2014 AMC 10A Problems/Problem 25

The following problem is from both the 2014 AMC 12A #22 and 2014 AMC 10A #25, so both problems redirect to this page.

Problem

The number $5^{867}$ is between $2^{2013}$ and $2^{2014}$. How many pairs of integers $(m,n)$ are there such that $1\leq m\leq 2012$ and \[5^n<2^m<2^{m+2}<5^{n+1}?\]

$\textbf{(A) }278\qquad \textbf{(B) }279\qquad \textbf{(C) }280\qquad \textbf{(D) }281\qquad \textbf{(E) }282\qquad$

Solution 1

Between any two consecutive powers of $5$ there are either $2$ or $3$ powers of $2$ (because $2^2<5^1<2^3$). Consider the intervals $(5^0,5^1),(5^1,5^2),\dots (5^{866},5^{867})$. We want the number of intervals with $3$ powers of $2$.

From the given that $2^{2013}<5^{867}<2^{2014}$, we know that these $867$ intervals together have $2013$ powers of $2$. Let $x$ of them have $2$ powers of $2$ and $y$ of them have $3$ powers of $2$. Thus we have the system \[x+y=867\]\[2x+3y=2013\] from which we get $y=279$, so the answer is $\boxed{\textbf{(B)}}$.

Solution 2

The problem is asking for between how many consecutive powers of $5$ are there $3$ power of $2$s

There can be either $2$ or $3$ powers of $2$ between any two consecutive powers of $5$, $5^n$ and $5^{n+1}$.

The first power of $2$ is between $5^n$ and $2 \cdot 5^n$.

The second power of $2$ is between $2 \cdot 5^n$ and $4 \cdot 5^n$.

The third power of $2$ is between $4 \cdot 5^n$ and $8 \cdot 5^n$, meaning that it can be between $5^n$ and $5^{n+1}$ or not.

If there are only $2$ power of $2$s between every consecutive powers of $5$ up to $5^{867}$, there would be $867\cdot 2 = 1734$ power of $2$s. However, there are $2013$ powers of $2$ before $5^{867}$, meaning the answer is $2013 - 1734 = \boxed{\textbf{(B)}279}$.

~isabelchen

Video Solution by Richard Rusczyk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRJvUMsZtl4&t=4s

See Also

2014 AMC 10A (ProblemsAnswer KeyResources)
Preceded by
Problem 24
Followed by
Last Problem
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
All AMC 10 Problems and Solutions
2014 AMC 12A (ProblemsAnswer KeyResources)
Preceded by
Problem 21
Followed by
Problem 23
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
All AMC 12 Problems and Solutions

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