Difference between revisions of "2002 AMC 12A Problems/Problem 20"

Revision as of 20:21, 1 July 2019

Problem

Suppose that $a$ and $b$ are digits, not both nine and not both zero, and the repeating decimal $0.\overline{ab}$ is expressed as a fraction in lowest terms. How many different denominators are possible?

$\text{(A) }3 \qquad \text{(B) }4 \qquad \text{(C) }5 \qquad \text{(D) }8 \qquad \text{(E) }9$

Solution

Solution 1

The repeating decimal $0.\overline{ab}$ is equal to $\frac{10a+b}{100} + \frac{10a+b}{10000} + \cdots = (10a+b)\cdot\left(\frac 1{10^2} + \frac 1{10^4} + \cdots \right) = (10a+b) \cdot \frac 1{99} = \frac{10a+b}{99}$

When expressed in lowest terms, the denominator of this fraction will always be a divisor of the number $99 = 3\cdot 3\cdot 11$ . This gives us the possibilities $\{1,3,9,11,33,99\}$ . As $a$ and $b$ are not both nine and not both zero, the denominator $1$ can not be achieved, leaving us with $\boxed{(C)5}$ possible denominators.

(The other ones are achieved e.g. for $ab$ equal to $33$ , $11$ , $9$ , $3$ , and $1$ , respectively.)

Solution 2

Another way to convert the decimal into a fraction (no idea what it's called). We have $$ (Error compiling LaTeX. Unknown error_msg)10\cdot 0.ab = ab.ab...

2002 AMC 12A (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 19	Followed by Problem 21
1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17 • 18 • 19 • 20 • 21 • 22 • 23 • 24 • 25
All AMC 12 Problems and Solutions

These problems are copyrighted © by the Mathematical Association of America, as part of the American Mathematics Competitions.

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 === Solution 2 ===
+Another way to convert the decimal into a fraction (no idea what it's called). We have <math></math>10\cdot 0.ab = ab.ab...
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