1995 AIME Problems/Problem 2

Problem

Find the last three digits of the product of the positive roots of $\sqrt{1995}x^{\log_{1995}x}=x^2$ .

Solution 1

Taking the $\log_{1995}$ (logarithm) of both sides and then moving to one side yields the quadratic equation $2(\log_{1995}x)^2 - 4(\log_{1995}x) + 1 = 0$ . Applying the quadratic formula yields that $\log_{1995}x = 1 \pm \frac{\sqrt{2}}{2}$ . Thus, the product of the two roots (both of which are positive) is $1995^{1+\sqrt{2}/2} \cdot 1995^{1 - \sqrt{2}/2} = 1995^2$ , making the solution $(2000-5)^2 \equiv \boxed{025} \pmod{1000}$ .

Solution 2

Instead of taking $\log_{1995}$ , we take $\log_x$ of both sides and simplify:

$\log_x(\sqrt{1995}x^{\log_{1995}x})=\log_x(x^{2})$

$\log_x\sqrt{1995}+\log_x x^{\log_{1995}x}=2$

$\dfrac{1}{2} \log_x 1995 + \log_{1995} x = 2$

We know that $\log_x 1995$ and $\log_{1995} x$ are reciprocals, so let $a=\log_{1995} x$ . Then we have $\dfrac{1}{2}\left(\dfrac{1}{a}\right) + a = 2$ . Multiplying by $2a$ and simplifying gives us $2a^2-4a+1=0$ , as shown above.

Because $a=\log_{1995} x$ , $x=1995^a$ . By the quadratic formula, the two roots of our equation are $a=\frac{2\pm\sqrt2}{2}$ . This means our two roots in terms of $x$ are $1995^\frac{2+\sqrt2}{2}$ and $1995^\frac{2-\sqrt2}{2}.$ Multiplying these gives $1995^2$

$1995^2\pmod{1000}\equiv 995^2\pmod{1000}\equiv (-5)^2\pmod{1000}\equiv 25\pmod{1000}$ , so our answer is $\boxed{025}$ .

1995 AIME (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 1	Followed by Problem 3
1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15
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1995 AIME Problems/Problem 2

Contents

Problem

Solution 1

Solution 2

See also