2017 AMC 8 Problems/Problem 5

Problem

What is the value of the expression $\frac{1 \cdot 2 \cdot 3 \cdot 4 \cdot 5 \cdot 6 \cdot 7 \cdot 8}{1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8}$ ?

$\textbf{(A) }1020\qquad\textbf{(B) }1120\qquad\textbf{(C) }1220\qquad\textbf{(D) }2240\qquad\textbf{(E) }3360$

Solution 1

Directly calculating:

We evaluate both the top and bottom: $\frac{40320}{36}$ . This simplifies to $\boxed{\textbf{(B)}\ 1120}$ .

Solution 2

It is well known that the sum of all numbers from $1$ to $n$ is $\frac{n(n+1)}{2}$ . Therefore, the denominator is equal to $\frac{8 \cdot 9}{2} = 4 \cdot 9 = 2 \cdot 3 \cdot 6$ . Now, we can cancel the factors of $2$ , $3$ , and $6$ from both the numerator and denominator, only leaving $8 \cdot 7 \cdot 5 \cdot 4 \cdot 1$ . This evaluates to $\boxed{\textbf{(B)}\ 1120}$ .

Solution 3

First, we evaluate $1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8$ to get 36. We notice that 36 is 6 squared, so we can factor the denominator like $\frac{1 \cdot 2 \cdot 3 \cdot 4 \cdot 5 \cdot 6 \cdot 7 \cdot 8}{6 \cdot 6}$ then cancel the 6s out,\ to get $\frac{4 \cdot 5 \cdot 7 \cdot 8}{1}$ . Now that we have escaped fraction form, we multiply $4 \cdot 5 \cdot 7 \cdot 8$ . Multiplying these, we get $\boxed{\textbf{(B)}\ 1120}$ .

Video Solution (CREATIVE THINKING!!!)

https://youtu.be/O5thBbTXpeY

~Education, the Study of Everything

Video Solution

https://youtu.be/cY4NYSAD0vQ

https://youtu.be/tGa0YTskTsw

~savannahsolver

Video Solution by OmegaLearn

https://youtu.be/TkZvMa30Juo?t=3529

~pi_is_3.14

2017 AMC 8 (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
All AJHSME/AMC 8 Problems and Solutions

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

Page

Toolbox

Search