Numbering Rectangular Tiles
Emma plays with her square unit tiles by arranging all of them into different shaped rectangular figures. (For example, a $ 5 $ by $ 7 $ rectangle would use $ 35 $ tiles and would be considered the same rectangle as a $ 7 $ by $ 5 $ rectangle). Emma can form exactly ten different such rectangular figures that each use all of her tiles. What is the least number of tiles Emma could have?
- 1
- 2
- 3
- +
- 4
- 5
- 6
- -
- 7
- 8
- 9
- $\frac{a}{b}$
- .
- 0
- =
- %
- $a^n$
- $a^{\circ}$
- $a_n$
- $\sqrt{}$
- $\sqrt[n]{}$
- $\pi$
- $\ln{}$
- $\log$
- $\theta$
- $\sin{}$
- $\cos{}$
- $\tan{}$
- $($
- $)$
- $[$
- $]$
- $\cap$
- $\cup$
- $,$
- $\infty$
Solution
Let $ k $ be the number of tiles. There are two cases: If $ k $ has twenty divisors, then we can divide them into ten pairs, which gives us 10 ways to write $ k $ as the product of two positive integers. Alternatively, if $ k $ has 19 divisors, then $ k $ is a square. So other than the square case, there are $ (19 - 1)/2 = 9 $ ways to write $ k $ as the product of two positive integers, which gives us a total of $ 9 + 1 = 10 $ ways.
If the prime factorization of $ k $ is $ p_1^{e_1} p_2^{e_2} \dotsm p_n^{e_n}, $ then the number of divisors of $ k $ is
\[(e_1 + 1)(e_2 + 1) \dotsm (e_n + 1).\]Note that $ e_i \ge 1 $ for each $ i, $ so each factor $ e_i + 1 $ is at least 2.
If $ k $ has 19 divisors, then $ k $ must be of the form $ p^{18}, $ where $ p $ is prime. The smallest number of this form is $ 2^{18} = 262144 $.
Otherwise, $ k $ has 20 divisors. We want to write 20 as the product of factors, each of which are least 2. Here are all the ways:
\[20 = 2 \cdot 10 = 4 \cdot 5 = 2 \cdot 2 \cdot 5.\]
Thus, we have the following cases.
(i) $ k=p^{19} $ for some prime $ p $. The smallest such $ k $ is attained when $ p=2, $ which gives $ k=2^{19} $.
(ii) $ k=pq^9 $ for distinct primes $ p $ and $ q $. The smallest such $ k $ is attained when $ p = 3 $ and $ q = 2 $ which gives $ k=2^9\cdot3 $.
(iii) $k=p^3 q^4 $ for distinct primes $ p $ and $ q $. The smallest such $ k $ is attained when $ p = 3 $ and $ q = 2, $ which gives $ k=2^4\cdot3^3=432 $.
(iv) $k=pqr^4 $ for distinct primes $ p, $ $ q, $ and $ r $. The smallest such $ k $ is attained when $ p = 3, $ $ q = 5, $ and $ r = 2, $ which gives $ k=2^4\cdot3\cdot5=240 $.
Therefore, the least number of tiles Emma could have is $ \boxed{240} $ tiles.