Maths Olympiad Prep

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Number theory Difficulty 5.5 AIME, harder Find the answer Italy

Problem:

Alessandro, Daniele and Manuela are discussing a two-digit natural number nn. Each of them makes two statements, but since they are all a bit weak in mathematics, each of them makes one true statement and one false statement.

Alessandro says: "nn is even. Moreover it is a multiple of 3.";

Daniele replies: "Yes, nn is a multiple of 3. Moreover, the units digit of nn is 5.";

Manuela says, finally: "nn is a multiple of 5. The sum of its digits is 12.".

How many values can nn take?

Pick one

Solution

Solution:

The answer is (D). Suppose first that nn is even: then it is not a multiple of 3, because one of Alessandro's two statements must be false, and hence (using what Daniele says) the units digit of nn must be 5, but this is impossible for an even number. The number nn (if it exists) is therefore a multiple of 3: Alessandro's first statement is then false, so nn is odd, and by what Daniele says the units digit cannot be 5. Hence nn cannot be a multiple of 5, because its units digit (which cannot be 0, since nn is odd) would be 5: it follows that the true statement made by Manuela is that the sum of the digits is 12. The only two-digit numbers whose digits sum to 12 are 39,48,57,66,75,8439, 48, 57, 66, 75, 84 and 9393, and among these we must take only those that are odd and multiples of 3, which are 39,5739, 57 and 9393.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement translated into English from it; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.