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Algebra Difficulty 4.9 AIME Prove it United States

Problem:

Which is larger, A=201920A=20^{19^{20}} or B=192019B=19^{20^{19}}? (Here, abca^{b^{c}} means a (b c ight)\text{a (b c ight)} and not (abight)c\left(a^{b} ight)^{c} \right..)

Solution

Solution:

The answer is that AA is larger. First,
(1920)20=0.9520=0.902510>0.910=0.815=0.85=0.32768>0.05=120 \begin{aligned} \left(\frac{19}{20}\right)^{20} & = 0.95^{20} = 0.9025^{10} > 0.9^{10} \\ & = 0.81^{5} = 0.8^{5} = 0.32768 > 0.05 = \frac{1}{20} \end{aligned}
which implies that 1920>201919^{20} > 20^{19}. Thus, A=201920>202019>192019=BA = 20^{19^{20}} > 20^{20^{19}} > 19^{20^{19}} = B, as desired.

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