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Algebra Difficulty 4.7 AIME Prove it Brazil

Show that there are at least 3 and at most 4 powers of 22 with mm digits. For which mm are there 44?

Solution

Take nn to be the smallest integer such that 2n10m12^n \ge 10^{m-1}. Then 2n1<10m12^{n-1} < 10^{m-1}, so 2n+2<810m1<10m2^{n+2} < 8 \cdot 10^{m-1} < 10^m. So 2n2^n, 2n+12^{n+1} and 2n+22^{n+2} all have mm digits. Thus there are at least 33 powers of 22 with mm digits.

2n1510m22^{n-1} \ge 5 \cdot 10^{m-2} (otherwise 2n<10m12^n < 10^{m-1}). Hence 2n+4=32510m2>10m2^{n+4} = 32 \cdot 5 \cdot 10^{m-2} > 10^m, so 2n+42^{n+4} has more than mm digits. Thus there are at most 44 powers of 22 with mm digits.

There are 44 if there is an integer between m1log102\frac{m-1}{\log_{10} 2} and mlog1023\frac{m}{\log_{10} 2} - 3.

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