Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /2 of 8

Number theory Difficulty 4.6 AIME Prove it Brazil

Show that there is a positive integer nn such that the first 1992 digits of n1992n^{1992} are 1.

Solution

We only need to prove that there are positive integers nn, kk such that
1111199210kn1992<1111991210k    1111199210tn<1112199210t \underbrace{11 \dots 11}_{1992} \cdot 10^k \le n^{1992} < \underbrace{11 \dots 1}_{1991} 2 \cdot 10^k \\ \iff \sqrt[1992]{11 \dots 11} \cdot 10^t \le n < \sqrt[1992]{11 \dots 12} \cdot 10^t
in which k=1992tk = 1992t.
Suppose the decimal expansions of 11111992\sqrt[1992]{11 \dots 11} and 11121992\sqrt[1992]{11 \dots 12} differ in the ttth position. So
n=11111992199210t+1 n = \left\lceil \sqrt[1992]{\underbrace{11 \dots 11}_{1992}} \cdot 10^t \right\rceil + 1
suffices.

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.