AoPSWiki
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.
Personal tools

2003 AIME I Problems/Problem 13

From AoPSWiki

Problem

Let N be the number of positive integers that are less than or equal to 2003 and whose base-2 representation has more 1's than 0's. Find the remainder when N is divided by 1000.

Solution

In base-2 representation, all positive numbers have a leftmost digit of 1. Thus there are {n \choose k} numbers that have n+1 digits in base 2 notation, with k+1 of the digits being 1's.

In order for there to be more 1's then 0's, we must have k+1 > \frac{d+1}{2} \Longrightarrow k > \frac{d-1}{2} \Longrightarrow k \ge \frac{d}{2}. Therefore, the number of such numbers corresponds to the sum of all numbers on or to the right of the vertical line of symmetry in Pascal's Triangle, from rows 0 to 10 (as 2003 < 2^{11}-1). Since the sum of the elements of the rth row is 2^r, it follows that the sum of all elements in rows 0 through 10 is 2^0 + 2^1 + \cdots + 2^{10} = 2^{11}-1 = 2047. The center elements are in the form {2i \choose i}, so the sum of these elements is \sum_{i=0}^{5} {2i \choose i} = 1 + 2 +6 + 20 + 70 + 252 = 351.

The sum of the elements on or to the right of the line of symmetry is thus \frac{2047 + 351}{2} = 1199. However, we also counted the 44 numbers from 2004 to 2^{11}-1 = 2047. Indeed, all of these numbers have at least 6 1's in their base-2 representation, as all of them are greater than 1984 = 11111000000_2, which has 5 1's. Therefore, our answer is 1199 - 44 = 1155, and the remainder is \boxed{155}.

See also

2003 AIME I (ProblemsResources)
Preceded by
Problem 12
Followed by
Problem 14
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Our Precalculus course starts on Dec. 4. Master trig, complex numbers, and vectors and matrices in 2 and 3 dimensions. Click here to enroll today!
© Copyright 2008 AoPS Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. • FoundationPrivacyContact Us