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2018 AMC 12B Problem 24

Problem 24 of 25HarderAlgebraCombinatorics

Let ⌊x⌋\lfloor x\rfloor denote the greatest integer less than or equal to x.x. How many real numbers xx satisfy the equation x2+10,000⌊x⌋=10,000x?x^2+10{,}000\lfloor x\rfloor=10{,}000x?

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Solution

Let {x}=x−⌊x⌋.\{x\}=x-\lfloor x\rfloor. The equation becomes x2=10,000{x},x^2=10{,}000\{x\}, so x210,000={x}.\tfrac{x^2}{10{,}000}=\{x\}. Since 0≤{x}<1,0\le\{x\}\lt1, we need 0≤x2<10,000,0\le x^2\lt10{,}000, i.e. −100<x<100.-100\lt x\lt100. On each interval [k,k+1),[k,k+1), write x=k+tx=k+t with 0≤t<1.0\le t\lt1. The equation becomes (k+t)2−10,000t=0.(k+t)^2-10{,}000t=0. For −100≤k≤98,-100\le k\le98, the left side is strictly decreasing; at t=0t=0 it is k2≥0,k^2\ge0, while as tt approaches 11 it approaches (k+1)2−10,000<0.(k+1)^2-10{,}000\lt0. Thus each of these intervals contains exactly one solution. There are 98−(−100)+1=19998-(-100)+1=199 such intervals. Thus, the correct answer is C.
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Tagged: floor and ceiling functions · counting intersections

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