AMC 10 Step by Step

2013 AMC 10A Problem 13

P11-15~4 minPrint

How many three-digit numbers are not divisible by 55 , have digits that sum to less than 2020 , and have the first digit equal to the third digit?

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Key insight

The number is aba with a not 5. Small a allows every middle digit b; for a from 6 to 9, b must be below 20 - 2a.

Solution

  1. What the numbers look like. The first and last digits are the same, so the number is a b aa\,b\,a, like 373373 or 808808. Here aa is 11 to 99 and bb is 00 to 99.
  2. Not divisible by 5. A number is divisible by 55 when it ends in 00 or 55. It ends in aa, and aa is never 00, so we just need a≠5a \ne 5.
  3. Digit sum less than 20. The digits add to a+b+a=2a+ba + b + a = 2a + b, and we need 2a+b<202a + b < 20, so b<20−2ab < 20 - 2a.
  4. Go through the values of aa.
aabb must be less thanallowed bbhow many
1, 2, 3, 418 or moreall of 0 to 910 each, so 40
5(not allowed)—0
680 to 78
760 to 56
840 to 34
920, 12

For small aa the biggest possible sum is 2×4+9=172 \times 4 + 9 = 17, which is already under 2020, so every bb works.
5. Add. 40+8+6+4+2=6040 + 8 + 6 + 4 + 2 = 60.

The answer is (B) 60\boxed{\textbf{(B)}\ 60}.

Why this works

The "first digit equals last digit" rule leaves only two digits to choose. Each other rule then limits one of them. Going through aa one value at a time makes the digit-sum rule easy: it never matters for small aa, and for large aa the counts drop by 22 each time.

Alternative approach

Count the bad ones and subtract. There are 9×10=909 \times 10 = 90 numbers of the form a b aa\,b\,a. Take away the 1010 with a=5a = 5, leaving 8080. The ones with digit sum 2020 or more need a≥6a \ge 6: that is 2,4,6,82, 4, 6, 8 numbers for a=6,7,8,9a = 6, 7, 8, 9, or 2020 in all. So 80−20=6080 - 20 = 60.

Concise solution

A shorter write-up, the way contest solutions are usually written. It may take a different route from the solution above.

Write the number as aba‾\overline{aba} with 1≤a≤91 \le a \le 9 and 0≤b≤90 \le b \le 9. The last digit is aa, so "not divisible by 55" means a≠5a \ne 5 (and a≠0a \ne 0, already excluded). The digit sum condition is 2a+b<202a + b < 20.

Case a∈{1,2,3,4}a \in \{1, 2, 3, 4\}: 2a+b≤8+9=17<202a + b \le 8 + 9 = 17 < 20, so all 1010 values of bb work: 4⋅10=404 \cdot 10 = 40 numbers.

Case a=6a = 6: need b<8b < 8, so b=0,…,7b = 0, \dots, 7: 88 numbers.

Case a=7a = 7: need b<6b < 6: 66 numbers.

Case a=8a = 8: need b<4b < 4: 44 numbers.

Case a=9a = 9: need b<2b < 2: 22 numbers.

Total: 40+8+6+4+2=6040 + 8 + 6 + 4 + 2 = 60.

The answer is (B) 60\boxed{\textbf{(B)}\ 60}.

Review in the AoPS books

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Problem © Mathematical Association of America (MAA), American Mathematics Competitions. Reproduced for non-commercial educational use. Solution and commentary are original to this site.