2015 AIME I Problems/Problem 14

Problem

For each integer $n \ge 2$ , let $A(n)$ be the area of the region in the coordinate plane deefined by the inequalities $1\le x \le n$ and $0\le y \le x \left\lfloor \sqrt x \right\rfloor$ , where $\left\lfloor \sqrt x \right\rfloor$ is the greatest integer not exceeding $\sqrt x$ . Find the number of values of $n$ with $2\le n \le 1000$ for which $A(n)$ is an integer.

Solution

By considering the graph of this function, it is shown that the graph is composed of trapezoids ranging from $a^2$ to $(a+1)^2$ with the top made of diagonal line $y=ax$ . The width of each trapezoid is $3, 5, 7$ , etc. Whenever $a$ is odd, the value of $A(n)$ increases by an integer value, plus $\frac{1}{2}$ . Whenever $a$ is even, the value of $A(n)$ increases by an integer value. Since each trapezoid always has an odd width, every value of $n$ is not an integer when $a \pmod{4} \equiv 2$ , and is an integer when $a \pmod{4} \equiv 0$ . Every other value is an integer when $a$ is odd. Therefore, it is simply a matter to determine the number of values of $n$ where $a \pmod{4} \equiv 0$ , and add the number of values of $n$ where $a$ is odd, through using Gauss's formula. Adding the two values gives $231+252=483$ .

2015 AIME I (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 13	Followed by Problem 15
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2015 AIME I Problems/Problem 14

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