How many numbers satisfy this property?

How many positive integers n 200 n \leq 200 that satisfy the property that 2 n 2^n and 5 n 5^n start with the same digit?


The answer is 9.

This section requires Javascript.
You are seeing this because something didn't load right. We suggest you, (a) try refreshing the page, (b) enabling javascript if it is disabled on your browser and, finally, (c) loading the non-javascript version of this page . We're sorry about the hassle.

1 solution

Jesse Nieminen
Sep 6, 2016

Notice that 2 n 5 n = 1 0 n 2^n \cdot 5^n = 10^n .
Let's write 2 n 2^n and 5 n 5^n in scientific notation.
Now, 2 n = c 1 1 0 k 1 , 5 n = c 2 1 0 k 2 2^n = c_1 \cdot 10^{k_1}, 5^n = c_2 \cdot 10^{k_2} , where 1 c 1 , c 2 < 10 1 \leq c_1, c_2 < 10 .
Since 2 n 2^n and 5 n 5^n start with the same digit, c 1 c_1 and c 2 c_2 must have the same integer part, and thus c 1 = x + f 1 , c 2 = x + f 2 c_1 = x + f_1, c_2 = x + f_2 , where x x is an integer, f 1 f_1 is the fractional part of c 1 c_1 and f 2 f_2 is the fractional part of c 2 c_2 .
Since 2 n 5 n = 1 0 n c 1 c 2 = ( x + f 1 ) ( x + f 2 ) = x 2 + ( f 1 + f 2 ) x + f 1 f 2 = 10 2^n \cdot 5^n = 10^n \implies c_1 \cdot c_2 = \left(x + f_1\right)\cdot\left(x + f_2\right) = x^2 + \left(f_1+f_2\right)x + f_1f_2 = 10 , we know that x = 3 x = 3 is the only solution because 0 < f 1 , f 2 < 1 0 < f_1, f_2 < 1 .
Hence, both 2 n 2^n and 5 n 5^n must start with 3 3 .


First n n which satisfies the property is 5 5 .

We get the next candidate by adding 10 10 to the previous n n .
That is the next possible n n , since when we look at powers of 2 2 , 2 10 = 1024 2^{10} = 1024 is the lowest power of 2 2 which written in scientific notation has the coefficient between 1 1 and 4 3 \dfrac43 . (This is because we want the next candidate to start with 3 3 )

Using the above we see that 15 15 satisfies this property, but 25 25 doesn't.

Now we repeatedly add 10 10 to the n n (exponent) until we reach a power of 2 2 which when written in scientific notation has the coefficient over 30 8 \dfrac{30}8 (This is because we want to lower the candidate little bit since repeatedly multiplying by 1024 1024 increased the value too much.), since 8 = 2 3 8 = 2^3 has the coefficient closest to 10 10 of all powers of 2 2 below 1024 1024 .

When we reach such n n , we add 3 3 to it and we have our next candidate.

Using this approach, we get that following positive integers n 200 n \leq 200 satisfy the property: 5 , 15 , 78 , 88 , 98 , 108 , 118 , 181 , 191 5,15,78,88,98,108,118,181,191 .

Hence, the answer is 9 \boxed{9} .

What if the first digit is 1, instead of 3?

Sharky Kesa - 4 years, 9 months ago

Log in to reply

It cannot be, since 5 n 5^n would need to be of form 1 0 k 10^k which clearly is impossible.

Jesse Nieminen - 4 years, 9 months ago

Log in to reply

Well reasoned but it should be written in your statement above, for anyone who missed it.

Sharky Kesa - 4 years, 9 months ago

I am not able to understand how you calculated that 3 3 must be the first digit. Please explain me clearly.

Priyanshu Mishra - 4 years, 9 months ago

Can you please elaborate the first line?

I am not able to understand it.

Thanks.

Harsh Shrivastava - 4 years, 9 months ago

Log in to reply

Edited the solution to include a better explanation.

Jesse Nieminen - 4 years, 9 months ago

Thanks a lot. I understood it perfectly.

Priyanshu Mishra - 4 years, 9 months ago

I do not under stand how you came up with 9. And plus if the property is 201 wouldn’t the answer be 201????????????????????????????

Ash Ketchup - 4 months ago

0 pending reports

×

Problem Loading...

Note Loading...

Set Loading...