2022 AMC 10B Problems/Problem 9
Contents
Problem
The sum
can be expressed as
, where
and
are positive integers. What is
?
Solution 1
Note that , and therefore this sum is a telescoping sum, which is equivalent to
. Our answer is
.
~mathboy100
Solution 2
We add to the original expression
This sum clearly telescopes, thus we end up with
. Thus the original expression is equal to
, and
.
~not_slay (+ minor LaTeX edit ~TaeKim)
Solution 3 (Induction)
By looking for a pattern, we see that and
, so we can conclude by engineer's induction that the sum in the problem is equal to
, for an answer of
. This can be proven with actual induction as well; we have already established
base cases, so now assume that
for
. For
we get
, completing the proof.
~eibc
Solution 4
Let
Note that
Therefore, the answer is
~lopkiloinm
Solution 5 (Combinatorics)
Suppose you are picking a permutation of distinct elements. Suppose that the correct order of the permutation is
We want to find the probability of picking the permutation in the wrong order.
Suppose that we have picked everything to the correct order except our last elements. That is we have
We want pick the next element such that it does not equal to
. There are
ways to choose that, so we add
to the probability.
Suppose that we have picked everything to the correct order except our last elements. That is we have
We want pick the next element such that it does not equal to
. There are
ways to choose that, so we add
to the probability.
This series ends up being the probability of making a permutation in the wrong order and that is of course
~lopkiloinm
Solution 6 (Desperate)
Because the fractions get smaller, it is obvious that the answer is less than , so we can safely assume that
(this can also be guessed by intuition using similar math problems). Looking at the answer choices,
. Because the last term consists of
(and the year is
) we can guess that
. Adding them yields
.
~iluvme and andy_lee
Solution 7 (Partial Fractions)
Knowing that the answer will be in the form , we can guess that the sum telescopes. Using partial fractions, we can hope to rewrite
as
. Setting these equal and multiplying by
, we get
. Since
is the only term with
with degree
, we can conclude that
. This means that
. Substituting, we find that
. This sum clearly telescopes and we obtain
. This means that our desired answer is
Video Solution
by Ismail.maths https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lt34QscjTf4&list=PLmpPPbOoDfgj5BlPtEAGcB7BR_UA5FgFj
- Whiz
See Also
2022 AMC 10B (Problems • Answer Key • Resources) | ||
Preceded by Problem 8 |
Followed by Problem 10 | |
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 |
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