2020 AMC 8 Problems/Problem 12

Problem

For a positive integer $n$ , the factorial notation $n!$ represents the product of the integers from $n$ to $1$ . What value of $N$ satisfies the following equation? $5!\cdot 9!=12\cdot N!$

$\textbf{(A) }10\qquad\textbf{(B) }11\qquad\textbf{(C) }12\qquad\textbf{(D) }13\qquad\textbf{(E) }14\qquad$

Solution 1

We have $5! = 2 \cdot 3 \cdot 4 \cdot 5$ , and $2 \cdot 5 \cdot 9! = 10 \cdot 9! = 10!$ . Therefore the equation becomes $3 \cdot 4 \cdot 10! = 12 \cdot N!$ , and so $12 \cdot 10! = 12 \cdot N!$ . Cancelling the $12$ s, it is clear that $N=\boxed{\textbf{(A) }10}$ .

Solution 2 (variant of Solution 1)

Since $5! = 120$ , we obtain $120\cdot 9!=12\cdot N!$ , which becomes $12\cdot 10\cdot 9!=12\cdot N!$ and thus $12 \cdot 10!=12\cdot N!$ . We therefore deduce $N=\boxed{\textbf{(A) }10}$ .

Solution 3 (using answer choices)

We can see that the answers $\textbf{(B)}$ to $\textbf{(E)}$ contain a factor of $11$ , but there is no such factor of $11$ in $5! \cdot 9!$ . Therefore, the answer must be $\boxed{\textbf{(A) }10}$ .

Video Solution

https://youtu.be/xjwDsaRE_Wo

2020 AMC 8 (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 11	Followed by Problem 13
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 AJHSME/AMC 8 Problems and Solutions

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

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