2014 AMC 12A Problems/Problem 19

Problem

There are exactly $N$ distinct rational numbers $k$ such that $|k|<200$ and $5x^2+kx+12=0$ has at least one integer solution for $x$ . What is $N$ ?

$\textbf{(A) }6\qquad \textbf{(B) }12\qquad \textbf{(C) }24\qquad \textbf{(D) }48\qquad \textbf{(E) }78\qquad$

Solution

Factor the quadratic into $\left(5x + \frac{12}{n}\right)\left(x + n\right) = 0$ where $-n$ is our integer solution. Then, $k = \frac{12}{n} + 5n,$ which takes rational values between $-200$ and $200$ when $|n| \leq 39$ , excluding $n = 0$ . This leads to an answer of $2 \cdot 39 = \boxed{\textbf{(E) } 78}$ .

2014 AMC 12A (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 18	Followed by Problem 20
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All AMC 12 Problems and Solutions

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2014 AMC 12A Problems/Problem 19

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