2010 AMC 12A Problem 23

Attempt Problem 23 of the 2010 AMC 12A 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 2010 AMC 12A solutions, or check the answer key.

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

23.

The number obtained from the last two nonzero digits of 90!90! is equal to n.n. What is n?n?

1212

3232

4848

5252

6868

Answer: A
Concepts:modular arithmeticChinese Remainder Theoremtrailing zeros
Difficulty rating: 2390
Solution:

The number of trailing zeroes in 90!90! is 905+9025=21.\left\lfloor\dfrac{90}{5}\right\rfloor+\left\lfloor\dfrac{90}{25}\right\rfloor=21. Let N=90!1021.N=\dfrac{90!}{10^{21}}.

There are still more than two factors of 22 left after removing 1021,10^{21}, so N0(mod4).N\equiv0 \pmod4.

Let AA be the product of factors of 90!90! not divisible by 5,5, and let BB be the product of the factors divisible by 5.5. Each block (5j+1)(5j+2)(5j+3)(5j+4)(5j+1)(5j+2)(5j+3)(5j+4) is 241(mod25),24\equiv-1\pmod{25}, and there are 1818 blocks, so A1(mod25).A\equiv1\pmod{25}.

After removing the 2121 factors of 55 from B,B, the remaining factors can be grouped as B521=(1234)(6789)(11121314)(161718)(123)1(mod25). \begin{aligned} \dfrac{B}{5^{21}}={}&(1\cdot2\cdot3\cdot4) \\ &\cdot(6\cdot7\cdot8\cdot9) \\ &\cdot(11\cdot12\cdot13\cdot14) \\ &\cdot(16\cdot17\cdot18)(1\cdot2\cdot3) \\ &\equiv-1\pmod{25}. \end{aligned}

Therefore 90!5211(mod25).\dfrac{90!}{5^{21}}\equiv-1\pmod{25}. Since 2212(mod25)2^{21}\equiv2\pmod{25} and the inverse of 22 modulo 2525 is 13,13, we get N1312(mod25).N\equiv-13\equiv12\pmod{25}.

The number congruent to 0(mod4)0\pmod4 and 12(mod25)12\pmod{25} is 12(mod100),12\pmod{100}, so the last two nonzero digits form 12.12.

Thus, A is the correct answer.

← Problem 22#22
Full Exam

Problem 23 in Other Years