2000 AMC 12 Problems/Problem 1

The following problem is from both the 2000 AMC 12 #1 and 2000 AMC 10 #1, so both problems redirect to this page.

Problem

In the year $2001$ , the United States will host the International Mathematical Olympiad. Let $I,M,$ and $O$ be distinct positive integers such that the product $I \cdot M \cdot O = 2001$ . What is the largest possible value of the sum $I + M + O$ ?

$\textbf{(A)}\ 23 \qquad \textbf{(B)}\ 55 \qquad \textbf{(C)}\ 99 \qquad \textbf{(D)}\ 111 \qquad \textbf{(E)}\ 671$

Solution 1 (Verifying the Statement)

First, we need to recognize that a number is going to be largest only if, of the $3$ factors, two of them are small. If we want to make sure that this is correct, we could test with a smaller number, like $30$ . It becomes much more clear that this is true, and in this situation, the value of $I + M + O$ would be $18$ . Now, we use this process on $2001$ to get $667 * 3 * 1$ as our $3$ factors. Hence, we have $667 + 3 + 1 = \boxed{\text{(E) 671}}$ .

~armang32324

Solution 2

The sum is the highest if two factors are the lowest.

So, $1 \cdot 3 \cdot 667 = 2001$ and $1+3+667=671 \Longrightarrow \boxed{\text{(E) 671}}$ .

Solution 3 (Answer Choices)

We see since $2 + 0 + 0 + 1$ is divisible by $3$ , we can eliminate all of the first $4$ answer choices because they are way too small and get $\boxed{\text{(E) 671}}$ as our final answer.

Solution 4 (Faster Way)

Notice $2001 = 3 * 29 * 23$ , so we can just maximize this with $667 * 3 * 1$ , which has a sum of $671$ . Our answer is $\boxed{\text{(E) 671}}$ .

-itsj

Video Solution by Daily Dose of Math

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSzsStkkYeA

~Thesmartgreekmathdude

2000 AMC 12 (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by First Question	Followed by Problem 2
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All AMC 12 Problems and Solutions

2000 AMC 10 (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by First Question	Followed by Problem 2
1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17 • 18 • 19 • 20 • 21 • 22 • 23 • 24 • 25
All AMC 10 Problems and Solutions

The problems on this page are copyrighted by the Mathematical Association of America's American Mathematics Competitions.

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