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Number theory Difficulty 4.1 AIME Find the answer

Given that 220042^{2004} is a 604604-digit number whose first digit is 11, how many elements of the set S={20,21,22,,22003}S = \{2^0,2^1,2^2,\ldots ,2^{2003}\} have a first digit of 44?

Pick one

Solution

Given nn digits, there must be exactly one power of 22 with nn digits such that the first digit is 11. Thus SS contains 603603 elements with a first digit of 11. For each number in the form of 2k2^k such that its first digit is 11, then 2k+12^{k+1} must either have a first digit of 22 or 33, and 2k+22^{k+2} must have a first digit of 4,5,6,74,5,6,7. Thus there are also 603603 numbers with first digit {2,3}\{2,3\} and 603603 numbers with first digit {4,5,6,7}\{4,5,6,7\}. By using complementary counting, there are 20043×603=1952004 - 3 \times 603 = 195 elements of SS with a first digit of {8,9}\{8,9\}. Now, 2k2^k has a first digit of {8,9}\{8,9\} if and only if the first digit of 2k12^{k-1} is 44, so there are 195(B)\boxed{195} \Rightarrow \mathrm{(B)} elements of SS with a first digit of 44.

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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.