2006 AMC 12A Problems/Problem 10

Problem

For how many real values of $x$ is $\sqrt{120-\sqrt{x}}$ an integer?

$\mathrm{(A) \ } 3\qquad \mathrm{(B) \ } 6\qquad \mathrm{(C) \ } 9\qquad \mathrm{(D) \ } 10\qquad \mathrm{(E) \ } 11$

For $\sqrt{120-\sqrt{x}}$ to be an integer, $120-\sqrt{x}$ must be a perfect square.

Since $\sqrt{x}$ can't be negative, $120-\sqrt{x} \leq 120$ .

The perfect squares that are less than or equal to $120$ are $\{0,1,4,9,16,25,36,49,64,81,100\}$ .

So there are $11$ values for $120-\sqrt{x}$ .

Since every value of $120-\sqrt{x}$ gives one and only one possible value for $x$ , the number of values of $x$ is $11 \Rightarrow E$