2020 AMC 10B Problem 9

Attempt Problem 9 of the 2020 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 2020 AMC 10B solutions, or check the answer key.

All problems are used with official legal permission of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA).

9.

How many ordered pairs of integers (x,y)(x, y) satisfy the equation x2020+y2=2y?x^{2020}+y^2=2y?

11

22

33

44

infinitely many

Answer: D
Concepts:Diophantine Equationcompleting the squarebounding to limit cases
Difficulty rating: 1070
Solution:

Move all terms to one side and complete the square: x2020+y2=2yx2020+(y1)2=1. \begin{aligned} &x^{2020}+y^2=2y \\ &\quad \Longrightarrow x^{2020}+(y-1)^2=1. \end{aligned} Because (y1)20,(y-1)^2\ge 0, we must have x20201.x^{2020}\le 1. Since xx is an integer, x=1,0,1.x=-1,0,1.

If x=±1,x=\pm1, then (y1)2=0,(y-1)^2=0, so y=1.y=1. If x=0,x=0, then (y1)2=1,(y-1)^2=1, so y=0y=0 or 2.2. This gives 44 ordered pairs.

Thus, D is the correct answer.

← Problem 8#8
Full Exam

Problem 9 in Other Years