2023 AIME II Problem 13

Attempt Problem 13 of the 2023 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 2023 AIME II solutions, or check the answer key.

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13.

Let AA be an acute angle such that tanA=2cosA.\tan A = 2 \cos A. Find the number of positive integers nn less than or equal to 10001000 such that secnA+tannA\sec^n A + \tan^n A is a positive integer whose units digit is 9.9.

Answer: 167
Concepts:trigonometric identityrecursionunits digit
Difficulty rating: 3060
Small Hint:

With s=secAs = \sec A and t=tanA,t = \tan A, the condition says st=2,st = 2, and always s2t2=1,s^2 - t^2 = 1, so s2+t2=17s^2 + t^2 = \sqrt{17}

Big Hint:

sn+tns^n + t^n is an integer only when 44 divides n,n, and xj=s4j+t4jx_j = s^{4j} + t^{4j} satisfies xj+1=9xj16xj1;x_{j+1} = 9x_j - 16x_{j-1}; track the units digits

Solution:

Let s=secAs = \sec A and t=tanA.t = \tan A. The hypothesis tanA=2cosA\tan A = 2\cos A says tanAsecA=2,\tan A \sec A = 2, i.e. st=2,st = 2, and always s2t2=1.s^2 - t^2 = 1. Then (s2+t2)2(s^2 + t^2)^2 =(s2t2)2+4s2t2= (s^2 - t^2)^2 + 4s^2t^2 =17,= 17, so u=s2u = s^2 and v=t2v = t^2 satisfy u+v=17,u + v = \sqrt{17}, uv=4.uv = 4. The sums wm=um+vmw_m = u^m + v^m obey wm+1=17wm4wm1w_{m+1} = \sqrt{17}\,w_m - 4w_{m-1} with w0=2,w_0 = 2, w1=17;w_1 = \sqrt{17}; by induction, when mm is even, wmw_m is a positive integer, and when mm is odd, it is an integer times 17.\sqrt{17}.

For even n=2m,n = 2m, sn+tn=wm,s^n + t^n = w_m, an integer exactly when mm is even, i.e. 44 divides n.n. For odd n,n, (sn+tn)2(s^n + t^n)^2 =wn+2(st)n= w_n + 2 (st)^n =wn+2n+1= w_n + 2^{n+1} is irrational, so sn+tns^n + t^n is not an integer. Thus write n=4jn = 4j and xj=w2j.x_j = w_{2j}. Since u2+v2=9u^2 + v^2 = 9 and u2v2=16,u^2 v^2 = 16, the integers xjx_j satisfy xj+1=9xj16xj1,x0=2,x1=9, \begin{gathered} x_{j+1} = 9x_j - 16x_{j-1}, \\ x_0 = 2, \\ x_1 = 9, \end{gathered} giving 9,49,297,1889,9, 49, 297, 1889, \ldots whose units digits repeat with period three: 9,9,7.9, 9, 7. The units digit is 77 when 33 divides jj and 99 otherwise.

The valid n1000n \le 1000 are n=4jn = 4j with 1j2501 \le j \le 250 and jj not divisible by 3:3: there are 25083=167250 - 83 = 167 of them.

Problem 12#12
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