AMC 10 Step by Step

2017 AMC 10B Problem 20

P16-20~4 minPrint

The number 21!=51,090,942,171,709,440,00021!=51,090,942,171,709,440,000 has over 60,00060,000 positive integer divisors. One of them is chosen at random. What is the probability that it is odd?

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Key insight

21! has eighteen factors of 2. Divisors split into 19 equal groups by how many 2s they contain, and the odd ones are one group.

Solution

Try a small case first. Take 12=22⋅312 = 2^2 \cdot 3. Its divisors, sorted by how many 22s they contain:

number of 22s001122
divisors1,31, 32,62, 64,124, 12

Each group has the same size, because each group is just the odd divisors 1,31, 3 multiplied by 11, 22 or 44. The odd divisors are one group out of 33. The same idea works for 21!21!; we only need to know how many 22s it contains.

1. Count the 22s in 21!=1⋅2⋅3⋯2121! = 1 \cdot 2 \cdot 3 \cdots 21.
- Every even number gives at least one 22: there are 1010 even numbers up to 2121.
- Multiples of 44 give a second 22: 4,8,12,16,204, 8, 12, 16, 20, that is 55 more.
- Multiples of 88 give a third: 8,168, 16, that is 22 more.
- Multiples of 1616 give a fourth: 1616, that is 11 more.
- Total: 10+5+2+1=1810 + 5 + 2 + 1 = 18.
2. So 21!=218⋅M21! = 2^{18} \cdot M, where MM is odd.
3. Every divisor of 21!21! is (a power of 22 from 202^0 to 2182^{18}) times (a divisor of MM). That is 1919 possible powers of 22, and each one goes with the same list of divisors of MM. So the divisors split into 1919 groups of equal size.
4. The odd divisors are exactly the group with 20=12^0 = 1, one group out of 1919.

The probability is 119\frac{1}{19}.

The answer is (B) 119\boxed{\textbf{(B)}\ \frac{1}{19}}.

Why this works

"Odd" depends only on the number of 22s in a divisor, and every allowed number of 22s (from 00 up to 1818) comes with the same set of choices for the other primes. So the fraction of odd divisors is always 11 divided by (the number of 22s plus one). The huge number and the "over 60,00060{,}000" are there only to distract.

Concise solution

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

Find the power of 22 in 21!21! by counting multiples of 22, 44, 88, 1616 up to 2121:
⌊212⌋+⌊214⌋+⌊218⌋+⌊2116⌋=10+5+2+1=18.\left\lfloor \tfrac{21}{2} \right\rfloor + \left\lfloor \tfrac{21}{4} \right\rfloor + \left\lfloor \tfrac{21}{8} \right\rfloor + \left\lfloor \tfrac{21}{16} \right\rfloor = 10 + 5 + 2 + 1 = 18.
So 21!=218⋅M21! = 2^{18} \cdot M with MM odd.

A divisor of 21!21! is 2k⋅d2^k \cdot d, where 0≤k≤180 \le k \le 18 and dd is a divisor of MM. For each of the 1919 possible values of kk there are the same number of choices of dd, so the divisors split into 1919 equal groups according to their power of 22. The odd divisors are exactly the group with k=0k = 0.

The probability is 119\frac{1}{19}.

The answer is (B) 119\boxed{\textbf{(B)}\ \frac{1}{19}}.

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.