Skip to main content

2021 Fall AMC 10B Problem 3

Problem 3 of 25EasierAlgebraArithmetic

The expression 20212020−20202021\dfrac{2021}{2020} - \dfrac{2020}{2021} is equal to the fraction pq\frac{p}{q} in which pp and qq are positive integers whose greatest common divisor is 1.1. What is p?p?

Answer choices

Show solution

Solution

We can rewrite this as 2021⋅20212020⋅2021−2020⋅20202020⋅2021\dfrac{2021\cdot 2021}{2020\cdot 2021} -\dfrac{2020\cdot 2020}{2020\cdot 2021} =20212−202022020⋅2021.= \dfrac{2021^2-2020^2}{2020\cdot 2021}. This can be simplified to (2021−2020)(2021+2020)2020⋅2021\dfrac{(2021-2020)(2021+2020)}{2020\cdot 2021} =40412020⋅2021.=\dfrac{4041}{2020\cdot 2021}. Since 40414041 is coprime with both 20202020 and 2021,2021, we know 40414041 is the numerator. Thus, the answer is E .
AoPS wiki

Tagged: fraction · difference of squares

More practice