Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 5.7 AIME, harder Prove it United States

Problem:

Fisica and Ritmo discovered a piece of Notalium shaped like a rectangular box, and wanted to find its volume. To do so, Fisica measured its three dimensions using a ruler with infinite precision, multiplied the results and rounded the product to the nearest cubic centimeter, getting a result of 20172017 cubic centimeters. Ritmo, on the other hand, measured each dimension to the nearest centimeter and multiplied the rounded measurements, getting a result of VV cubic centimeters. Find the positive difference between the least and greatest possible positive values for VV.

Solution

Solution:

It is not difficult to see that the maximum possible value of VV can be achieved when the dimensions are (0.5+ϵ)×(0.5+ϵ)×(8070ϵ)=2017.5ϵ(0.5+\epsilon) \times (0.5+\epsilon) \times (8070-\epsilon') = 2017.5-\epsilon'' for some very small reals ϵ,ϵ,ϵ>0\epsilon, \epsilon', \epsilon'' > 0, which when measured by Ritmo, gives V=118070=8070V = 1 \cdot 1 \cdot 8070 = 8070.

Similarly, the minimum possible positive value of VV can be achieved when the dimensions are (1.5ϵ)×(1.5ϵ)×(80669+ϵ)=2016.5+ϵ(1.5-\epsilon) \times (1.5-\epsilon) \times \left(\frac{8066}{9}+\epsilon'\right) = 2016.5+\epsilon'' for some very small reals ϵ,ϵ,ϵ>0\epsilon, \epsilon', \epsilon'' > 0, which when measured by Ritmo, gives V=11896=896V = 1 \cdot 1 \cdot 896 = 896.

Therefore, the difference between the maximum and minimum is 8070896=71748070 - 896 = 7174.

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