Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 4.5 AIME Find the answer

Find the 6-digit number beginning and ending in the digit 2 that is the product of three consecutive even integers.

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

Solution

Because the last digit of the product is 2, none of the three consecutive even integers end in 0. Thus they must end in 2,4,62,4,6 or 4,6,84,6,8, so they must end in 4,6,84,6,8 since 2462 \cdot 4 \cdot 6 does not end in 2. Call the middle integer nn. Then the product is (n2)n(n+2)=n34n(n-2) n(n+2)=n^{3}-4 n, so n>2000003=200103360n>\sqrt[3]{200000}=\sqrt[3]{200 \cdot 10^{3}} \approx 60, but clearly n<3000003=3001033<70n<\sqrt[3]{300000}=\sqrt[3]{300 \cdot 10^{3}}<70. Thus n=66n=66, and the product is 663466=28723266^{3}-4 \cdot 66=287232.

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