Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 4.8 AIME Find the answer Canada

Cube ABCDEFGHABCDEFGH has edge
length 100. Point PP is on ABAB, point QQ is on ADAD, and point RR is on AFAF, as shown, so that AP=xAP = x, $AQ =
x+1and and AR =
x+12x\dfrac{x+1}{2x}forsomeinteger  for some integer x$.

For how many integers xx is the
volume of triangular-based pyramid APQRAPQR between 0.04% and 0.08% of the
volume of cube ABCDEFGHABCDEFGH? (The
volume of a pyramid is equal to one-third of the area of its base times
its height.)

A number or a short expression. Fractions can be typed as 3/2, and spacing doesn't matter.

Solution

Triangular-based pyramid APQRAPQR can be thought of as having
triangular base APQ\triangle APQ and
height ARAR.

Since this pyramid is built at a vertex of the cube, then APQ\triangle APQ is right-angled at AA and ARAR is perpendicular to the base.

The area of APQ\triangle APQ is
$12×AP×\$\dfrac{1}{2} \times AP \times AQ =
12x(x+1)\dfrac{1}{2}x(x+1). The height of the pyramid is x+12x$.\dfrac{x+1}{2x}\$.

Thus, the volume of the pyramid is $13×12x(x+1)×x+12x\$\dfrac{1}{3} \times \dfrac{1}{2}x(x+1) \times \dfrac{x+1}{2x}whichequals which equals (x+1)212$.\dfrac{(x+1)^2}{12}\$.

Since the cube has edge length 100, its volume is 1003100^3 or 10000001\,000\,000.

Now, 1% of 1 000 000 is 1100\dfrac{1}{100} of 1 000 000 or
10 000.

Thus, 0.01% of 1 000 000 is 1100\dfrac{1}{100} of 10 000 or 100.

This tells us that 0.04% of 1 000 000 is 400, and 0.08% of 1 000 000
is 800.

We want to determine the number of integers xx for which (x+1)212\dfrac{(x+1)^2}{12} is between 400 and
800.

This is equivalent to determining the number of integers xx for which (x+1)2(x+1)^2 is between 12×400=480012 \times 400 = 4800 and 12×800=960012 \times 800 = 9600.

Since 480069.28\sqrt{4800} \approx 69.28 and
960097.98\sqrt{9600} \approx 97.98, then the
perfect squares between 4800 and 9600 are $70^2, 71^2, 72^2, ,\ldots, 96^2,
97^2$.

These are the possible values for (x+1)2(x+1)^2 and so the possible values for
xx are 69,70,71,,95,9669, 70, 71, \ldots, 95, 96.

There are 9669+1=2896 - 69 + 1 = 28 values
for xx.

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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.