Difference between revisions of "1990 AIME Problems/Problem 1"

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The [[increasing sequence]] <math>2,3,5,6,7,10,11,\ldots</math> consists of all [[positive integer]]s that are neither the [[perfect square | square]] nor the [[perfect cube | cube]] of a positive integer. Find the 500th term of this sequence.
 
The [[increasing sequence]] <math>2,3,5,6,7,10,11,\ldots</math> consists of all [[positive integer]]s that are neither the [[perfect square | square]] nor the [[perfect cube | cube]] of a positive integer. Find the 500th term of this sequence.
  
== Solution ==
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== Solution 1==
Because there aren't that many perfect squares or cubes, let's look for the smallest perfect square greater than <math>500</math>. This happens to be <math>23^2=529</math>. Notice that there are <math>23</math> squares and <math>8</math> cubes less than or equal to <math>529</math>, but <math>1</math> and <math>2^6</math> are both squares and cubes. Thus, there are <math>529-23-8+2=500</math> numbers in our sequence less than <math>529</math>.  Magically, we want the <math>500th</math> term, so our answer is the smallest non-square and non-cube less than <math>529</math>, which is <math>\boxed{528}</math>.
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Because there aren't that many perfect squares or cubes, let's look for the smallest perfect square greater than <math>500</math>. This happens to be <math>23^2=529</math>. Notice that there are <math>23</math> squares and <math>8</math> cubes less than or equal to <math>529</math>, but <math>1</math> and <math>2^6</math> are both squares and cubes. Thus, there are <math>529-23-8+2=500</math> numbers in our sequence less than <math>529</math>.  Magically, we want the <math>500th</math> term, so our answer is the biggest non-square and non-cube less than <math>529</math>, which is <math>\boxed{528}</math>.
  
 
== Solution 2==
 
== Solution 2==

Revision as of 17:24, 14 January 2023

Problem

The increasing sequence $2,3,5,6,7,10,11,\ldots$ consists of all positive integers that are neither the square nor the cube of a positive integer. Find the 500th term of this sequence.

Solution 1

Because there aren't that many perfect squares or cubes, let's look for the smallest perfect square greater than $500$. This happens to be $23^2=529$. Notice that there are $23$ squares and $8$ cubes less than or equal to $529$, but $1$ and $2^6$ are both squares and cubes. Thus, there are $529-23-8+2=500$ numbers in our sequence less than $529$. Magically, we want the $500th$ term, so our answer is the biggest non-square and non-cube less than $529$, which is $\boxed{528}$.

Solution 2

similar as above, but to get the intuition why we chose to consider 23^2 = 529 , consider this

we need n - T = 500, where n = #integers in the list 1,2,..,n and T is the set of numbers which are either k^2 or k^3 and <=n firstly, we clearly need n > 500 so we think of taking the smallest square greater than 500 and let that be equal to n( u could try letting n = 512 = 8^3 to with similiar logic, but quickly realise that it fails). This is done so that set T is easy to calculate so n = 529, set T = 23+8-2 by PIE hence n-T = 500 so our answer is 529-1 = 528

See also

1990 AIME (ProblemsAnswer KeyResources)
Preceded by
First Question
Followed by
Problem 2
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
All AIME Problems and Solutions

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