2011 AIME II Problem 8

Attempt Problem 8 of the 2011 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 2011 AIME II solutions, or check the answer key.

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8.

Let z1,z_1, z2,z_2, z3,z_3, ,\ldots, z12z_{12} be the 1212 zeroes of the polynomial z12236.z^{12} - 2^{36}. For each j,j, let wjw_j be one of zjz_j or izj.iz_j. Then the maximum possible value of the real part of j=112wj\sum_{j=1}^{12} w_j can be written as m+n,m + \sqrt{n}, where mm and nn are positive integers. Find m+n.m + n.

Answer: 784
Concepts:roots of unitycomplex numberoptimization
Difficulty rating: 2560
Solution:

The zeroes are zj=8(cosπj6+isinπj6)z_j = 8\left(\cos\frac{\pi j}{6} + i\sin\frac{\pi j}{6}\right) for j=1,,12,j = 1, \ldots, 12, and Re(izj)=Im(zj).\operatorname{Re}(iz_j) = -\operatorname{Im}(z_j). Since the choices are independent, the maximum real part of the sum is j8max(cosπj6,sinπj6).\sum_j 8\max\left(\cos\frac{\pi j}{6},\, -\sin\frac{\pi j}{6}\right).

Comparing the two values, sinπj6-\sin\frac{\pi j}{6} is larger exactly for j=5,,10.j = 5, \ldots, 10. The cosines kept, for j=1,2,3,4,11,12,j = 1, 2, 3, 4, 11, 12, sum to 32+12+012+32+1=1+3, \begin{aligned} &\frac{\sqrt{3}}{2} + \frac{1}{2} + 0 - \frac{1}{2} \\ &\quad {}+ \frac{\sqrt{3}}{2} + 1 = 1 + \sqrt{3}, \end{aligned} and the values sinπj6-\sin\frac{\pi j}{6} kept, for j=5,,10,j = 5, \ldots, 10, sum to 12+0+12+32+1+32=1+3. \begin{aligned} &-\frac{1}{2} + 0 + \frac{1}{2} + \frac{\sqrt{3}}{2} \\ &\quad {}+ 1 + \frac{\sqrt{3}}{2} = 1 + \sqrt{3}. \end{aligned}

The maximum is 8(2+23)=16+163=16+768, \begin{aligned} &8\left(2 + 2\sqrt{3}\right) \\ &= 16 + 16\sqrt{3} \\ &= 16 + \sqrt{768}, \end{aligned} so m+n=16+768=784.m + n = 16 + 768 = 784.

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