1990 AIME Problems/Problem 11
Problem
Someone observed that . Find the largest positive integer
for which
can be expressed as the product of
consecutive positive integers.
Solution 1
The product of consecutive integers can be written as
for some integer
. Thus,
, from which it becomes evident that
. Since
, we can rewrite this as
. For
, we get
so
. For greater values of
, we need to find the product of
consecutive integers that equals
.
can be approximated as
, which decreases as
increases. Thus,
is the greatest possible value to satisfy the given conditions.
Solution 2
Let the largest of the consecutive positive integers be
. Clearly
cannot be less than or equal to
, else the product of
consecutive positive integers will be less than
.
Key observation:
Now for to be maximum the smallest number (or starting number) of the
consecutive positive integers must be minimum, implying that
needs to be minimum. But the least
is
So the consecutive positive integers are
So we have
Kris17
Generalization:
Largest positive integer for which
can be expressed as the product of
consecutive positive integers is
For ex. largest such that product of
consecutive positive integers is equal to
is
Proof:
Reasoning the same way as above, let the largest of the consecutive positive integers be
. Clearly
cannot be less than or equal to
, else the product of
consecutive positive integers will be less than
.
Now, observe that for to be maximum the smallest number (or starting number) of the
consecutive positive integers must be minimum, implying that
needs to be minimum. But the least
is
.
So the consecutive positive integers are
So we have
Kris17
See also
1990 AIME (Problems • Answer Key • Resources) | ||
Preceded by Problem 10 |
Followed by Problem 12 | |
1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 | ||
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