2009 AIME II Problem 13

Attempt Problem 13 of the 2009 AIME II 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 2009 AIME II solutions, or check the answer key.

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13.

Let AA and BB be the endpoints of a semicircular arc of radius 2.2. The arc is divided into seven congruent arcs by six equally spaced points C1,C_1, C2,C_2, ,\ldots, C6.C_6. All chords of the form ACi\overline{AC_i} or BCi\overline{BC_i} are drawn. Let nn be the product of the lengths of these twelve chords. Find the remainder when nn is divided by 1000.1000.

Answer: 672
Concepts:roots of unitycomplex numberchord
Difficulty rating: 3160
Solution:

Put the circle in the complex plane with center 0,0, A=2,A = -2, B=2,B = 2, and Ci=2ωiC_i = 2\omega^i for i=1,,6,i = 1, \ldots, 6, where ω=eiπ/7.\omega = e^{i\pi/7}. Then ACi=2ωi+1AC_i = 2\,|\omega^i + 1| and BCi=2ωi1,BC_i = 2\,|\omega^i - 1|, so ACiBCi=4ω2i1.AC_i \cdot BC_i = 4\,\bigl|\omega^{2i} - 1\bigr|.

As ii runs over 1,,6,1, \ldots, 6, the numbers ω2i=e2πii/7\omega^{2i} = e^{2\pi i \cdot i/7} run over all six nontrivial 77th roots of unity ζj.\zeta^j. Since j=16(xζj)\prod_{j=1}^{6} (x - \zeta^j) =1+x++x6,= 1 + x + \cdots + x^6, plugging in x=1x = 1 gives j=161ζj=7.\prod_{j=1}^{6} \bigl|1 - \zeta^j\bigr| = 7. Therefore n=i=164ω2i1=467=28672. \begin{aligned} n &= \prod_{i=1}^{6} 4\,\bigl|\omega^{2i} - 1\bigr| \\ &= 4^6 \cdot 7 = 28672. \end{aligned}

The remainder when nn is divided by 10001000 is 672.672.

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