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Printjmc
counting and probability senior
Problem
The numbers from 1 to 150, inclusive, are placed in a bag and a number is randomly selected from the bag. What is the probability it is not a perfect power (integers that can be expressed as where is an integer and is an integer greater than 1. For example, is a perfect power, while is not a perfect power)? Express your answer as a common fraction.
Solution
It is easier to count the number of integers from 1 to 150 that are perfect powers. We see there are 12 perfect squares from 1 to 150, namely , and there are 5 perfect cubes, namely . Notice all the perfect fourth powers are also perfect squares. Similarly, all the perfect sixth powers are also perfect squares. The only perfect powers not yet counted are and . Then notice there are two repetitions, and which we counted both as perfect squares and perfect cubes. So there is a total of integers from 1 to 150 that are perfect powers. Thus, integers are not perfect powers. The probability that we select such a number is .
Final answer
\frac{133}{150}