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2023 AMC 10B Problem 23

Problem 23 of 25HarderAlgebraNumber Theory

An arithmetic sequence of positive integers has n≥3n \ge 3 terms, initial term a,a, and common difference d>1.d \gt 1. Carl wrote down all the terms in this sequence correctly except for one term, which was off by 1.1. The sum of the terms he wrote down was 222.222. What is a+d+n?a + d + n?

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Solution

The true sum is S=na+n(n−1)2d.S = na + \frac{n(n-1)}{2}d. Since one term is off by 1,1, the written total satisfies 222=S±1,222 = S \pm 1, so S=221S = 221 or 223.223. Also 2S=n(2a+(n−1)d),2S = n\bigl(2a + (n-1)d\bigr), so nn divides 2S.2S. Since a≥1a \ge 1 and d≥2,d \ge 2, we have 2S≥2n2,2S \ge 2n^2, hence n2≤S.n^2 \le S. For S=223,S = 223, no divisor of 446446 lies between 33 and 223.\sqrt{223}. For S=221=13⋅17,S = 221 = 13 \cdot 17, the only divisor of 442442 in this range is n=13.n = 13. Thus 2a+12d=34,2a + 12d = 34, or a+6d=17.a + 6d = 17. Since aa and dd are positive integers with d>1,d \gt 1, we get a=5,a = 5, d=2.d = 2. Then a+d+n=5+2+13=20.a + d + n = 5 + 2 + 13 = 20. Thus, B is the correct answer.
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Tagged: arithmetic sequence · Diophantine Equation · prime factorization

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