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Algebra Difficulty 3.1 AMC 10/12 Find the answer

Calculate: (3+1)(32+1)(34+1)(364+1)=______.\left(3+1\right)(3^{2}+1)(3^{4}+1)\ldots (3^{64}+1)=\_\_\_\_\_\_.

A number or a short expression. Spacing and $ signs are ignored.

Solution

To calculate (3+1)(32+1)(34+1)(364+1)\left(3+1\right)(3^{2}+1)(3^{4}+1)\ldots (3^{64}+1), we can cleverly manipulate the expression to simplify it. Let's denote the original expression as OriginalOriginal. We start by noticing a pattern that can be exploited by introducing a factor and then subtracting it out:

Original=(3+1)(32+1)(34+1)(364+1)=12[(31)(3+1)(32+1)(34+1)(364+1)+1]12=12[(321)(32+1)(34+1)(364+1)+1]12=12[(341)(34+1)(364+1)+1]12=12(31281+1)12=12×312812=312812. \begin{align*} Original &= \left(3+1\right)(3^{2}+1)(3^{4}+1)\ldots (3^{64}+1) \\ &= \frac{1}{2}\left[\left(3-1\right)\left(3+1\right)(3^{2}+1)(3^{4}+1)\ldots (3^{64}+1)+1\right]-\frac{1}{2} \\ &= \frac{1}{2}\left[(3^{2}-1)(3^{2}+1)(3^{4}+1)\ldots (3^{64}+1)+1\right]-\frac{1}{2} \\ &= \frac{1}{2}\left[(3^{4}-1)(3^{4}+1)\ldots (3^{64}+1)+1\right]-\frac{1}{2} \\ &= \frac{1}{2}\left(3^{128}-1+1\right)-\frac{1}{2} \\ &= \frac{1}{2}\times 3^{128}-\frac{1}{2} \\ &= \frac{3^{128}-1}{2}. \end{align*}

Thus, the calculation yields:

312812. \boxed{\frac{3^{128}-1}{2}}.

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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.