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1998 AHSME Problems/Problem 24

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Problem

Call a -digit telephone number memorable if the prefix sequence is exactly the same as either of the sequences or (possibly both). Assuming that each can be any of the ten decimal digits , the number of different memorable telephone numbers is

\mathrm{(A)}\ 19,810\qquad\mathrm{(B)}\ 19,910\qquad\mathrm{(C)}\ 19,990\qquad\mathrm{(D)}\ 20,000\qquad\mathrm{(E)}\ 20,100

Solution

Let represent the set of telephone numbers with \overline{d_1d_2d_3} = \overline{d_4d_5d_6} (of which there are possibilities for and for ), and those such that \overline{d_1d_2d_3} = \overline{d_5d_6d_7}. Then (the telephone numbers that belong to both and ) is the set of telephone numbers such that d_1 = d_2 = d_3 = d_4 = d_5 = d_6 = d_7, of which there are possibilities. By the Principle of Inclusion-Exclusion,

|A \cup B| = |A| + |B| - |A \cap B| = 1000 \times 10 + 1000 \times 10 - 10 = 19990 \Rightarrow \mathrm{(C)}

See also

1998 AHSME (Problems)
Preceded by
Problem 23
Followed by
Problem 25
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
Preparing for MATHCOUNTS or the AMC contests, and having a tough time with number theory problems? Read Art of Problem Solving's Introduction to Number Theory by Mathew Crawford.
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