2009 AMC 10B Problems/Problem 21

Problem

What is the remainder when $3^0 + 3^1 + 3^2 + \cdots + 3^{2009}$ is divided by 8?

$\mathrm{(A)}\ 0\qquad \mathrm{(B)}\ 1\qquad \mathrm{(C)}\ 2\qquad \mathrm{(D)}\ 4\qquad \mathrm{(E)}\ 6$

Solution

Solution 1

The sum of any four consecutive powers of 3 is divisible by $3^0 + 3^1 + 3^2 +3^3 = 40$ and hence is divisible by 8. Therefore

$(3^2 + 3^3 + 3^4 + 3^5) + \cdots + (3^{2006} + 3^{2007} + 3^{2008} + 3^{2009})$

is divisible by 8. So the required remainder is $3^0 + 3^1 = \boxed {4}$ . The answer is $\mathrm{(D)}$ .

Solution 2

We have $3^2 = 9 \equiv 1 \pmod 8$ . Hence for any $k$ we have $3^{2k}\equiv 1^k = 1 \pmod 8$ , and then $3^{2k+1} = 3\cdot 3^{2k} \equiv 3\cdot 1 = 3 \pmod 8$ .

Therefore our sum gives the same remainder modulo $8$ as $1 + 3 + 1 + 3 + 1 + \cdots + 1 + 3$ . There are $2010$ terms in the sum, hence there are $2010/2 = 1005$ pairs $1+3$ , and thus the sum is $1005 \cdot 4 = 4020 \equiv 20 \equiv \boxed{4} \pmod 8$ .

Solution 3

We have the formula $\frac{a(r^n-1)}{r-1}$ for the sum of a finite geometric sequence which we want to find the residue modulo 8. $\frac{1 \cdot (3^{2010}-1)}{2}$ $\frac{3^{2010}-1}{2} = \frac{9^{1005}-1}{2}$ $\frac{9^{1005}-1}{2} \equiv \frac{1^{1005}-1}{2} \equiv \frac{0}{2} \pmod 8$ Therefore, the numerator of the fraction is divisible by $8$ . However, when we divide the numerator by $2$ , we get a remainder of $4$ modulo $8$ , giving us $\mathrm{(D)}$ .

Note: you need to prove that $\frac{9^{1005}-1}{2}$ is not congruent to 0 mod 16 because if so, then the whole thing would be congruent to 0 mod 8, even after dividing by 2 ~ ilikepi12

2009 AMC 10B (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 20	Followed by Problem 22
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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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