Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /328 of 520

Number theory Difficulty 5.8 AIME, harder Prove it

To be proven that in any number system, the following fraction can be simplified:

10100001011111011011100100 \frac{1010000-101111}{1011011-100100}

Solution

Let the base of the number system be qq. Then the numerator can be transformed as follows:

1010000101111=(q6+q4)(q5+q3+q2+q+1)=(q3+q+1)(q3q21)==1011(1000101) \begin{gathered} 1010000-101111=\left(q^{6}+q^{4}\right)-\left(q^{5}+q^{3}+q^{2}+q+1\right)=\left(q^{3}+q+1\right)\left(q^{3}-q^{2}-1\right)= \\ =1011(1000-101) \end{gathered}

Similarly for the denominator:

1011011100100=(q6+q4+q3+q+1)(q5+q2)=(q3+q+1)(q3+1q2)==1011(1001100). \begin{gathered} 1011011-100100=\left(q^{6}+q^{4}+q^{3}+q+1\right)-\left(q^{5}+q^{2}\right)=\left(q^{3}+q+1\right)\left(q^{3}+1-q^{2}\right)= \\ =1011(1001-100) . \end{gathered}

Therefore, in any number system, the fraction can be simplified by the number in the form of 1011.

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

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