Skip to main content

2008 AMC 12B Problem 23

Problem 23 of 25HarderAlgebraNumber Theory

The sum of the base-1010 logarithms of the divisors of 10n10^n is 792.792. What is n?n?

Answer choices

Show solution

Solution

The sum of the base-1010 logs of the divisors is the log of their product. A number NN with d(N)d(N) divisors has divisor product Nd(N)2.N^{\frac{d(N)}{2}}. Here N=10nN = 10^n has d(N)=(n+1)2d(N) = (n + 1)^2 divisors, so the product is (10n)(n+1)22(10^n)^{\frac{(n+1)^2}{2}} and its log is n(n+1)22=792. \frac{n(n + 1)^2}{2} = 792. Thus n(n+1)2=1584n(n + 1)^2 = 1584 =11144= 11 \cdot 144 =11122,= 11 \cdot 12^2, giving n=11.n = 11. Thus, the correct answer is A.

More practice

Concepts: logarithm · factor counting

Problem text and solution from the LIVE past-contest archive. See also the AoPS wiki page for community solutions.