Suppose that a palindrome
is the sum of the three consecutive integers , , .
In this case, , so is
a multiple of .
The largest palindromes less than are , , .
Note that and are not divisible by , but is divisible by . We can easily check this using the
divisibility by test. For each of
these integers, the sum of their digits is , and , respectively. Only is divisible by and so is the only one that is divisible by
.
The integer can be written
as , so is the largest palindrome less than
that is the sum of three
consecutive integers.
Suppose that has digits
. Then . The average of the digits of
is . Putting a decimal point
between the digits of is
equivalent to dividing by , so the resulting number is .
So we want to determine and
so that Since and are digits such that , we have and is the only possibility. Therefore, . (We can quickly check that the
average of the digits of is , the number obtained by putting a
decimal point between the digits of .)
Solution 1
The integer equal to
consists of the digit followed by
s. The integer equal to thus consists of s.
Now, is less than which is the integer that
consists of s.
So ,
where this integer has s.
Therefore, the sum of the digits of is .
Solution 2
Since
and (where
this integer has 18 9s), we have , where this integer has s.
Therefore, the sum of the digits of is .
The parity of an integer is whether it is even or
odd.
Since the Fibonacci sequence begins , it follows that the parities of the
first eight terms are Odd, Odd, Even, Odd, Odd, Even, Odd, Odd.
In the sequence, if and are consecutive terms, then the next
term is .
In general, suppose that and
are integers. If is even and is even, then is even. If is even and is odd, then is odd. If is odd and is even, then is odd. If is odd and is odd, then is even. Therefore, the parities of
two consecutive terms and in the Fibonacci sequence determine the
parity of the following term .
Also, once there are two consecutive terms whose parities match the
parities of two earlier consecutive terms in the sequence, then the
parities will repeat in a cycle. In particular, the parities of the
fourth and fifth terms (Odd, Odd) are the same as the parities of the
first and second terms (Odd, Odd). Therefore, the parities in the
sequence repeat the cycle Odd, Odd, Even. This cycle has length . Therefore, the 99th term in the
Fibonacci sequence ends one of these cycles, since is a multiple of . In particular, the 99th term ends the
33rd cycle.
Each cycle contains two odd terms. Therefore, the first terms in the sequence include odd terms.
Finally, the 100th term in the sequence begins a new cycle, so it is
odd. Therefore, the first terms
include odd terms.
Since and , we have .
The positive divisors of are
those integers of the form , where each of is ,
or .
For to be a perfect square,
the exponent on each prime factor in the prime factorization of must be even. Thus, for to be a perfect square, each of must be or .
There are two possibilities for each of so possibilities for .
These are , , , , , , , and .
Thus, of the positive divisors
of are perfect
squares.
Since each list contains
consecutive positive integers and the smallest integers in the lists are
and , it follows that the positive integers
in the first list are and the positive
integers in the second list are . Note that .
We first determine the pairs for which will appear in the third list, then
determine which of these pairs give a third list that contains no
multiple of , and then finally
keep only those pairs for which there is a number in the third list
larger than .
The first bullet tells us that is the product of an integer in the
first list and an integer in the second list.
Since and is prime, it follows that these
integers are either and or and .
If is in one of the lists,
then either or . Since , it must be that .
If is in the second list,
then one of
equals , and so .
Therefore, for and to appear in the two lists, then must be one of
If appears in the first list,
then one of
equals , so . Similarly, if appears in the second list, then .
Therefore, for to appear in
both lists, then, knowing that , then must be one
of
, , , , , , , , , , , , , , .
The second bullet tells us that no pair of numbers in the first and
second lists have a product that is a multiple of .
Given that the possible values of and are , , , , , , , , , , , , , then the possible integers in the two
lists are those integers from to
, inclusive, and from to , inclusive. (For example, if the first
number in one list is , then the
remaining numbers in this list are , , , , .)
There is no multiple of or
in these lists.
Thus, for a pair of integers from these lists to have a product that
is a multiple of , one is a
multiple of and the other is a
multiple of , or both are
multiples of .
If , then appears in the first list and appears in the second list; these have
a product of , which is .
If , there is a
multiple of but not of in the first list, and a multiple of
but not of in the second list, so there is no
multiple of in the third
list.
If ,
then appears in both lists, so
appears in the third list.
If , then there is no multiple of
or in the first list and no multiple of
in the second list, so there is
no multiple of in the third
list.
Therefore, after considering the first two bullets, the possible
pairs are .
The third bullet tells us that there is at least one number in the
third list that is larger than .
Given the possible pairs
are , the
corresponding pairs of largest integers in the lists are .
The corresponding largest integers in the third list are the products
of the largest integers in the two lists; these products are , , , , , , respectively.
Therefore, the remaining pairs are .
Having considered the three conditions, the possible pairs are .
First, we determine the perfect squares between and and between and . Since , the first
perfect square larger than is
. The next perfect
squares are and .
Since Charles was born between 1300 and 1400 in a year that was a
perfect square, Charles must have been born in 1369.
Since Louis was born between 1400 and 1500 in a year that was a
perfect square, Louis must have been born in 1444.
Suppose that on April 7 in some year, Charles was years old and Louis was years old for some positive integers
and . Thus, Charles was years old in the year and Louis was years old in the year .
Since these expressions represent the same years, we have that , or . In other words,
we want to find two perfect squares less than (since their ages are less than ) whose difference is .
The perfect squares less than are . The two that
differ by are and . Thus, and .
This means that the year in which the age of each of Charles and
Louis was a perfect square was the year .
Since , the
equation is equivalent to .
So the given question is equivalent to asking for the smallest
positive integer for which equals a positive integer power of
.
Now and so . For to equal a power of , each factor of must be matched with a factor of . Therefore, must be divisible by (that is, must include at least powers of ), and so .
But ,
and so if , then
is indeed a power of 10, namely
. This tells us that the
smallest positive integer for
which for some positive integer is .
Since the average of three consecutive multiples of is ,
is the middle of these three integers, and so the integers are .
Since the average of four consecutive multiples of is , we have that is halfway in between the second and
third of these multiples (which differ by ), so the second and third of the
multiples are and
. Therefore, the four
integers are .
The smallest of these seven integers is and the largest is .
The average of these two integers is .
Since , we have .
First, we factor the left side of the given equation to obtain
.
Next, we factor the integer
as . Note that each of ,
and is prime, so we can factor no further. (We can find the factors
of and using tests for divisibility by and , or by systematic trial and
error.)
Since , the positive divisors of are Since and are positive integers, and are both positive integers.
Since and are positive integers, we have and , so .
Since , and must be a divisor pair of (that is, a pair of positive
integers whose product is )
with .
We make a table of the possibilities:
Note that the last case is not possible, since must be positive. Therefore, the three
pairs of positive integers that satisfy the equation are , , . (We can verify by substitution
that each is a solution of the original equation.)
Suppose that the auditorium with these properties has rows and columns of chairs. Then there are chairs in total.
Each chair is empty, is occupied by a teacher, or is occupied by a
student.
Since there are teachers in
each row, there are chairs
occupied by teachers. Since there are students in each column, there are
chairs occupied by students.
Since there are exactly empty
chairs, the total number of chairs can also be written as . Therefore, .
We proceed to find all pairs of positive integers and that satisfy this equation. We note
that since there are teachers in
each row, there must be at least
columns (that is, ) and
since there are students in each
column, there must be at least
rows (that is, ).
Manipulating the equation, Since is an integer, is an integer, and
so must be an
integer.
Therefore, is a divisor of
143. Since , we have , and so is a positive divisor of 143.
Since , its
positive divisors are , , , .
We make a table of the possible values of along with the resulting values of
, (calculated using )
and :
Therefore, the four possible values for are , , , . That is, the smallest possible
number of chairs in the auditorium is . (Can you create a grid with columns and rows that has the required
properties?)