2002 AIME I Problem 3

Attempt Problem 3 of the 2002 AIME I below, then check your answer against the professionally curated solution from LIVE by Po-Shen Loh. You can also try the full timed exam, view all 2002 AIME I solutions, or check the answer key.

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3.

Jane is 2525 years old. Dick is older than Jane. In nn years, where nn is a positive integer, Dick's age and Jane's age will both be two-digit numbers and will have the property that Jane's age is obtained by interchanging the digits of Dick's age. Let dd be Dick's present age. How many ordered pairs of positive integers (d,n)(d, n) are possible?

Answer: 25
Concepts:digitsagessystematic listing
Difficulty rating: 2300
Solution:

In nn years Jane's age is 25+n,25 + n, and Dick's age is its digit reversal. If Jane's future age is 10a+b,10a + b, Dick's is 10b+a,10b + a, which is larger exactly when b>a.b \gt a. Conversely, every two-digit value of 25+n25 + n with tens digit less than units digit yields exactly one valid pair: n=10a+b25n = 10a + b - 25 and d=10b+and = 10b + a - n =25+9(ba)>25,= 25 + 9(b - a) \gt 25, so Dick is indeed older than Jane now.

So we count two-digit numbers that are at least 2626 and have tens digit less than units digit: 44 starting with 22 (namely 2626 through 2929), then 6,6, 5,5, 4,4, 3,3, 2,2, 11 starting with 33 through 8.8. The total is 4+6+5+4+3+2+1=25.4 + 6 + 5 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 1 = 25.

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