Maths Olympiad Prep

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

In the addition shown, PP and QQ each represent single digits, and the sum is 1PP71PP7.Figure 0What is P+QP+Q?

Pick one

Solution

The sum of the units column is P+P+P=3PP+P+P=3P. Since PP is a single digit, and 3P3P ends in a 7, then the only possibility is P=9P=9. This gives: [[IMAGE0]] Then 3P=3×9=273P=3\times 9=27, and thus 2 is carried to the tens column. The sum of the tens column becomes 2+7+Q+Q2+7+Q+Q or 9+2Q9+2Q. Since 9+2Q9+2Q ends in a 9 (since P=9P=9), then 2Q2Q ends in 99=09-9=0. Since QQ is a single digit, there are two possibilities for QQ such that 2Q2Q ends in 0. These are Q=0Q=0 and Q=5Q=5. If Q=0Q=0, then the sum of the tens column is 9 with no carry to the hundreds column. In this case, the sum of the hundreds column is 7+6+Q7+6+Q or 13 (since Q=0Q=0); the units digit of this sum does not match the 9 in the total. Thus, we conclude that QQ cannot equal 0 and thus must equal 5. Verifying that Q=5Q=5, we check the sum of the tens column again. Since 2+7+5+5=192+7+5+5=19, then 1 is carried to the hundreds column. The sum of the hundreds column is 1+7+6+5=191+7+6+5=19, as required. Thus, P+Q=9+5=14P+Q=9+5=14 and the completed addition is shown below.

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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.