Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 5.6 AIME, harder Find the answer New Zealand

Problem:

Josie and Kevin are each thinking of a two digit positive integer. Josie's number is twice as big as Kevin's. One digit of Kevin's number is equal to the sum of digits of Josie's number. The other digit of Kevin's number is equal to the difference between the digits of Josie's number. What is the sum of Kevin and Josie's numbers?

A number or a short expression. Fractions can be typed as 3/2, and spacing doesn't matter.

Solution

Solution:

We'll use AB\overline{AB} to denote a 2 digit number with AA in the tens digit and BB in the unit digit.

Let Josie pick the number AB\overline{AB} and Kevin CD\overline{CD}. Then we have

AB=2×CD \overline{AB} = 2 \times \overline{CD}
10A+B=20C+2D 10A + B = 20C + 2D

Now, A2C>CA \geq 2C > C so CA+BC \neq A + B. Therefore, C=ABC = |A - B| and D=A+BD = A + B.

- Case 1: ABA \geq B. So C=AB=ABC = |A - B| = A - B. This yields
10A+B=20(AB)+2(A+B) 10A + B = 20(A - B) + 2(A + B)
Which simplifies to give
19B=12A. 19B = 12A.
This can only happen when AA is a multiple of 1919 which is impossible since A>0A > 0 is a digit.

- Case 2: A<BA < B. C=AB=BAC = |A - B| = B - A. This yields
10A+B=20(BA)+2(A+B) 10A + B = 20(B - A) + 2(A + B)
Which simplifies to give
4A=3B. 4A = 3B.
Since AA and BB are digits (and AA is nonzero), this means either: (A,B)=(3,4)(A, B) = (3, 4) or (A,B)=(6,8)(A, B) = (6, 8).

To verify: AB=34CD=17\overline{AB} = 34 \Rightarrow \overline{CD} = 17 which works, while AB=68CD=34\overline{AB} = 68 \Rightarrow \overline{CD} = 34 does not work. Therefore the final answer is 34+17=5134 + 17 = 51.

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