Problem 6 (2005 AIME II) — AIME 2005 · USAMO Guide - Olympiad Mathematics Learning Platform

Problem 6 (2005 AIME II)

AIME 2005

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Understand the scale

Scale 0.5: Easiest math competition problems, often solvable even for early middle school students without experience. 1: Problems strictly for beginners, often at a moderate middle school level. 1.5: Problems for stronger beginner students, on the level of the middling problems in most middle school contests. 2: For motivated beginners, harder questions from the previous categories. 2.5: More advanced beginner problems, hardest questions from previous categories. 3: Early intermediate problems that require more creative thinking. 3.5: Tougher early intermediate problems that consistently stretch into higher-level creative thinking or conceptual knowledge. 4: Intermediate-level problems. 4.5: Upper intermediate problems approaching the upper bound for non-invitational sprint math competitions. 5: More difficult AIME problems or simple proof-based Olympiad-style problems. 6: High-level AIME-styled questions or introductory Olympiad-level questions. 7: Tougher Olympiad-level questions, may require more technical knowledge. 8: High-level Olympiad-level questions. 9: Expert Olympiad-level questions. 9.5: The hardest problems appearing on Olympiads which the strongest students could reasonably solve. 10: Historically notorious problems, generally unsuitable for even very hard competitions because they are exceedingly tedious, long, and difficult.

Problem

The cards in a stack of $2n$ cards are numbered consecutively from 1 through $2n$ from top to bottom. The top $n$ cards are removed, kept in order, and form pile $A.$ The remaining cards form pile $B.$ The cards are then restacked by taking cards alternately from the tops of pile $B$ and $A,$ respectively. In this process, card number $(n+1)$ becomes the bottom card of the new stack, card number 1 is on top of this card, and so on, until piles $A$ and $B$ are exhausted. If, after the restacking process, at least one card from each pile occupies the same position that it occupied in the original stack, the stack is named magical. For example, eight cards form a magical stack because cards number 3 and number 6 retain their original positions. Find the number of cards in the magical stack in which card number 131 retains its original position.

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