Maths Olympiad Prep

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Number theory Difficulty 3.7 AMC 10/12 Find the answer Canada

Suppose that RR, SS and TT are digits and that NN is the four-digit positive integer 8RST8RST. That is, NN has thousands digit 8, hundreds digit RR, tens digits SS, and ones (units) digit TT, which means that N=8000+100R+10S+TN = 8000+100R+10S+T. Suppose that the following conditions are all true:

The two-digit integer 8R8R is divisible by 3.
The three-digit integer 8RS8RS is divisible by 4.
The four-digit integer 8RST8RST is divisible by 5.
The digits of NN are not necessarily all different.

The number of possible values for the integer NN is

Pick one

Solution

We make a chart of the possible integers, building their digits from left to right. In each case, we could determine the required divisibility by actually performing the division, or by using the following tests for divisibility:

An integer is divisible by 3 when the sum of its digits is divisible by 3.
An integer is divisible by 4 when the two-digit integer formed by its tens and units digits is divisible by 4.
An integer is divisible by 5 when its units digit is 0 or 5.

8R8R
8RS8RS
8RST8RST

8181
812812
81208120

81258125

816816
81608160

81658165

8484
840840
84008400

84058405

844844
84408440

84458445

848848
84808480

84858485

8787
872872
87208720

87258725

876876
87608760

87658765

In the first column, we note that the integers between 80 and 89 that are multiples of 3 are 81, 84 and 87. In the second column, we look for the multiples of 4 between 810 and 819, between 840 and 849, and between 870 and 879. In the third column, we add units digits of 0 or 5.

This analysis shows that there are 14 possible values of NN.

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Source: CEMC, University of Waterloo, licensed CC-BY-NC-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.