1973 AHSME Problems/Problem 21

Problem

The number of sets of two or more consecutive positive integers whose sum is 100 is

$\textbf{(A)}\ 1 \qquad \textbf{(B)}\ 2 \qquad \textbf{(C)}\ 3 \qquad \textbf{(D)}\ 4 \qquad \textbf{(E)}\ 5$

Solution

If the first number of a group of $n$ consecutive numbers is $a$ , the $n^\text{th}$ number is $a+n-1$ . We know that the sum of the group of numbers is $100$ , so $\frac{n(2a+n-1)}{2} = 100$ $2a+n-1=\frac{200}{n}$ $2a = 1-n + \frac{200}{n}$ We know that $n$ and $a$ are positive integers, so we check values of $n$ that are a factor of $200$ . Of these values, the only ones that result in a positive integer $a$ is when $n = 5$ or when $n = 8$ , so there are $\boxed{\textbf{(B)}\ 2}$ sets of two or more consecutive positive integers whose sum is $100$ .

1973 AHSME (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 20	Followed by Problem 22
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1973 AHSME Problems/Problem 21

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