Difference between revisions of "2009 AIME I Problems/Problem 6"

Revision as of 22:40, 27 January 2015

Problem

How many positive integers $N$ less than $1000$ are there such that the equation $x^{\lfloor x\rfloor} = N$ has a solution for $x$ ? (The notation $\lfloor x\rfloor$ denotes the greatest integer that is less than or equal to $x$ .)

Solution

First, $x$ must be less than $5$ , since otherwise $x^{\lfloor x\rfloor}$ would be at least $3125$ which is greater than $1000$ .

Now, ${\lfloor x\rfloor}$ must be an integer, so lets do case work:

For ${\lfloor x\rfloor}=0$ , $N=1$ no matter what $x$ is

For ${\lfloor x\rfloor}=1$ , $N$ can be anything between $1^1$ to $2^1$ excluding $2^1$

This gives us $2^1-1^1=1$ $N$ 's

For ${\lfloor x\rfloor}=2$ , $N$ can be anything between $2^2$ to $3^2$ excluding $3^2$

This gives us $3^2-2^2=5$ $N$ 's

For ${\lfloor x\rfloor}=3$ , $N$ can be anything between $3^3$ to $4^3$ excluding $4^3$

This gives us $4^3-3^3=37$ $N$ 's

For ${\lfloor x\rfloor}=4$ , $N$ can be anything between $4^4$ to $5^4$ excluding $5^4$

This gives us $5^4-4^4=369$ $N$ 's

Since $x$ must be less than $5$ , we can stop here and the answer is $\boxed {4}$ possible values for $N$ .

@@ Line 26: / Line 26: @@
 This gives us <math>5^4-4^4=369</math> <math>N</math>'s
-Since <math>x</math> must be less than <math>5</math>, we can stop here and the answer answer is <math>\boxed {4}</math> possible values for <math>N</math>.
+Since <math>x</math> must be less than <math>5</math>, we can stop here and the answer is <math>\boxed {4}</math> possible values for <math>N</math>.
 == See also ==
 {{AIME box|year=2009|n=I|num-b=5|num-a=7}}
 {{MAA Notice}}

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Difference between revisions of "2009 AIME I Problems/Problem 6"

Revision as of 22:40, 27 January 2015

Problem

Solution

See also