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Properties of Numbers
Solutions

  1. Suppose that a palindrome p is the sum of the three consecutive integers a1, a, a+1.

    In this case, p=(a1)+a+(a+1)=3a, so p is a multiple of 3.

    The largest palindromes less than 200 are 191, 181, 171.

    Note that 191 and 181 are not divisible by 3, but 171 is divisible by 3. We can easily check this using the divisibility by 3 test. For each of these integers, the sum of their digits is 11, 10 and 9, respectively. Only 9 is divisible by 3 and so 171 is the only one that is divisible by 3.

    The integer 171 can be written as 56+57+58, so 171 is the largest palindrome less than 200 that is the sum of three consecutive integers.

  2. Suppose that n has digits AB. Then n=10A+B. The average of the digits of n is A+B2. Putting a decimal point between the digits of n is equivalent to dividing n by 10, so the resulting number is 10A+B10.

    So we want to determine A and B so that 10A+B10=A+B210A+B=5(A+B)5A=4B Since A and B are digits such that 5A=4B, we have A=4 and B=5 is the only possibility. Therefore, n=45. (We can quickly check that the average of the digits of n is 4.5, the number obtained by putting a decimal point between the digits of n.)

  3. Solution 1

    The integer equal to 1020 consists of the digit 1 followed by 20 0s. The integer equal to 10201 thus consists of 20 9s.

    Now, n=102020 is 19 less than 10201 which is the integer that consists of 20 9s.

    So n=102020=99980, where this integer has 18 9s.

    Therefore, the sum of the digits of n is 18(9)+8+0=162+8=170.

    Solution 2

    Since 102020=10(10192) and 10192=9998 (where this integer has 18 9s), we have 102020=99980, where this integer has 18 9s.

    Therefore, the sum of the digits of n is 18(9)+8+0=162+8=170.

  4. The parity of an integer is whether it is even or odd.

    Since the Fibonacci sequence begins 1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,, it follows that the parities of the first eight terms are Odd, Odd, Even, Odd, Odd, Even, Odd, Odd.

    In the sequence, if x and y are consecutive terms, then the next term is x+y.

    In general, suppose that x and y are integers. If x is even and y is even, then x+y is even. If x is even and y is odd, then x+y is odd. If x is odd and y is even, then x+y is odd. If x is odd and y is odd, then x+y is even. Therefore, the parities of two consecutive terms x and y in the Fibonacci sequence determine the parity of the following term x+y.

    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 3. Therefore, the 99th term in the Fibonacci sequence ends one of these cycles, since 99 is a multiple of 3. In particular, the 99th term ends the 33rd cycle.

    Each cycle contains two odd terms. Therefore, the first 99 terms in the sequence include 2×33=66 odd terms.

    Finally, the 100th term in the sequence begins a new cycle, so it is odd. Therefore, the first 100 terms include 66+1=67 odd terms.

  5. Since 900=302 and 30=2×3×5, we have 900=223252.

    The positive divisors of 900 are those integers of the form d=2a3b5c, where each of a,b,c is 0, 1 or 2.

    For d to be a perfect square, the exponent on each prime factor in the prime factorization of d must be even. Thus, for d to be a perfect square, each of a,b,c must be 0 or 2.

    There are two possibilities for each of a,b,c so 2×2×2=8 possibilities for d.

    These are 203050=1, 223050=4, 203250=9, 203052=25, 223250=36, 223052=100, 203252=225, and 223252=900.

    Thus, 8 of the positive divisors of 900 are perfect squares.

  6. Since each list contains 6 consecutive positive integers and the smallest integers in the lists are a and b, it follows that the positive integers in the first list are a,a+1,a+2,a+3,a+4,a+5 and the positive integers in the second list are b,b+1,b+2,b+3,b+4,b+5. Note that 1a<b.

    We first determine the pairs (a,b) for which 49 will appear in the third list, then determine which of these pairs give a third list that contains no multiple of 64, and then finally keep only those pairs for which there is a number in the third list larger than 75.

    The first bullet tells us that 49 is the product of an integer in the first list and an integer in the second list.

    Since 49=72 and 7 is prime, it follows that these integers are either 1 and 49 or 7 and 7.

    If 1 is in one of the lists, then either a=1 or b=1. Since 1a<b, it must be that a=1.

    If 49 is in the second list, then one of b,b+1,b+2,b+3,b+4,b+5 equals 49, and so 44b49.

    Therefore, for 1 and 49 to appear in the two lists, then (a,b) must be one of (1,49),(1,48),(1,47),(1,46),(1,45),(1,44) . If 7 appears in the first list, then one of a,a+1,a+2,a+3,a+4,a+5 equals 7, so 2a7. Similarly, if 7 appears in the second list, then 2b7.

    Therefore, for 7 to appear in both lists, then, knowing that a<b, then (a,b) must be one of

    (2,3), (2,4), (2,5), (2,6), (2,7), (3,4), (3,5), (3,6), (3,7), (4,5), (4,6), (4,7), (5,6), (5,7), (6,7).

    The second bullet tells us that no pair of numbers in the first and second lists have a product that is a multiple of 64.

    Given that the possible values of a and b are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, then the possible integers in the two lists are those integers from 1 to 12, inclusive, and from 44 to 54, inclusive. (For example, if the first number in one list is 7, then the remaining numbers in this list are 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.)

    There is no multiple of 32 or 64 in these lists.

    Thus, for a pair of integers from these lists to have a product that is a multiple of 64, one is a multiple of 4 and the other is a multiple of 16, or both are multiples of 8.

    If (a,b)=(1,48),(1,47),(1,46),(1,45),(1,44), then 4 appears in the first list and 48 appears in the second list; these have a product of 192, which is 364.

    If (a,b)=(1,49), there is a multiple of 4 but not of 8 in the first list, and a multiple of 4 but not of 8 in the second list, so there is no multiple of 64 in the third list.

    If (a,b)=(3,4),(3,5),(3,6),(3,7),(4,5),(4,6),(4,7),(5,6),(5,7),(6,7), then 8 appears in both lists, so 64 appears in the third list.

    If (a,b)=(2,3),(2,4),(2,5),(2,6),(2,7), then there is no multiple of 8 or 16 in the first list and no multiple of 16 in the second list, so there is no multiple of 64 in the third list.

    Therefore, after considering the first two bullets, the possible pairs (a,b) are (1,49),(2,3),(2,4),(2,5),(2,6),(2,7).

    The third bullet tells us that there is at least one number in the third list that is larger than 75.

    Given the possible pairs (a,b) are (1,49),(2,3),(2,4),(2,5),(2,6),(2,7), the corresponding pairs of largest integers in the lists are (6,54),(7,8),(7,9),(7,10),(7,11),(7,12).

    The corresponding largest integers in the third list are the products of the largest integers in the two lists; these products are 324, 56, 63, 70, 77, 84, respectively.

    Therefore, the remaining pairs (a,b) are (1,49),(2,6),(2,7).

    Having considered the three conditions, the possible pairs (a,b) are (1,49),(2,6),(2,7).

  7. First, we determine the perfect squares between 1300 and 1400 and between 1400 and 1500. Since 130036.06, the first perfect square larger than 1300 is 372=1369. The next perfect squares are 382=1444 and 392=1521.

    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 m2 years old and Louis was n2 years old for some positive integers m and n. Thus, Charles was m2 years old in the year 1369+m2 and Louis was n2 years old in the year 1444+n2.

    Since these expressions represent the same years, we have that 1369+m2=1444+n2, or m2n2=14441369=75. In other words, we want to find two perfect squares less than 110 (since their ages are less than 110) whose difference is 75.

    The perfect squares less than 110 are 1,4,9,16,25,36,49,64,81,100. The two that differ by 75 are 100 and 25. Thus, m2=100 and n2=25.

    This means that the year in which the age of each of Charles and Louis was a perfect square was the year 1369+100=1469.

  8. Since 10y0, the equation 132=x10y is equivalent to 10y=32x.

    So the given question is equivalent to asking for the smallest positive integer x for which 32x equals a positive integer power of 10.

    Now 32=25 and so 32x=25x. For 32x to equal a power of 10, each factor of 2 must be matched with a factor of 5. Therefore, x must be divisible by 55 (that is, x must include at least 5 powers of 5), and so x55=3125.

    But 32(55)=2555=105, and so if x=55=3125, then 32x is indeed a power of 10, namely 105. This tells us that the smallest positive integer x for which 132=x10y for some positive integer y is x=55=3125.

  9. Since the average of three consecutive multiples of 3 is a, a is the middle of these three integers, and so the integers are a3,a,a+3.

    Since the average of four consecutive multiples of 4 is a+27, we have that a+27 is halfway in between the second and third of these multiples (which differ by 4), so the second and third of the multiples are (a+27)2=a+25 and (a+27)+2=a+29. Therefore, the four integers are a+21,a+25,a+29,a+33.

    The smallest of these seven integers is a3 and the largest is a+33.

    The average of these two integers is 12(a3+a+33)=12(2a+30)=a+15.

    Since a+15=42, we have a=27.

  10. First, we factor the left side of the given equation to obtain a(a2+2b)=2013.

    Next, we factor the integer 2013 as 2013=3×671=3×11×61. Note that each of 3, 11 and 61 is prime, so we can factor 2013 no further. (We can find the factors of 3 and 11 using tests for divisibility by 3 and 11, or by systematic trial and error.)

    Since 2013=3×11×61, the positive divisors of 2013 are 1,3,11,33,61,183,671,2013 Since a and b are positive integers, a and a2+2b are both positive integers.

    Since a and b are positive integers, we have a2a and 2b>0, so a2+2b>a.

    Since a(a2+2b)=2013, a and a2+2b must be a divisor pair of 2013 (that is, a pair of positive integers whose product is 2013) with a<a2+2b.

    We make a table of the possibilities:

    a a2+2b 2b b
    1 2013 2012 1006
    3 671 662 331
    11 183 62 31
    33 61 1028 N/A

    Note that the last case is not possible, since b must be positive. Therefore, the three pairs of positive integers that satisfy the equation are (1,1006), (3,331), (11,31). (We can verify by substitution that each is a solution of the original equation.)

  11. Suppose that the auditorium with these properties has r rows and c columns of chairs. Then there are rc chairs in total.

    Each chair is empty, is occupied by a teacher, or is occupied by a student.

    Since there are 14 teachers in each row, there are 14r chairs occupied by teachers. Since there are 10 students in each column, there are 10c chairs occupied by students. Since there are exactly 3 empty chairs, the total number of chairs can also be written as 14r+10c+3. Therefore, rc=14r+10c+3.

    We proceed to find all pairs of positive integers r and c that satisfy this equation. We note that since there are 14 teachers in each row, there must be at least 14 columns (that is, c14) and since there are 10 students in each column, there must be at least 10 rows (that is, r10).

    Manipulating the equation, rc=14r+10c+3rc14r=10c+3r(c14)=10c+3r=10c+3c14r=10c140+143c14r=10c140c14+143c14r=10+143c14 Since r is an integer, 10+143c14 is an integer, and so 143c14 must be an integer.

    Therefore, c14 is a divisor of 143. Since c14, we have c140, and so c14 is a positive divisor of 143.

    Since 143=11×13, its positive divisors are 1, 11, 13, 143.

    We make a table of the possible values of c14 along with the resulting values of c, r (calculated using r=10+143c14) and rc:

    c14 c r rc
    1 15 153 2295
    11 25 23 575
    13 27 21 567
    143 157 11 1727

    Therefore, the four possible values for rc are 567, 575, 1727, 2295. That is, the smallest possible number of chairs in the auditorium is 567. (Can you create a grid with 27 columns and 21 rows that has the required properties?)