# Difference between revisions of "2011 AMC 12A Problems/Problem 19"

## Problem

At a competition with $N$ players, the number of players given elite status is equal to $2^{1+\lfloor \log_{2} (N-1) \rfloor}-N$. Suppose that $19$ players are given elite status. What is the sum of the two smallest possible values of $N$?

$\textbf{(A)}\ 38 \qquad \textbf{(B)}\ 90 \qquad \textbf{(C)}\ 154 \qquad \textbf{(D)}\ 406 \qquad \textbf{(E)}\ 1024$

## Solution 1

We start with $2^{1+\lfloor\log_{2}(N-1)\rfloor}-N = 19$. After rearranging, we get $\lfloor\log_{2}(N-1)\rfloor = \log_{2} \left(\frac{N+19}{2}\right)$.

Since $\lfloor\log_{2}(N-1)\rfloor$ is a positive integer, $\frac{N+19}{2}$ must be in the form of $2^{m}$ for some positive integer $m$. From this fact, we get $N=2^{m+1}-19$.

If we now check integer values of N that satisfy this condition, starting from $N=19$, we quickly see that the first values that work for $N$ are $2^6 -19$ and $2^7 -19$, giving values of $5$ and $6$ for $m$, respectively. Adding up these two values for $N$, we get $45 + 109 = 154 \rightarrow \boxed{\textbf{C}}$

## Solution 2

We examine the value that $2^{1+\lfloor\log_{2}(N-1)\rfloor}$ takes over various intervals. The $\lfloor\log_{2}(N-1)\rfloor$ means it changes on each multiple of 2, like so:

2 --> 1

3 - 4 --> 2

5 - 8 --> 3

9 - 16 --> 4

From this, we see that $2^{1+\lfloor\log_{2}(N-1)\rfloor} - N$ is the difference between the next power of 2 above $2^{\lfloor\log_{2}(N-1)\rfloor}$ and $N$. We are looking for $N$ such that this difference is 19. The first two $N$ that satisfy this are $45 = 64-19$ and $109=128-19$ for a final answer of $45 + 109 = 154 \rightarrow \boxed{\textbf{C}}$

 2011 AMC 12A (Problems • Answer Key • Resources) Preceded byProblem 18 Followed byProblem 20 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 12 Problems and Solutions