Difference between revisions of "2016 AMC 10B Problems/Problem 25"

(Solution)
(See Also)
Line 34: Line 34:
 
{{AMC10 box|year=2016|ab=B|num-b=24|after=Last Problem}}
 
{{AMC10 box|year=2016|ab=B|num-b=24|after=Last Problem}}
 
{{MAA Notice}}
 
{{MAA Notice}}
 +
 +
 +
Solution 2
 +
Also seeing f(X) is periodic with a period of 1, you can list out 1+2+3…+9
 +
+1 = 46 fractions. Of these, in each interval of 5, 3 fractions are repeated so 46 - 3(5) = 32 which is option A

Revision as of 09:57, 27 March 2020

Problem

Let $f(x)=\sum_{k=2}^{10}(\lfloor kx \rfloor -k \lfloor x \rfloor)$, where $\lfloor r \rfloor$ denotes the greatest integer less than or equal to $r$. How many distinct values does $f(x)$ assume for $x \ge 0$?

$\textbf{(A)}\ 32\qquad\textbf{(B)}\ 36\qquad\textbf{(C)}\ 45\qquad\textbf{(D)}\ 46\qquad\textbf{(E)}\ \text{infinitely many}$

Solution

Since $x = \lfloor x \rfloor + \{ x \}$, we have

\[f(x) = \sum_{k=2}^{10} (\lfloor k \lfloor x \rfloor +k \{ x \} \rfloor - k \lfloor x \rfloor)\]

The function can then be simplified into

\[f(x) = \sum_{k=2}^{10} ( k \lfloor x \rfloor + \lfloor k \{ x \} \rfloor - k \lfloor x \rfloor)\]

which becomes

\[f(x) = \sum_{k=2}^{10} \lfloor k \{ x \} \rfloor\]

We can see that for each value of $k$, $\lfloor k \{ x \} \rfloor$ can equal integers from $0$ to $k-1$.

Clearly, the value of $\lfloor k \{ x \} \rfloor$ changes only when $x$ is equal to any of the fractions $\frac{1}{k}, \frac{2}{k} \dots \frac{k-1}{k}$.

So we want to count how many distinct fractions less than $1$ have the form $\frac{m}{n}$ where $n \le 10$. We can find this easily by computing

\[\sum_{k=2}^{10} \phi(k)\]

where $\phi(k)$ is the Euler Totient Function. Basically $\phi(k)$ counts the number of fractions with $k$ as its denominator (after simplification). This comes out to be $31$.

Because the value of $f(x)$ is at least $0$ and can increase $31$ times, there are a total of $\fbox{\textbf{(A)}\ 32}$ different possible values of $f(x)$.

See Also

2016 AMC 10B (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

The problems on this page are copyrighted by the Mathematical Association of America's American Mathematics Competitions. AMC logo.png


Solution 2 Also seeing f(X) is periodic with a period of 1, you can list out 1+2+3…+9 +1 = 46 fractions. Of these, in each interval of 5, 3 fractions are repeated so 46 - 3(5) = 32 which is option A