Maths Olympiad Prep

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Number theory Difficulty 6.1 National Olympiad Prove it Romania

A store sold 235 robots over the course of twelve months. Each month, 16, 20, or 25 robots were sold. Find the number of months in which exactly 20 robots were sold.

Solution

If exactly 16 robots were sold each month, the number of the robots sold would have been 1216=19212 \cdot 16 = 192. The difference of 43 robots comes from the months where 20 robots were sold (4 more each month) and from the months where 25 robots were sold (9 more each month). Denote by aa and bb the number of months where 20 robots were sold and where 25 robots were sold, respectively. We have 4a+9b=434a + 9b = 43,

therefore bb is an odd number which does not exceed 4. We obtain that b=3b = 3, therefore exactly 20 robots were sold in a=4a = 4 months.

Alternative solution.
Let x,y,zx, y, z be the number of months in which 16, 20, and 25 robots were sold, respectively. We have 16x+20y+25z=23516x + 20y + 25z = 235, thus x=5(473x4y5z)x = 5(47 - 3x - 4y - 5z), therefore 5x5 \mid x, consequently x{5,10}x \in \{5, 10\}. If x=10x = 10, we obtain 4y+5z=154y + 5z = 15 and y+z=1210=2y + z = 12 - 10 = 2, which leads to z=7>y+z=2z = 7 > y + z = 2, false. If x=5x = 5, we have 4y+5z=314y + 5z = 31 and y+z=125=7y + z = 12 - 5 = 7 and we obtain z=3z = 3, therefore exactly 20 robots were sold in y=7z=4y = 7 - z = 4 months.

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