Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /83 of 173

Number theory Difficulty 2.7 Junior Find the answer

How many of the 20 perfect squares 12,22,32,,192,2021^{2}, 2^{2}, 3^{2}, \ldots, 19^{2}, 20^{2} are divisible by 9?

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

Solution

A perfect square is divisible by 9 exactly when its square root is divisible by 3. In other words, n2n^{2} is divisible by 9 exactly when nn is divisible by 3. In the list 1,2,3,,19,201,2,3, \ldots, 19,20, there are 6 multiples of 3. Therefore, in the list 12,22,32,,192,2021^{2}, 2^{2}, 3^{2}, \ldots, 19^{2}, 20^{2}, there are 6 multiples of 9.

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