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1984 AIME Problems/Problem 14

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Problem

What is the largest even integer that cannot be written as the sum of two odd composite numbers?

Solution

Let the desired integer be 2n for some positive integer n. Notice that we must have 2n-9, 2n-15, 2n-21, 2n-25, ..., 2n-k all prime for every odd composite number k less than 2n. Therefore n must be small. Also, we find that n is not divisible by 3, 5, 7, and so on. Clearly, n must be a prime. We can just check small primes and guess that n=19 gives us our maximum value of 38.

See also

1984 AIME (ProblemsResources)
Preceded by
Problem 13
Followed by
Problem 15
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Want to learn how to tackle those tough MATHCOUNTS and AMC counting and probability problems? Check out Art of Problem Solving's Introduction to Counting & Probability by David Patrick.
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