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Let $m,n, N$ be $3$ natural numbers. I want to know how many ordered pairs $(m,n)$ are possible such that $2^m\cdot 3^n< 10^N$.

My attempt: Taking $\log$ base $10$ on both sides, we have $m \log2 + n\log 3 < N$ Which is kind of a Diophantine inequality. How do I proceed now?

Also, can this approach be generalised for more than 2 primes?

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Assuming your natural numbers start at $0$, an exact expression would be $$\sum_{m=0}^{\left\lfloor\dfrac N{\log 2}\right\rfloor}\left\lfloor1+\dfrac {N-m\log 2}{\log 3}\right\rfloor.$$

We're basically letting $m$ assume all possible values, then for each $m$ calculating the range of possible $n$ values. This approach can be extended to multiple primes, e.g. $$\sum_{x_2=0}^{\left\lfloor\dfrac N{\log 2}\right\rfloor}\sum_{x_3=0}^{\left\lfloor\dfrac {N-x_2\log2}{\log 3}\right\rfloor}\sum_{x_5=0}^{\left\lfloor\dfrac {N-x_2\log2-x_3\log3}{\log 5}\right\rfloor}\left\lfloor1+\dfrac {N-x_2\log 2-x_3\log3-x_5\log5}{\log 7}\right\rfloor.$$

This is all a bit messy. If only $\log 2$ and $\log 3$ were integers, then we could use Pick's Theorem!

A fairly accurate approximation is $\dfrac12 \left(\left\lfloor\dfrac N{\log 2}\right\rfloor+1.5\right)\left(\left\lfloor\dfrac N {\log 3}\right\rfloor+1.5\right)$. This approximates the number of lattice points (points with integer coordinates) under the line $m \log 2 + n \log 3 = N$ by halving an (almost) average of what we'd get if we rounded down the intercepts vs. rounding up.

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  • $\begingroup$ Thank you very much for your answer. I have few questions, which are as follows: How did you get 1 in summand? Can we do it in similar way by letting n assume all possible values, if yes what is the explanation that it will lead to the same answer? How do you apply Pick's theorem in case of only 2 primes? How did you get the approximate value for the sum? $\endgroup$ Dec 23, 2019 at 4:07

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