2012 UNCO Math Contest II Problems/Problem 9

Problem

Treasure Chest . You have a long row of boxes. The 1st box contains no coin. The next $2$ boxes each contain $1$ coin. The next $4$ boxes each contain $2$ coins. The next $8$ boxes each contain $3$ coins. And so on, so that there are $2^N$ boxes containing exactly $N$ coins.

(a) If you combine the coins from all the boxes that contain $1, 2, 3$ , or $4$ coins you get $98$ coins. How many coins do you get when you combine the coins from all the boxes that contain $1, 2, 3,\ldots,$ or $N$ coins? Give a closed formula in terms of $N$ . That is, give a formula that does not use ellipsis $(\ldots)$ or summation notation.

(b) Combine the coins from the first $K$ boxes. What is the smallest value of $K$ for which the total number of coins exceeds $20120$ ? (Remember to count the first box.)

Solution

(a) ${N-1}2^{N+1}+2$ (b) $2201$

2012 UNCO Math Contest II (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 8	Followed by Problem 10
1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10
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2012 UNCO Math Contest II Problems/Problem 9

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