Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 5.6 AIME, harder Prove it Argentina

Let n102010n \ge 10^{2010} be an integer. Find the first digit after the decimal point of n2+n+200\sqrt{n^2 + n + 200}.

Solution

The answer is 55 for all n1000n \ge 1000. If n200n \ge 200 we have n2+n+200<n2+2n+1=(n+1)2n^2+n+200 < n^2+2n+1 = (n+1)^2, so n<n2+n+200<n+1n < \sqrt{n^2+n+200} < n+1 and n2+n+200=n\lfloor \sqrt{n^2+n+200} \rfloor = n. It also follows that n2+n+200\sqrt{n^2+n+200} is not an integer, moreover n2+n+200\sqrt{n^2+n+200} is irrational. Let kk be the first digit of n2+n+200\sqrt{n^2+n+200} after the decimal point, 0k90 \le k \le 9. Then n+k10<n2+n+200<n+k+110n + \frac{k}{10} < \sqrt{n^2+n+200} < n + \frac{k+1}{10}, or

10n+k<10n2+n+200<10n+(k+1). 10n + k < 10\sqrt{n^2 + n + 200} < 10n + (k + 1).

The inequalities are strict as n2+n+200\sqrt{n^2+n+200} is irrational. Squaring and simplification gives
20nk+k2<100n+20000<20n(k+1)+(k+1)2. 20nk + k^2 < 100n + 20000 < 20n(k + 1) + (k + 1)^2.

The left inequality implies 20n(k5)<2000020n(k-5) < 20000, n(k5)<1000n(k-5) < 1000. Given n1000n \ge 1000, we see that k5k \le 5. Otherwise k51k-5 \ge 1 and n(k5)n1000n(k-5) \ge n \ge 1000. The right inequality can be rewritten as 20000<20n(k4)+(k+1)220000 < 20n(k-4) + (k+1)^2. Hence 20000<20n(k4)+10220000 < 20n(k-4) + 10^2 because k9k \le 9; thus 1000<n(k4)+51000 < n(k-4) + 5. So n(k4)>0n(k-4) > 0 which implies k5k \ge 5. Now k5k \le 5 and k5k \ge 5 lead to k=5k=5.

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