Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 5.8 AIME, harder Find the answer Italy

Problem:

For every non-negative real xx, we define x\lfloor x\rfloor as the integer part of xx, that is, the greatest integer less than or equal to xx, and {x}=xx\{x\}=x-\lfloor x\rfloor as the fractional part of xx.
Let pp be a positive non-integer real solution of the equation {zz}=2021{z}\{z\lfloor z\rfloor\}=2021\{z\}. What is the second smallest possible value of p\lfloor p\rfloor?

Pick one

Solution

Solution:

The answer is (E)\mathbf{( E )}. Let us set n=pn=\lfloor p\rfloor and α={p}\alpha=\{p\}. Then the equation can be rewritten as {n(n+α)}=2021α\{n(n+\alpha)\}=2021 \alpha, that is,
{nα}=2021α \{n \alpha\}=2021 \alpha
Since on the left we have a fractional part, which is <1<1, and moreover pp is not an integer, we obtain the conditions 0α<120210 \neq \alpha<\frac{1}{2021}.
From the equation we also derive that there exists a non-negative integer mm such that nα=m+2021αn \alpha=m+2021 \alpha. Rearranging, (n2021)α=m(n-2021) \alpha=m.
Now, if m=0m=0 we have n=2021n=2021 which is a solution (one checks that p=2021+αp=2021+\alpha works for every α<12021\alpha<\frac{1}{2021}), and it is also the smallest one.
If m1m \geq 1, we have α=mn2021<12021\alpha=\frac{m}{n-2021}<\frac{1}{2021}, from which n>2021+2021m4042n>2021+2021 m \geq 4042, and hence n4043n \geq 4043. Indeed, one checks that p=4043+12022p=4043+\frac{1}{2022} is a solution.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement translated into English from it; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.