Maths Olympiad Prep

Track / Stage 5 / 195 of 400 #795 of 1964

Problem 795

AIME late
Number theory Difficulty 5.5 Find the answer

6. A three-digit number and two two-digit numbers are written on the board. The sum of the numbers that contain a seven in their notation is 208. The sum of the numbers that contain a three in their notation is 76. Find the sum of all three numbers.

A number or a short expression. Spacing, $ signs and \frac vs / are all fine.

Official solution

Answer: 247.

Solution. Let the three-digit number be AA, the two-digit numbers be B-B and CC. Among the numbers whose sum is 76, there cannot be a three-digit number. The sum cannot consist of a single number either, because otherwise that number would be 76, but it does not contain a three. Therefore, 76 is the sum of two two-digit numbers, each of which contains a three:

B+C=76 B+C=76

Among the numbers whose sum is 208, there must be a three-digit number (since the sum of two-digit numbers is only 76). It cannot be the only one, because the number 208 does not contain a seven. Therefore, there is at least one two-digit number in this sum - but not both at the same time (otherwise the three-digit number would be 20876=132208-76=132, but it does not contain a seven).

Without loss of generality, let's assume that the two-digit number in this sum is BB. Then

A+B=208 A+B=208

and both of these numbers contain a seven.

Therefore, the number BB contains both a three and a seven, i.e., B=37B=37 or B=73B=73.

If B=73B=73, then C=76B=3C=76-B=3 - not a two-digit number. Therefore, B=37,C=7637=39B=37, C=76-37=39, A=20837=171A=208-37=171.

The sum of all the numbers is 171+37+39=247171+37+39=247.

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