This is the second blog that I've done for a problem set question, and I chose question number 20. Here is the question.
20. What is the largest positive integer n that satisfies n^200 < 3^500 ?
(A) 13 (B) 14 (C) 15 (D) 16 (E) 17
This question looks a lot harder than it is. So the first thing that i did when i saw this question was that i out 3^500 into my calculator. Of course, it didn't work, the number was way to big to fit on the screen. After that, i stared at the question for a while, wondering what to do. Then it hit me, i could take the two zeroes off from both sides. I decided to try it, the equation became n^2 < 3^5. It was a lot simpler after that. 3^5 is 243, so i had to find that highest square that didn't go over that. It was 15x15, which was 225. That made the answer 15, which meant it was C.
I like this question because it looked so hard, but it actually wasn't. When i figured out how to solve it, I felt happy because I figured it out.
I learned from this question that it is important to simplify complicated questions into simpler ones so that it is possible for you to solve them. I can apply this to all the other times that I will be doing math and i know that it will help me a lot.
- casie
