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smc

number theory senior

Problem

How many nonnegative integers can be written in the form where for ?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
Solution
This looks like balanced ternary, in which all the integers with absolute values less than are represented in digits. There are 8 digits. Plugging in 8 into the formula for the balanced ternary gives a maximum bound of , which means there are 3280 positive integers, 0, and 3280 negative integers. Since we want all nonnegative integers, there are integers or .
Final answer
D