1959 AHSME Problems/Problem 37

Problem 37

When simplified the product $\left(1-\frac13\right)\left(1-\frac14\right)\left(1-\frac15\right)\cdots\left(1-\frac1n\right)$ becomes: $\textbf{(A)}\ \frac1n \qquad\textbf{(B)}\ \frac2n\qquad\textbf{(C)}\ \frac{2(n-1)}{n}\qquad\textbf{(D)}\ \frac{2}{n(n+1)}\qquad\textbf{(E)}\ \frac{3}{n(n+1)}$

Solution

The product $\left(1-\frac13\right)\left(1-\frac14\right)\left(1-\frac15\right)\cdots\left(1-\frac1n\right)$ can be simplified to $\frac{2*3*4\cdots*(n-2)*(n-1)}{3*4*5\cdots*(n-1)*n}$ , which ultimately works out to $\textbf{(B)} \frac{2}{n}$

1959 AHSC (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 36	Followed by Problem 38
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 • 26 • 27 • 28 • 29 • 30 • 31 • 32 • 33 • 34 • 35 • 36 • 37 • 38 • 39 • 40 • 41 • 42 • 43 • 44 • 45 • 46 • 47 • 48 • 49 • 50
All AHSME Problems and Solutions

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

Page

Toolbox

Search

1959 AHSME Problems/Problem 37

Problem 37

Solution

See also