2012 AMC 10B Problem 10

Attempt Problem 10 of the 2012 AMC 10B 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 2012 AMC 10B solutions, or check the answer key.

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10.

How many ordered pairs of positive integers (M,N)(M,N) satisfy the equation M6=6N?\frac{M}{6}=\frac{6}{N}?

6 6

7 7

8 8

9 9

10 10

Answer: D
Concepts:factor countingprime factorization
Difficulty rating: 960
Solution:

By cross multiplying, we can see that MN=36.MN = 36. Thus, we can make MM any factor of 3636 and then determine NN from it.

Since 36=2232,36=2^2\cdot 3^2, we have (2+1)(2+1)=9(2+1)(2+1)=9 possible choices for M,M, each of which also determine a unique N.N.

Thus, the correct answer is D .

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