2020 AMC 10A Problems/Problem 22
Contents
Problem
For how many positive integers isnot divisible by ? (Recall that is the greatest integer less than or equal to .)
Solution 1 (Casework)
Expression:
Solution:
Let
Since , for any integer , the difference between the largest and smallest terms before the function is applied is less than or equal to , and thus the terms must have a range of or less after the function is applied.
This means that for every integer ,
if is an integer and , then the three terms in the expression above must be ,
if is an integer because , then will be an integer and will be greater than ; thus the three terms in the expression must be ,
if is an integer, then the three terms in the expression above must be ,
if is an integer, then the three terms in the expression above must be , and
if none of are integral, then the three terms in the expression above must be .
The last statement is true because in order for the terms to be different, there must be some integer in the interval or the interval . However, this means that multiplying the integer by should produce a new integer between and or and , exclusive, but because no such integers exist, the terms cannot be different, and thus, must be equal.
Note that does not work; to prove this, we just have to substitute for in the expression.
This gives us
which is divisible by 3.
Now, we test the five cases listed above (where )
Case 1: divides and
As mentioned above, the three terms in the expression are , so the sum is , which is divisible by . Therefore, the first case does not work (0 cases).
Case 2: divides and
As mentioned above, in this case the terms must be , which means the sum is , so the expression is not divisible by . Therefore, this is 1 case that works.
Case 3: divides
Because divides , the number of possibilities for is the same as the number of factors of .
= . So, the total number of factors of is .
However, we have to subtract , because the case does not work, as mentioned previously. This leaves 7 cases.
Case 4: divides
Because divides , the number of possibilities for is the same as the number of factors of .
= . So, the total number of factors of is .
Again, we have to subtract , so this leaves cases. We have also overcounted the factor , as it has been counted as a factor of and as a separate case (Case 2). , so there are actually 14 valid cases.
Case 5: divides none of
Similar to Case 1, the value of the terms of the expression are . The sum is , which is divisible by 3, so this case does not work (0 cases).
Now that we have counted all of the cases, we add them.
, so the answer is .
~dragonchomper, additional edits by emerald_block
Solution 2 (Solution 1 but simpler)
Note that this solution does not count a majority of cases that are important to consider in similar problems, though they are not needed for this problem, and therefore it may not work with other, similar problems.
Notice that you only need to count the number of factors of and , excluding .
has factors, and has .
Adding them gives you , but you need to subtract since does not work.
Therefore, the answer is .
-happykeeper, additional edits by dragonchomper, even more edits by ericshi1685
Solution 3 - Solution 1 but much simpler
NOTE: For this problem, whenever I say , I will be referring to all the factors of the number except for .
Now, quickly observe that if divides , then and will also round down to , giving us a sum of , which does not work for the question. However, if divides , we see that and . This gives us a sum of , which is clearly not divisible by . Using the same logic, we can deduce that too works (for our problem). Thus, we need the factors of and and we don't have to eliminate any because the . But we have to be careful! See that when , then our problem doesn't get fulfilled. The only that satisfies that is . So, we have: ; . Adding them up gives a total of workable 's.
Solution 4
First, we notice the following lemma:
: For , if ; and if
: Let , with . If , then . Hence , , and
If , then . Hence , , and
From the lemma and the given equation, we have four possible cases:
Note that cases (2) and (3) are the cases in which the term, is not divisible by . So we only need to count the number of n's for which cases (2) and (3) stand.
Case (2): By the lemma, we have and Hence can be any factor of except for . Since there are possible values of for this case.
Case (3): By the lemma, we have and Hence can be any factor of except for . Since there are possible values of for this case.
So in total, we have total of possible 's.
~mathboywannabe
Video Solution
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ej9nnHS07s
~Snore
Video Solution
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5UVS5aM-CY&list=PLLCzevlMcsWNcTZEaxHe8VaccrhubDOlQ&index=4 ~ MathEx
See Also
2020 AMC 10A (Problems • Answer Key • Resources) | ||
Preceded by Problem 21 |
Followed by Problem 23 | |
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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