Maths Olympiad Prep

Track / Stage 3 / 207 of 260 #207 of 1964

Problem 207

AMC 10/12, early questions
Geometry Difficulty 3.7 Find the answer

The lengths of the sides of a triangle with positive area are log1012\log_{10} 12, log1075\log_{10} 75, and log10n\log_{10} n, where nn is a positive integer. Find the number of possible values for nn.

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

Official solution

By the Triangle Inequality and applying the well-known logarithmic property logca+logcb=logcab\log_{c} a + \log_{c} b = \log_{c} ab, we have that

log1012+log10n>log1075\log_{10} 12 + \log_{10} n > \log_{10} 75
log1012n>log1075\log_{10} 12n > \log_{10} 75
12n>7512n > 75
n>7512=254=6.25n > \frac{75}{12} = \frac{25}{4} = 6.25

Also,

log1012+log1075>log10n\log_{10} 12 + \log_{10} 75 > \log_{10} n
log101275>log10n\log_{10} 12\cdot75 > \log_{10} n
n<900n < 900

Combining these two inequalities:
6.25<n<9006.25 < n < 900
Thus nn is in the set (6.25,900)(6.25 , 900); the number of positive integer nn which satisfies this requirement is 893\boxed{893}.

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