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Algebra Difficulty 3.5 AMC 10/12 Find the answer

Let xx be chosen at random from the interval (0,1)(0,1). What is the probability that
log104xlog10x=0\lfloor\log_{10}4x\rfloor - \lfloor\log_{10}x\rfloor = 0?
Here x\lfloor x\rfloor denotes the greatest integer that is less than or equal to xx:

Pick one

Solution

Let kk be an arbitrary integer. For which xx do we have log104x=log10x=k\lfloor\log_{10}4x\rfloor = \lfloor\log_{10}x\rfloor = k?
The equation log10x=k\lfloor\log_{10}x\rfloor = k can be rewritten as 10kx<10k+110^k \leq x < 10^{k+1}. The second one gives us 10k4x<10k+110^k \leq 4x < 10^{k+1}. Combining these, we get that both hold at the same time if and only if 10kx<10k+1410^k \leq x < \frac{10^{k+1}}4.
Hence for each integer kk we get an interval of values for which log104xlog10x=0\lfloor\log_{10}4x\rfloor - \lfloor\log_{10}x\rfloor = 0. These intervals are obviously pairwise disjoint.
For any k0k\geq 0 the corresponding interval is disjoint with (0,1)(0,1), so it does not contribute to our answer. On the other hand, for any k<0k<0 the entire interval is inside (0,1)(0,1). Hence our answer is the sum of the lengths of the intervals for k<0k<0.
For a fixed kk the length of the interval [10k,10k+14)\left[ 10^k, \frac{10^{k+1}}4 \right) is 3210k\frac 32\cdot 10^k.
This means that our result is 32(101+102+)=3219=16\frac 32 \left( 10^{-1} + 10^{-2} + \cdots \right) = \frac 32 \cdot \frac 19 = \boxed{\frac 16}.

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Source: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.