Maths Olympiad Prep

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Number theory Difficulty 5.3 AIME, harder Prove it United States

Problem:

A castle has infinitely many rooms labeled 1,2,3,1,2,3, \ldots, which are divided into several halls. Suppose room nn is on the same hall as rooms 3n+13 n+1 and n+10n+10 for every nn. Determine the maximum possible number of different halls in the castle.

Solution

Solution:

There are at most three different halls in the castle. Because rooms nn and n+10n+10 are on the same hall, any two rooms with the same units digit must be on the same hall.

Now, repeatedly using the rule that rooms nn and 3n+13 n+1 are on the same hall, we find that room 11 is on the same hall as rooms 44, 1313, 4040, and 121121, so all rooms with units digit 0,1,30,1,3, or 44 are on the same hall. There need not be any other rooms on this hall, since whenever nn has units digit in this set, so does 3n+13 n+1, and so does (n1)/3(n-1) / 3, if it is a whole number.

Similarly, room 22 is on the same hall as rooms 77 and 2222, so all rooms with units digit 22 or 77 are on the same hall, and there need not be any other rooms on this hall. Finally, rooms 55, 1616, 4949, and 148148 are on the same hall, so all rooms with units digit 5,6,85,6,8 or 99 are on the same hall. Thus, we see that there are at most three different halls in the castle.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.