{ak} - 1$.

Now for any prime $p\le 2017$, we have \[\nu_p(cm) \le \nu_p(m) + \nu_p(a),\]by LTE, which implies $\nu_p(c) = \nu_p(a)$. Since $c$ only has prime factors $\le 2017$, we have $c\mid a$. It remains to show that \[cm\mid 10^{ck} - 1\]

Again for any prime $p\le 2017$, we have $\nu_p(cm) = \nu_p(10^{ck} - 1)$. Note that $m = 10^k - 1\mid 10^{ck} - 1,$ so any prime factor greater than $2017$ dividing $cm$ also divides $10^{ck} - 1$.

Let $q>2017$ be a prime number dividing $10^{ck} -1 $. We have \[\nu_q(10^{ck} - 1) = \nu_q(m) + \nu_q(c) = \nu_q(cm),\]as desired. Thus for any prime $p\mid cm$, we have $\nu_p(cm) = \nu_p(10^{ck} - 1)$, so \[cm\mid 10^{ck} - 1 \ \ \ \square \]
Now we get $S(m)$ is the set of all $ck$, for $c\le 2017$ relatively prime to $10$, which implies $|S(m)| = 807$.
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kotmhn
58 posts
#30
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The answer is 807.

First obs that for any $c$ which is not coprime to $10$ the value of $t$ that satisfies is the same as the value of $t$ for $\frac{c}{2^{\nu_{2}(c)} \cdot 5^{\nu_2(c)}}$.

So we can have at most
$$ 2017-\left\lfloor\frac{2017}{2}\right\rfloor-\left\lfloor\frac{2017}{5}\right\rfloor+\left\lfloor\frac{2017}{10}\right\rfloor=807 $$elements in $S$.

Construction:
Let $t_i$ be the minimum value for each $i$.
Let $s = \prod_{p\le 2017, (p,10) = 1} p$ and let $t_1 = ord_s(10)$ and take $m = 10^{t_1} -1$
Then we have
\begin{align*} \nu_p(c) +\nu_p(m) &\le \nu_p(10^{t_c} -1) \\ &=\nu_p((10^{t_1})^{\frac{t_c}{t_1}} -1) \\ &=\nu_p(10^{t_1} -1) + \nu_p(\frac{t_c}{t_1}) \\ &\therefore \nu_p(c) \le \nu_p(\frac{t_c}{t_1}) \\ &\implies  \nu_p(ct_1) \le \nu_p(t_c) \end{align*}
This shows that all successive $t_c$ are larger (it is precisely $c\cdot t_1$) hence $|S| = 807$, here the $LTE$ was possible as $t_1 \mid t_c$ due to orders, and $ p \mid 10^{t_1} -1$ due to the construction.

Remark: this was motivated by the conditions $t_1 \mid t_c$ and that
\begin{align*} & \nu_p(cm) \le \nu_p(10^{t_c} -1) \\ & \nu_p(m) \le \nu_p(10^{t_1} -1) \end{align*}So i wanted to use the divisibility and putting $t_c$ divisible by $t_1$ motivated $LTE$, and finally the value of $m$ was taken to be $10^{t-1} -1$ for the cancellation in the ineq. Also the prod of prime idea was for the $LTE$ to work out.
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cursed_tangent1434
595 posts
#31
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We claim that the answer is $\boxed{807}$ which is the number of positive integers less than 2017 which are relatively prime to 10. We first make two simple observations.

Say there exists a pair of positive integers $t$ and $s$ such that $(t,c,m)$ and $(s,c,m)$ are both fantastic. Say $t<s$. But then, $\frac{10^t-1}{cm}$ and $\frac{10^s-1}{cm}$ are both short which is a violation to the fact that $(t,c,m)$ is fantastic. Hence, for a fixed $m$ each distinct $t$ must have a distinct positive integer $c$ which makes $(t,c,m)$ (if one exists) from all other positive integers.

Further, say $t$ and $s$ have some common positive integer $c$ for which $\gcd(c,10)=1$ such that $(t,2^a\cdot 5^b \cdot c,m)$ and $(s,2^c\cdot 5^d\cdot c,m)$ for any non-negative integers $a,b,c,d$ are both fantastic. It is well known that a rational number is short if and only if its denominator has only factors of 2 and 5 when written in simplest form. Thus, adding factors of 2 or 5 to the denominator does not change the short-ness of a rational number.

This means, $\frac{10^t-1}{2^a5^bcm}$ is short if and only if $\frac{10^t-1}{cm}$ is short. A similar result holds for $s$. Thus, we have that both $\frac{10^t-1}{cm}$ and $\frac{10^s-1}{cm}$ are short which if $t<s$ is a contradiction to the fact that $(s,2^c\cdot 5^d \cdot c,m)$ is fantastic.

This means, the maximum possible value for $|S(m)|$ is the number of positive integers less than 2017 which are relatively prime to 10 since all integers of the form $2^a\cdot 5^b c$ for $\gcd(c,10)=1$ and non-negative integers $a$ and $b$ are in a sense in the 'same class'.

We now show that this maximum is indeed attainable, and to do this, we show that when $m=1$, there exists a distinct positive integer $t_c$ for which $(t_c,c,1)$ is fantastic for all $c$ such that $\gcd(c,10)=1$.

Let $p_1,p_2,\dots , p_r$ be the set of all primes excluding $2$ and $5$ at most 2017. Let $x = \text{ord}_{p_1p_2\dots p_r}(10)$ and let $m=10^x-1$. Now, say there exists a pair of positive integers $1 \le i \ne j \le 2017$ such that $\text{ord}_{im}(10)=\text{ord}_{jm}(10)=xy$ for some positive integer $y$. There must exist some prime $p \in \{p_1,p_2,\dots , p_r\}$ such that $\nu_p(i) \ne \nu_p(j)$. WLOG, we assume $\nu_p(i) > \nu_p(j)$. But now, by the Lifting the Exponent Lemma,
\[\nu_p(10^{xy}-1)=\nu_p(10^x-1)+\nu_p(y) \ge \nu_p(im) = \nu_p(i)+\nu_p(m)\]Since $m=10^x-1$ this implies that $\nu_p(y) \ge \nu_p(i) > \nu_p(j) \ge 0$. However, consider $z= \frac{xy}{p}$. Since $p_k \mid 10^x-1$ for all $1 \le k \le r$ by Lifting the Exponent Lemma we have,
\[\nu_{p_k}(10^z-1)= \nu_{p_k}(10^x-1)+\nu_{p_k}\left(\frac{y}{p}\right) = \nu_{p_k}(10^x-1)+\nu_{p_k}(y) = \nu_{p_k}(10^{xy}-1) \ge \nu_{p_k}(jm)\]for all $p_k \ne p$. Further,
\[\nu_p(10^z-1)=\nu_p(10^x-1)+\nu_p\left(\frac{y}{p}\right) = \nu_p(10^x-1)+\nu_p(y)-1 = \nu_p(10^{xy}-1)-1 \ge \nu_p(im)-1\ge \nu_p(jm)\]since $\nu_p(i)>\nu_p(j)$. But this means that $\text{ord}_{jm}(10) \le z < xy$ which is a clear contradiction. Thus, there cannot exist such positive integers $i$ and $j$ implying that $\text{ord}_{cm}(10)$ is distinct for each distinct value of $c$ for this choice of $m$ as desired.
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