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2020 AMC 12B Problem 21

Problem 21 of 25HarderAlgebra

How many positive integers nn satisfy n+100070=n?\frac{n + 1000}{70} = \lfloor \sqrt{n} \rfloor? (Recall that x\lfloor x \rfloor is the greatest integer not exceeding x.x.)

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Solution

The right side is an integer, so let k=n.k = \lfloor \sqrt{n} \rfloor. Then n=70k1000,n = 70k - 1000, and k=nk = \lfloor \sqrt{n} \rfloor requires k2n<(k+1)2.k^2 \le n \lt (k + 1)^2. The lower bound k270k1000k^2 \le 70k - 1000 gives k270k+10000,k^2 - 70k + 1000 \le 0, i.e. 20k50.20 \le k \le 50. The upper bound 70k1000<(k+1)270k - 1000 \lt (k + 1)^2 gives k268k+1001>0,k^2 - 68k + 1001 \gt 0, i.e. k21k \le 21 or k47.k \ge 47. Intersecting, k{20,21,47,48,49,50},k \in \{20, 21, 47, 48, 49, 50\}, giving 66 values of n.n. Thus, the correct answer is C.

More practice

Concepts: floor and ceiling functions · substitution · inequality

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