2024 AIME II Problem 6

Attempt Problem 6 of the 2024 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 2024 AIME II solutions, or check the answer key.

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6.

Alice chooses a set AA of positive integers. Then Bob lists all finite nonempty sets BB of positive integers with the property that the maximum element of BB belongs to A.A. Bob's list has 20242024 sets. Find the sum of the elements of A.A.

Answer: 55
Concepts:subsetspower of 2number base
Difficulty rating: 2390
Solution:

For a fixed aA,a \in A, the sets BB with maximum element aa consist of aa together with an arbitrary subset of {1,,a1},\{1, \ldots, a - 1\}, so there are 2a12^{a-1} of them, and every set on Bob's list is counted exactly once by its maximum. Hence aA2a1=2024.\sum_{a \in A} 2^{a-1} = 2024.

Since 2024=210+29+28+272024 = 2^{10} + 2^9 + 2^8 + 2^7 +26+25+23+ 2^6 + 2^5 + 2^3 and binary representations are unique, A={11,10,9,8,7,6,4}.A = \{11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 4\}. The sum of the elements of AA is 11+10+9+8+7+611 + 10 + 9 + 8 + 7 + 6 +4=55.+ 4 = 55.

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