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Estonian Math Competitions

Estonia algebra

Problem

How many positive integers, where the only allowed digits are and , are less than ?
Solution
The given number has digits. There are positive integers with at most digits each of which is either or . We solve the problem by subtracting the number of positive integers that are not less than the given number. The -digit numbers larger than the given number are all of the form . There are numbers in this form. Among them, numbers , , and are less than the given number. Thus the number of positive integers consisting of zeros and ones and being less than is .

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Alternative solution.

Ordering any two digit sequences that constitute a positional representation on different bases does not depend on the base. This means that if a number is larger than another number on base then the first number is larger than the second number also on base . The number on base equals on base . Hence, to solve the problem, it suffices to count all positive integers less than . The result is obviously .
Final answer
2019

Techniques

IntegersOtherOther