2025 AMC 12B Problem 24

Attempt Problem 24 of the 2025 AMC 12B 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 2025 AMC 12B solutions, or check the answer key.

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24.

How many real numbers satisfy the equation sin(20πx)=log20(x)?\sin(20\pi x) = \log_{20}(x)?

199199

200200

398398

399399

400400

Answer: D
Concepts:trigonometrylogarithmcounting intersections
Difficulty rating: 2520
Small Hint:

A solution needs 1log20x1,-1 \le \log_{20} x \le 1, so xx lies in [120,20]\left[\tfrac{1}{20}, 20\right]

Big Hint:

On each monotonic half-wave of sin(20πx)\sin(20\pi x) the slowly rising log crosses once; count the branches carefully at both ends

Solution:

Since sin(20πx)1,|\sin(20\pi x)|\le1, every solution lies in [120,20].\left[\tfrac1{20},20\right]. For x<1x\lt1 the logarithm is negative, so only the 1010 negative sine lobes in [120,1]\left[\tfrac1{20},1\right] can contribute. Each has one crossing on each side of its minimum; on the last lobe, the second crossing is the endpoint x=1.x=1. Hence this part contributes 2020 solutions.

For x>1,x\gt1, only positive lobes contribute. There are 190190 of them: one in each interval from 1+k101+\tfrac{k}{10} to 1+k10+1201+\tfrac{k}{10}+\tfrac1{20} for 0k189.0\le k\le189. Every one after the first has one crossing on each side of its maximum. The first has only one new crossing because its left endpoint is the already-counted solution x=1.x=1. Thus x>1x\gt1 contributes 1+2189=3791+2\cdot189=379 more solutions.

For completeness, the claimed uniqueness on each half-lobe follows by differentiating the difference of the two sides. On a falling positive half-lobe it is strictly decreasing. On a rising positive half-lobe its derivative increases and then decreases once, so the difference crosses from negative to positive only once. Applying the same argument to sin(20πx)+log20x-\sin(20\pi x)+\log_{20}x handles a negative lobe. The total is 20+379=399.20+379=399.

Thus, the correct answer is D.

Problem 23#23
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