Let , , and all exceed ,

and let be a positive

number such

Applying the change of base formula,

that
,

and

Find

.
Therefore,

Hence,

Let
, where
.
Determine the minimum value
taken by
the interval

for

in
.

It is best to get rid of the absolute value first.

Under the given circumstances, we notice that
,

, and

Adding these together, we find that the sum is equal to

which the minimum value is attained when

A machine shop cutting tool is

in the shape of a

The radius of the circle is

and that of
The angle

Because we are given a right angle, we look for ways to apply

the Pythagorean Theorem. Let the foot of the perpendicular from

notched circle, as shown.

cm, the length of

is 6 cm,

to

be

and let the foot of the perpendicular from

the line

be

find

. Let

and

is 2 cm.
is a right

distance (in centimeters)

circle.

to the center of the

Applying the Pythagorean Theorem,
and

Thus,
. We solve this system to get

, and
and

to

. We're trying to

angle. Find the square of the

from

, of

, resulting

in

Suppose that the sum of the

squares of two complex
numbers and is and the
sum of the cubes is . What
is the largest real value
that
can have?

One way to solve this problem seems to be by substitution.

and

Because we are only left with

too bad. Let

and

and

We get

and

Because we want the largest possible

for

in terms of

, substitution won't be

, let's find an expression

.
Substituting,

Factored,

(the Rational Root

Theorem may be used here, along with synthetic division)

The largest possible solution is therefore

Let
equal
.
Determine the remainder upon
dividing
by .
Twenty five of King Arthur's
knights are seated at their
customary round table. Three
of them are chosen - all
choices being equally likely and are sent of to slay a

35

We can use Complementary counting by finding the probability that

none are sitting next to each other and subtracting it from .
Imagine the

other (indistinguishable) people are already seated,

troublesome dragon. Let be

the probability that at least two
of the three had been sitting
next to each other. If is
written as a fraction in lowest
terms, what is the sum of the
numerator and the
denominator?

and fixed into place.

We will place
There are
and

, and

with and without the restriction.

places to place

places to place

are

, followed by

after

and

ways to place

places to place

. Hence, there
in between these people

with restrictions.
Without restrictions, there are
places to place

, and

places to place

places to place

Hence, there are

, followed by

after

ways to place

and

in between

these people without restrictions.

Thus, the desired amount
is

, and the

answer is

The numbers
,
,
and
have something in
common. Each is a four-digit
number beginning with that
has exactly two identical digits.
How many such numbers are
there?

Suppose the two identical digits are both one. Since the thousands
digits must be one, the other one can be in only one of three digits,

Because the number must have exactly two identical digits,

,

, and

. Hence, there are

numbers of

this form.
Suppose the two identical digits are not one. Therefore, consider
the following possibilities,

Again,

, and

. There are

numbers of this form as well.

Thus, the desired answer is

The solid shown has

a square base of side length .
The upper edge is parallel to
the base and has length

All other edges have length .

Given that

, what is

the volume of the solid?

Extend
at

and

to meet at

, and

and

. Now, we have a regular tetrahedron

to meet
, which has

twice the volume of our original solid. This tetrahedron has side
length

. Using the formula for the volume of a regular

tetrahedron, which is

, where S is the side length of

the tetrahedron, the volume of our original solid is:

The length of diameter

is

a two digit integer. Reversing

the digits gives the length of a
perpendicular chord

. The

Let

and

that

. It follows
and

Applying the Pythagorean Theorem on

.
and

distance from their intersection

point

to the center

is a

positive rational number.

Determine the length of

.
.
Because

is a positive rational number, the

quantity
Either

cannot contain any square roots.

or

must be 11. However,

because both must be digits. Therefore,

and

must be a perfect square (since

cannot be 11,
must equal eleven
). The

only pair
is

For
and
each of its non-empty subsets,
an alternating sum is defined
as follows. Arrange the
number in the subset in
decreasing order and then,
beginning with the largest,
alternately add and subtract
succesive numbers. For
example, the alternating sum
for
s

Let

that satisfies this condition is

be a non- empty subset of

Then the alternating sum of

an

plus the alternating sum of

included is 7. In mathematical terms,

with 7

. This is

true because when we take an alternating sum, each term of

has the opposite sign of each corresponding term of
Because there are

, so our answer

of these pairs, the sum of all possible

subsets of our given set is

. However, we forgot to include

d for
it is simply . Find
the sum of all such alternating
sums for
.

the subset that only contains , so our answer is

In the adjoining figure, two

Observe that the length of the area where the two circles intersect

circles with radii

can be found explicitly as . Let

and

are

drawn with their centers

units apart. At

, one of the

points of intersection, a line is

drawn in such a way that the
chords

and

have

equal length. Find the square

of the length of

of point

with regards to the larger circle gives

, then the power

The adjoining figure shows

Let

two intersecting chords in

circle

a circle, with

with diameter

arc

on minor

. Suppose that the

be any fixed point on circle

chord

and let

. The locus of midpoints

be a chord of

of the chord

. Generally, the circle

is a circle

can intersect the

at two points, one point, or they may not have a point of

radius of the circle is ,

intersection. By the problem condition, however, the circle

that

tangent to BC at point N.

, and that

is bisected by
further that

is

. Suppose
is the only

chord starting at
bisected by

which is
. It follows that

Let M be the midpoint of the chord

,

. From right triangle

Thus,

the sine of the minor arc

is a rational number. If this

Notice that the distance

fraction is expressed as a

equals

fraction

in lowest terms,

what is the product

(Where

is

the radius of circle P). Evaluating

this,
From

.
, we see

that
Next, notice that
therefore apply the tangent subtraction formula to
obtain
,

. We can

. It follows that

, resulting in an

answer of

Find the value

of

One approach to this problem is to apply the formula for the sum of

if , ,
is
an arithmetic
progression with common
difference 1,
and

an arithmetic series in order to find the value of

calculate

and sum another arithmetic series to get our answer.

A somewhat quicker method is to do the following: for each

we have

, then use that to

. We can substitute this into our given

equation to
get

. The left-hand side of this equation is

simply

, so our desired value

is

A point

is chosen in the

interior of

such that

when lines are drawn

By the transversals that go through

are similar to each other by the

, all four triangles

postulate. Also, note that the

length of any one side of the larger triangle is equal to the sum of

through

parallel to the sides

of

, the resulting

smaller triangles ,

, and

the sides of each of the corresponding sides on the smaller

triangles. We use the identity

to show that the

in the figure, have areas , ,

areas are proportional (the sides are proportional and the angles

and

are equal) Hence, we can write the lengths of corresponding sides

area of

, respectively. Find the

.

of the triangle as
the large triangle is
is

. Thus, the corresponding side on

, and the area of the triangle

Let be a list of positive

integers - not
necessarily distinct - in which
the number
appears.
The arithmetic mean of the
numbers in is . However,
if
is removed, the arithmetic
mean of the numbers is .
What's the largest number that
can appear in ?

Suppose

has

members other than 68, and the sum of these

members is . Then we're given that

and

Multiplying to cleardenominators, we have

and

so

and

. Because the sum and number of the elements of

we want to maximize the largest number in
but one member of
members of

are fixed, if

, we should take all

to be as small as possible. Since all

are positive integers, the smallest possible value of

a member is 1. Thus the largest possible element

is

Determine the value of

if

an

Use the change of base formula to see that

combine denominators to find that

. Doing the same

thing with the second equation yields that

. This

means that

and

that

. If we multiply the two

equations together, we get that

, so taking the fourth

root of that, 512.

The
equation
ha
s complex roots with
argument between
an
d
in the complex plane.
Determine the degree
measure of .

The substitution
to
roots

simplifies the equation

. Applying the quadratic formula gives
, which have arguments of

respectively. This means

the only one between 90 and 180 is

and
, and

In tetrahedron
, edg
e
has length 3 cm. The
area of face
is
and the area of face
is
. These two faces
meet each other at a
angle. Find the volume of the
tetrahedron in
.

Position face

on the bottom.

Since
that

, we find
. The height of

forms a

the height of the tetrahedron, so

. The volume of

the tetrahedron is thus

Mary told John her score on

the American High School
Mathematics Examination
(AHSME), which was over .
From this, John was able to
determine the number of
problems Mary solved
correctly. If Mary's score had
been any lower, but still
over , John could not have
determined this. What was
Mary's score? (Recall that the
AHSME consists of
multiple choice problems and
that one's score, , is
computed by the
formula
,
where is the number of
correct answers and is the

with

Therefore, Mary could not have left at least five blank; otherwise, 1
more correct and 4 more wrong would produce the same score.
Similarly, Mary could not have answered at least four wrong
(clearly Mary answered at least one right to have score above 80,
or even 30.) It follows that

and

and

, so
. So Mary

scored at least 119. To see that no result other than 23 right/3

wrong produces 119, note that
so

. But if

result given; otherwise

, then
and

, which was the

, but this implies at least

31 questions, a contradiction. This makes the minimum

number of wrong answers.

(Students are not penalized for
problems left unanswered.)
A gardener plants three maple
trees, four oaks, and five birch
trees in a row. He plants them
in random order, each
arrangement being equally
likely. Let
in lowest terms
be the probability that no two
birch trees are next to one
another. Find
.

score

The five birch trees must be placed amongst the seven previous
trees. We can think of these trees as 7 dividers of 8 slots that the

birch trees can go in, making

this.

There are

total ways to arrange the twelve trees, so

the probability is

The answer is

Let , , and
be
the vertices of a
regular tetrahedron each of
whose edges measures 1
meter. A bug, starting from
vertex , observes the
following rule: at each vertex it
chooses one of the three
edges meeting at that vertex,
each edge being equally likely
to be chosen, and crawls
along that edge to the vertex
at its opposite end.

Let

denote the probability that the bug is at

crawled

meters. Since the bug can only be at vertex

left a vertex which is not

after it has

, so we can quickly compute

and

if it just

, we have

We also know

,
, so the answer is

. One can

solve this recursion fairly easily to determine a closed-form

expression for

Let
be
the probability that the bug is
at vertex when it has
crawled exactly 7 meters. Find
the value of .

different ways to arrange

In a tournament each
player played exactly
one game against each
of the other players. In
each game the winner
was awarded 1 point,
the loser got 0 points,
and each of the two
players earned 1/2 point
if the game was a tie.
After the completion of
the tournament, it was
found that exactly half
of the points earned by
each player were
earned against the ten
players with the least
number of points. (In
particular, each of the
ten lowest scoring
players earned half of
her/his points against
the other nine of the
ten). What was the total
number of players in the
tournament?

Let us suppose for convenience that there

were
players over all. Among the players
not in the weakest 10 there were
games played
and thus
points earned. By the givens, this
means that these players also earned
points
against our weakest 10. Now, the 10 weakest
players playing amongst themselves
played
games and so earned 45 points
playing each other. Then they also earned 45 points
playing against the stronger players. Since every
point earned falls into one of these categories, It
follows that the total number of points earned
was
. However, there was
one point earned per game, and there were a total
of
thus

games played and

points earned. So we

have
s
o
an
d
and
or
. Now, note
that the top players got
points in total (by
our previous calculation) for an average of
,
while the bottom 10 got 90 points total, for an
average of 9. Thus we must have
, so
and the answer is
.

A small square is
constructed inside a
square of area 1 by
dividing each side of the
unit square into equal
parts, and then
connecting
the vertices to the
division points closest
to the opposite vertices.
Find the value of if the
the area of the small
square is exactly

A sequence of integers
is chosen so
that
for
each
. What is the sum
of the first 2001 terms of this
sequence if the sum of the first
1492 terms is 1985, and the
sum of the first 1985 terms is
1492?
As shown in the

The lines passing through and divide the square

into three parts, two right triangles and
a parallelogram. Using the smaller side of the
parallelogram,
, as the base, where the height is
1, we find that the area of the parallelogram is
. By the Pythagorean Theorem, the longer base of
the parallelogram
has length
so the parallelogram has

height
. But the height of the
parallelogram is the side of the little square,
so
. Solving this quadratic
equation gives
.

Then by the givens,

so
is

and
and so the answer

bases are actually the same, and thus in the same ratio. As a

figure, triangle

is
result, we have:

divided into six smaller

triangles by lines drawn from
the vertices through a

or

equivalently

and so

Applying identical reasoning to the triangles with bases

common interior point.

The areasof four of these

and

triangles are as indicated. Find

and

the area of triangle

previous one gives

, we get

area of

Determine

so that
. Substituting from this equation into the
, from which we get

and so the

is

As in Solution 1, we have
if

Now the coefficient of

on both sides must be equal. Therefore

we
have

36=>ANSWER

Assume that , , , and

It follows from the givens that

are positive integers such

perfect fifth power,

is a perfect fourth power,

is a perfect square and

is a

is a perfect cube.

that

Thus, there existintegers

and such that

and

and

. So

Determine

this equation as a difference of two

. We can factor the left-hand side of

squares,

. 19 is a prime

number and

so we must have

and

. Then

and

and so
.

When a right triangle is rotated

Let one leg of the triangle have length

about one leg, the volume of

length . When we rotate around the leg of length , the result is a

the cone produced

is

. When

the triangle is rotated about

and let the other leg have

cone of height and radius , and so of volume

Likewise, when we rotate around the leg of length

the other leg, the volume of

of height

the cone produced

divide this equation by the previous one, we

is

and radius

we get a cone

and so of volume

. If we

. What is the
get

length (in cm) of

the hypotenuse of the
triangle?

, so

Then
o

if , , and

so

and

. Then by the Pythagorean Theorem, the hypotenuse has

length
Find

Expanding out both sides of the given equation we

are positive integers which

have

satisfy

numbers are equal if and only if their real parts and imaginary

, where

. Two complex

parts are equal, so

and

. Since

are integers,

this means

is adivisor of 107, which is a prime number. Thus

either

or

so

. If

, but

is not divisible by 3, a

contradiction. Thus we must have

and
Thus

(since we know

is positive).
.

so

Determine
,

if
, and

Adding all five equations gives

satisfy the

system of equations below.

us

. Subtracting this from the

fourth given equation gives

and subtracting it from the

fifth given equation gives

is

If

an

, what

is

Since

, so our answer
.

is the reciprocal function of

Thus,
Using the tangent addition formula:

The pages of a book are

numbered

through . When

the page numbers of the book

Denote the page number as , with

shows that

were added, one of the page

large, disregard it for now and solve

numbers was mistakenly

positive root for

added twice, resulting in an

that

incorrect sum of

. What

was the number of the page

that was added twice?

is

is too large, but if we plug in

. The sum formula

. Since

cannot be very
. The

. Quickly testing, we find

we find that our answer
.

The

Rewrite all of the terms in base 3. Since the numbers are sums

increasing sequence

of distinct powers of 3, in base 3 each number is a sequence of 1s

consi

and 0s (if there is a 2, then it is no longer the sum of distinct

sts of all those

powers of 3). Therefore, we can recast this into base 2 (binary) in

positive integers which

order to determine the 100th number.

are powers of 3 or sums of

to

distinct powers of 3. Find

must change it back to base 10 for the answer, which

the

is

term of this

is equal

, so in binary form we get

. However, we

sequence.
In

and

. An

interior point

is then drawn,

and segments are drawn

through

parallel to the sides

of the triangle. If these three

segments are of an equal
length , find .
Let the points at which the segments hit the triangle be
called

as shown above. As a result of the

lines being parallel, all three smaller triangles and the larger
triangle are similar (
). The remaining
three sections areparallelograms.
Since
similarly

is a parallelogram, we find
.

So
Thus
Since

, and

.
. By the same logic,
, we have the proportion:

Doing the same with

, we find that

Now,

.
In a parlor game, the magician
asks one of the participants to

Let

be the number

that

. Observe
so

think of a three digit number

(abc) where a, b, and c
represent digits in base 10 in
the order indicated. The

This reduces

magician then asks this

also

person to form the

numbers (acb), (bca), (bac

namely

to one of 136, 358, 580, 802. But

s
. Only one of the values of

satisfies this,

), (cab), and (cba), to add

these five numbers, and to
reveal their sum,
value of

. If told the

, the magician can

identify the original number,

(abc). Play the role of the
magician and determine the
(abc) if

In a sequence of coin tosses,

one can keep a record of
instances in which a tail is
immediately followed by a
head, a head is immediately
followed by a head, and etc.
We denote these by TH, HH,

Let's consider each of the sequences of two coin tosses as

an operation instead; this operation takes a string and adds the
next coin toss on (eg,THHTH + HT = THHTHT). We examine what
happens to the last coin toss. Adding HH or TT is simply
an identity for the last coin toss, so we will ignore them for now.
However, adding HT or TH switches the last coin. H switches

and etc. For example, in the

sequence HHTTHHHHTHHTTTT

to T three times, but T switches to H four times; hence it follows

that our string will have a structure of THTHTHTH.

of 15 coin tosses we observe

that there are fiveHH, three HT,

Now we have to count all of the different ways we can add the

two TH, and

identities back in. There are 5 TT subsequences, which means that

four TT subsequences. How

we have to add 5 Tinto the strings, as long as the new Ts are

many different sequences of

adjacent to existing Ts. There are already 4 Ts in the sequence,

15 coin tosses will contain

and since order doesnt matter between different tail flips this just

exactly two HH, three HT,

becomes the ball-and-urn argument. We want to add 5 balls into 4

four TH, and

urns, which is the same as 3 dividers; hence this

five TT subsequences?
gives

combinations. We do the same with 2 Hs to

get

combinations; thus there

are

possible sequences.

The shortest distances

between an
interior diagonal of a
rectangular parallelepip
ed, , and the edges it
does not meet are
,
, and
.
Determine
the volume of .

In the above diagram, we focus on the line that

appears closest and is parallel to
. All the blue
lines are perpendicular lines to
and their other
points are on
, the main diagonal. The green
lines are projections of the blue lines onto the

bottom face; all of the green lines originate in the

corner and reach out to
, and have the same
lengths as their corresponding blue lines. So we
want to find the shortest distance between
and
that corner, which is
We see that
Therefore
Find
if and
e integers such
that

ar

.
,

.
.

If we move the
is factorable:

term to the left side, it

.
is equal to
. Since and are
integers,
cannot equal a multiple of three.
doesn't work either, so
, and
.
This leaves
, so
.
Thus,
.

Rectangle

is divided

Since

and the areas of

into four parts of equal area by

the trapezoids

five segments as shown in the

heights of the trapezoids are the same. Thus both trapezoids have

figure,

and

. This number is

also equal to one quarter the area of the entire rectangle, which
is parallel to

Find the length of

if

are the same, then the

area

where

, and

and

cm
cm.

is

, so we have

(in cm)
In addition, we see that the perimeter of the rectangle
is

, so

Solving these two equations gives

Triangle

has right

angle at

, and contains

them is equal to

a point

for which

triangles

and

. Find

Let

angles

. Since

, each of
. By the Law of Cosines applied to

and

, remembering that

at their respective
, we have

.
Then by the Pythagorean Theorem,

, so

and

Al walks down to the bottom of

an escalator that is moving up
and he counts 150 steps. His
friend, Bob, walks up to the
top of the escalator and counts
75 steps. If Al's speed of
walking (in steps per unit time)
is three times Bob's walking
speed, how many steps are
visible on the escalator at a

Let the total number of steps be , the speed of the escalator be

and the speed of Bob be .
In the time it took Bob to climb up the escalator he saw 75 steps
and also climbed the entire escalator. Thus the contribution of the
escalator must have been an addition

steps. Since Bob

and the escalator were both moving at a constant speed over the
time it took Bob to climb, the ratio of their distances covered is the
same as the ratio of their speeds, so

given time? (Assume that this

Similarly, in the time it took Al to walk down the escalator he saw

value is constant.)

150 steps, so the escalator must have moved

that time. Thus

or

Equating the two values of

so

steps in
.

we have

and

and

and

, the

answer.

Squares

and

are inscrib

ed in right triangle

, as

shown in the figures below.

Find

if

area
area

and
.

Because all the triangles in the figure are similar to triangle

it's a good idea to use area ratios. In the diagram

above,
d

Hence,

an

. Additionally, the area of triangle

both

is equal to

and

Setting the equations equal and solving for

,

Therefore,

. However,

is equal to the area of triangle

between the areas
sides is

and

! This means that the ratio

is

. As a

result,
need
because

, and the ratio between the

. We now
to find the value of

,
.

Let

denote the height to the hypotenuse of triangle

Notice that
by the corresponding height of

. (The height of

.
decreased

Thus,

Because
,

Find
f

Raise both as exponents with base 8:

A quick explanation of the steps: On the 1st step, we

use the property of logarithms that
. On the
2nd step, we use the fact that
. On
the 3rd step, we use the change of base formula,
which states

In an office at various
times during the day,
the boss gives the
secretary a letter to

for arbitrary .

type, each time putting

the letter on top of the
pile in the secretary's inbox. When there is
time, the secretary
takes the top letter off
the pile and types it.
There are nine letters to
be typed during the day,
and the boss delivers
them in the
order

While leaving for lunch, the secretary tells a

colleague that letter has already been typed, but
says nothing else about the morning's typing. The
colleague wonders which of the nine letters remain
to be typed after lunch and in what order they will be
typed. Based upon the above information, how many
such after-lunch typing orders are possible? (That
there are no letters left to be typed is one of the
possibilities.)