2009 AIME I Problem 6

Below is the professionally curated solution for Problem 6 of the 2009 AIME I, from LIVE by Po-Shen Loh. You can also try the full timed exam, view all 2009 AIME I solutions, or check the answer key.

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Concepts:floor and ceiling functionscounting integers in a rangecasework

Difficulty rating: 2390

6.

How many positive integers NN less than 10001000 are there such that the equation xx=Nx^{\lfloor x \rfloor} = N has a solution for x?x? (The notation x\lfloor x \rfloor denotes the greatest integer that is less than or equal to x.x.)

Solution:

Suppose x=k\lfloor x \rfloor = k for a positive integer k.k. As xx runs over [k,k+1),[k, k+1), the value xkx^k increases continuously from kkk^k toward (k+1)k,(k+1)^k, so the attainable integers NN are exactly those with kkN(k+1)k1:k^k \le N \le (k+1)^k - 1: there are (k+1)kkk(k+1)^k - k^k of them, and these ranges are disjoint for different k.k. (Values of xx below 11 produce no new positive integers, since x0=1x^0 = 1 is already attained.)

For k=1,2,3,4k = 1, 2, 3, 4 the counts are 21=1,2 - 1 = 1, 94=5,9 - 4 = 5, 6427=37,64 - 27 = 37, and 625256=369,625 - 256 = 369, and every such NN is at most 624<1000.624 \lt 1000. For k=5k = 5 the smallest value is 55=3125>1000.5^5 = 3125 \gt 1000.

The total is 1+5+37+369=412.1 + 5 + 37 + 369 = 412.

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