Find the sum of all positive rational numbers less than 10 which have 30 as their denominator when written as fractions in their lowest terms.
This is from an old AIME
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.
A sweet solution to a sweet problem
There are 8 fractions which fit the conditions between 0 and 1: 3 0 1 , 3 0 7 , 3 0 1 1 , 3 0 1 3 , 3 0 1 7 , 3 0 1 9 , 3 0 2 3 , 3 0 2 9
Their sum is 4. Note that there are also 8 terms between 1 and 2 which we can obtain by adding 1 to each of our first 8 terms. For example, 1 + 3 0 1 9 = 3 0 4 9 . Following this pattern, our answer is 4 ( 1 0 ) + 8 ( 1 + 2 + 3 + ⋯ + 9 ) = 4 0 0 .
Problem Loading...
Note Loading...
Set Loading...
If a number fits this property than it has a numerator, n , where 1 ≤ n ≤ 2 9 9 and g c d ( n , 3 0 ) = 1 . If 1 ≤ n ≤ 3 0 there are 8 valid values of n , namely 1 , 7 , 1 1 , 1 3 , 1 7 , 1 9 , 2 3 , 2 9 . Now, if g c d ( n , 3 0 ) = 1 then g c d ( n + 3 0 k , 3 0 ) = 1 and if g c d ( n , 3 0 ) = 1 then g c d ( n + 3 0 k , 3 0 ) = 1 . Therefore all possible values of n are just these first 8 values plus multiples of 30. The sum of these first 8 number is 1 + 7 + 1 1 + 1 3 + 1 7 + 1 9 + 2 3 + 2 9 = 1 2 0 . Therefore the sum of all possible numbers (including division by 30) is 3 0 ( 1 2 0 ) + ( 1 2 0 + 3 0 × 8 ) + ( 1 2 0 + 6 0 × 8 ) + . . . + ( 1 2 0 + 2 7 0 × 8 ) = 3 0 1 2 0 × 1 0 + 2 4 0 ( 1 + 2 + . . . + 9 ) = 4 0 + 8 ∗ 4 5 = 4 0 0