YouTube's algorithm, which somehow knows about my interest in GRE math questions, has been sending me a slew of Math Olympics-style problems lately, and I've been woefully unable to solve most of them. I watch each video, see the trick, and think to myself, Fuck—why didn't I think of that? The trick usually turns out to be something I know already but didn't think of. By contrast, the above problem was easy and obvious; it didn't require knowing any tricks, and I was able to solve it with almost no effort. See how well you do. Good luck!
TRIVIA: my solution to the problem was less complicated than the solution in the video. I'll leave my solution in the comments.
My solution:
ReplyDeleteThe original problem is 50^50 / 25^25 = ?
Change that to (5·10)^50 / (5^2)^25.
Change that to (5·10)^50 / 5^50.
Change that to [(5^50)·(10^50)] / 5^50.
Cancel the 5^50 terms, and you're left with
10^50. A 1 with 50 zeroes behind it.
I'm worse at math than punctuation. 'Nuff said.
ReplyDelete