Maths Olympiad Prep

Track / Stage 4 / 8 of 340 #268 of 1964

Problem 268

AMC 12 late, AIME early
Combinatorics Difficulty 4.4 Find the answer

Ninety-four bricks, each measuring 4×10×19,4''\times10''\times19'', are to be stacked one on top of another to form a tower 94 bricks tall. Each brick can be oriented so it contributes 44''\, or 1010''\, or 1919''\, to the total height of the tower. How many different tower heights can be achieved using all ninety-four of the bricks?

A number or a short expression. Fractions can be typed as 3/2, and spacing doesn't matter.

Official solution

Solution 1
We have the smallest stack, which has a height of 94×494 \times 4 inches. Now when we change the height of one of the bricks, we either add 00 inches, 66 inches, or 1515 inches to the height. Now all we need to do is to find the different change values we can get from 9494 00's, 66's, and 1515's. Because 00, 66, and 1515 are all multiples of 33, the change will always be a multiple of 33, so we just need to find the number of changes we can get from 00's, 22's, and 55's.
From here, we count what we can get:
0,2=2,4=2+2,5=5,6=2+2+2,7=5+2,8=2+2+2+2,9=5+2+2,0, 2 = 2, 4 = 2+2, 5 = 5, 6 = 2+2+2, 7 = 5+2, 8 = 2+2+2+2, 9 = 5+2+2, \ldots
It seems we can get every integer greater or equal to four; we can easily deduce this by considering parity or using the Chicken McNugget Theorem, which says that the greatest number that cannot be expressed in the form of 2m+5n2m + 5n for m,nm,n being positive integers is 5×252=35 \times 2 - 5 - 2=3.
But we also have a maximum change (94×594 \times 5), so that will have to stop somewhere. To find the gaps, we can work backwards as well. From the maximum change, we can subtract either 00's, 33's, or 55's. The maximum we can't get is 5×353=75 \times 3-5-3=7, so the numbers 94×5894 \times 5-8 and below, except 33 and 11, work. Now there might be ones that we haven't counted yet, so we check all numbers between 94×5894 \times 5-8 and 94×594 \times 5. 94×5794 \times 5-7 obviously doesn't work, 94×5694 \times 5-6 does since 6 is a multiple of 3, 94×5594 \times 5-5 does because it is a multiple of 55 (and 33), 94×5494 \times 5-4 doesn't since 44 is not divisible by 55 or 33, 94×5394 \times 5-3 does since 3=33=3, and 94×5294 \times 5-2 and 94×5194 \times 5-1 don't, and 94×594 \times 5 does.
Thus the numbers 00, 22, 44 all the way to 94×5894 \times 5-8, 94×5694 \times 5-6, 94×5594 \times 5-5, 94×5394 \times 5-3, and 94×594\times 5 work. That's 2+(94×584+1)+4=4652+(94 \times 5 - 8 - 4 +1)+4=\boxed{465} numbers. That's the number of changes you can make to a stack of bricks with dimensions 4×10×194 \times 10 \times 19, including not changing it at all.

Solution 2
Using bricks of dimensions 4×10×194''\times10''\times19'' is comparable to using bricks of dimensions 0×6×150''\times6''\times15'' which is comparable to using bricks of dimensions 0×2×50''\times2''\times5''. Using 5 bricks of height 22'' can be replaced by using 2 bricks of height 55'' and 3 bricks of height 00''.
It follows that all tower heights can be made by using 4 or fewer bricks of height 22''. There are 95+94+93+92+91=46595+94+93+92+91=465 ways to build a tower using 4 or fewer bricks of height 22''. Taking the heights mod5\mod 5, we see that towers using a different number of bricks of height 22'' have unequal heights. Thus, all of the 465\boxed{465} tower heights are different.

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