Difference between revisions of "1998 AHSME Problems/Problem 5"

Latest revision as of 13:28, 5 July 2013

If $2^{1998}-2^{1997}-2^{1996}+2^{1995} = k \cdot 2^{1995},$ what is the value of $k$ ?

$\mathrm{(A) \ } 1 \qquad \mathrm{(B) \ } 2 \qquad \mathrm{(C) \ } 3 \qquad \mathrm{(D) \ } 4 \qquad \mathrm{(E) \ } 5$

$2^{1998} - 2^{1997} - 2^{1996} + 2^{1995}$

Factor out $2^{1995}$ :

$2^{1995}(2^{3} - 2^{2} - 2^{1} + 1)$

Simplify:

$2^{1995}\cdot (8 - 4 - 2 + 1)$

$2^{1995}\cdot (3)$

By comparing the answer with the original equation, $k=3$ , and the answer is $\text{(C)}.$

Divide both sides of the original equation by $2^{1995}$ , giving:

$2^3 - 2^2 - 2^1 + 1 = k$

$k = 3$ , and the answer is $\boxed{C}$

1998 AHSME (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 4	Followed by Problem 6
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 • 26 • 27 • 28 • 29 • 30
All AHSME Problems and Solutions

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 == See also ==
 {{AHSME box|year=1998|num-b=4|num-a=6}}
+{{MAA Notice}}