Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
vn
SASMO 2014 Round 1 Primary 2 Problems
7. There are 14 children playing “The eagle catches the chicks.” One of them is the
‘eagle’ while another child is the ‘mother hen’ whose job is to protect the ‘chicks’.
The rest of the children are the ‘chicks’. After a while, the ‘eagle’ has caught 5
‘chicks’. How many ‘chicks’ are still running around?
(a) 6
(b) 7 (c) 8 (d) 9 (e) 10
Solution
2. Ten lampposts are equally spaced along a straight line. The distance between two
consecutive lampposts is 40 m. What is the distance between the first and the last
lampposts?
(a) 360 m
(b) 380 m
(c) 400 m
(d) 420 m
(e) None of the above
Solution
Distance between the first and the last lampposts = 40 m 9 gaps = 360 m (a)
Solution
From the third term onwards, the next term is obtained by adding the previous two
terms.
the next term is 3 + 5 = 8 (c)
4. Jane wrote the word STUDENTS thrice. How many times did she write the letter S?
(a) 2
(b) 4
(c) 6
(d) 8
(e) 10
Solution
Solution
Method 1
Numbers between 37 and 47 that are exactly divisible by 2 are: 38, 40, 42, 44 and 46.
Of these 5 numbers, only 42 is exactly divisible by 3.
the number between 37 and 47 that is exactly divisible by both 2 and 3 is 42 (c).
Method 2
A number that is exactly divisible by both 2 and 3 must also be exactly divisible by 6.
he only number between 37 and 47 that is exactly divisible by 6 is 42.
the number between 37 and 47 that is exactly divisible by both 2 and 3 is 42 (c).
6. A shop sells sweets where every 3 sweet wrappers can be exchanged for one more
sweet. Ali has enough money to buy only 7 sweets. What is the biggest number of
sweets that he can get from the shop?
(a) 7
(b) 8
(c) 9
(d) 10
(e) 11
Solution
7. There are 14 children playing “The eagle catches the chicks.” One of them is the
‘eagle’ while another child is the ‘mother hen’ whose job is to protect the ‘chicks’.
The rest of the children are the ‘chicks’. After a while, the ‘eagle’ has caught 5
‘chicks’. How many ‘chicks’ are still running around?
(a) 6
(b) 7
(c) 8
(d) 9
(e) 10
Solution
Solution
Method 1
7 A = 3 8 + 4 8 = 24 + 32 = 56
A = 56 7 = 8 (e)
Method 2
7 A = 3 8 + 4 8 = (3 + 4) 8 = 7 8
A = 8 (e)
9. Two $1 coins and ten 50¢ coins are randomly distributed among 4 children such that
each child receives the same number of coins. What is the difference between the
biggest amount and the smallest amount a child can receive?
(a) 50¢
(b) $1
(c) $1.50
(d) $2
(e) None of the above
Solution
10. Tim is 8 years old and Sally is 4 years old. How old will Sally be when Tim is 14
years old?
(a) 7
(b) 8
(c) 9
(d) 10
(e) None of the above
Solution
Method 1
Method 2
11. In the following alphametic, all the different letters stand for different digits. Find P
and I.
I
I
+ I
P I
Solution
I 3 = _I
By guess and check, the only possible solution for I is 5.
5 + 5 + 5 = 15, i.e. P = 1 and I = 5.
12. A box contains 4 balls of different colours (red, green, yellow and blue) lying in a
row. The green ball is not the second ball. The red ball is neither the first nor the last
ball. The yellow ball is neither next to the red ball nor next to the blue ball. What is
the order of the balls in the box from first to last?
Solution
The red ball is neither the first nor the last ball.
Suppose the red ball is the third ball:
The yellow ball is neither next to the red ball nor next to the blue ball.
This means that the yellow ball is the first ball, and the blue ball is the last ball:
Method 3
Method 4
The pattern for the no. of white squares is 8, 10, 12, …, which is equal to 2 4, 2 5,
2 6, …
no. of white squares that will surround one row of 50 black squares = 2 53
= 106 (e)
15. The diagram shows 9 points. Draw 4 consecutive line segments (i.e. the start point of
the next segment must coincide with the endpoint of the previous segment) to pass
through all the 9 points.
Solution
If you try to draw the line segments within the region bounded by the dots, you will
realise that you need at least 5 consecutive line segments.
you must draw some of the line segments outside the region as shown:
1. Jane is 9 years old and John is 5 years old. How old will John be when Jane is 15
years old?
11. What is the least number of cuts required to cut 16 identical sausages so that they can
be shared equally among 24 people?
12. A vending machine accepts 10¢ coins, 20¢ coins, 50¢ coins and $1 coins only. Ivy
wants to buy a can of drinks that costs $1.60. She has eight 10¢ coins, three 20¢ coins,
two 50¢ coins and one $1 coin. If she wants to get rid of as many coins as possible,
what is the combination of coins that she should put inside the vending machine?
13. The total cost of a pen and a pencil is $2.90. The pen costs 60¢ more than the pencil.
What much does the pen cost?
16. In the following alphametic, all the different letters stand for different digits. Find the
three-digit sum SEE.
A S
+ A
S E E
18. A teacher has a bag of sweets to treat her class. If she gave 5 sweets to each student,
then she would have 40 sweets left. If she gave 7 sweets to each student, then she
would have 6 sweets left. How many students and how many sweets are there?
19. What are the last 2 digits of the sum 1 + 11 + 111 + … + 111…111?
50 digits
20. Alvin tells the truth on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. He lies on all
other days. Doris tells the truth on Monday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. She lies on
all other days. One day they both said, “Yesterday I lied.” When was that ‘one day’?
1. Jane is 9 years old and John is 5 years old. How old will John be when Jane is 15
years old?
Solution
Method 1
Method 2
Solution
Solution
Method 1
8 B = 3 9 + 5 9 = 27 + 45 = 72
A = 72 8 = 9
Method 2
8 B = 3 9 + 5 9 = (3 + 5) 9 = 8 9
A=9
Solution
Method 1
4 3 = 4 3 + 4 3 = 13
3 4 = 3 4 + 3 4 = 11
4 3 3 4 = 13 11 = 2
Method 2
43=43+43=43+1
34=34+34=341
4 3 3 4 = 1 (1) = 2
5. Jane has a rope of length 23 cm. She wants to cut the rope so that she can form the
biggest possible square, where the length of each side, in cm, is a whole number.
What is the length of the rope that she must cut to form the square?
Solution
Since 5 cm 4 = 20 cm, and 6 cm 4 = 24 cm, then the biggest possible square that
she can form has a length of 5 cm.
length of rope that she must cut to form the square = 5 cm 4 = 20 cm
6. Find the missing term in the following sequence: 1, 2, 6, 24, _____, 720.
Solution
2 3 4 5 6
Solution
There are 20 soldiers on one side and 19 soldiers on the other side.
length of Stadium Street = 20 m (20 – 1) gaps = 380 m
8. A shop sells sweets where every 3 sweet wrappers can be exchanged for one more
sweet. Sharon has enough money to buy only 11 sweets. What is the biggest number
of sweets that she can get from the shop?
Solution
9. At a workshop, there are 10 participants. Each of them shakes hand once with one
another. How many handshakes are there?
1 + 9 = 10
2 + 8 = 10
3 + 7 = 10 4 pairs
4 + 6 = 10
5
10. Ali uses identical square tiles to make the following figures. If he continues using the
same pattern, how many tiles will there be in the 15th figure?
Solution
Method 1
The two corner tiles are the same for all figures.
the 15th figure will have 15 3 + 2 = 47 tiles.
Method 2
Method 3
Method 4
The no. of tiles in each figure is equal to the “area of the rectangle” minus the “area of
the hole in the middle”.
11. What is the least number of cuts required to cut 16 identical sausages so that they can
be shared equally among 24 people?
Solution
12. A vending machine accepts 10¢ coins, 20¢ coins, 50¢ coins and $1 coins only. Ivy
wants to buy a can of drinks that costs $1.60. She has eight 10¢ coins, three 20¢ coins,
two 50¢ coins and one $1 coin. If she wants to get rid of as many coins as possible,
what is the combination of coins that she should put inside the vending machine?
Solution
To get rid of as many coins as possible, we try to use as many coins with the smallest
value (i.e. the 10¢ coins) as possible.
If Ivy uses all the eight 10¢ coins, then what is left is $1.60 80¢ = 80¢.
Unfortunately, Ivy has only three 20¢ coins, which is not enough.
So she has to use a 50¢ coin.
But 50¢ + 20¢ = 70¢, which is 10¢ short.
In other words, she can’t use all the eight 10¢ coins.
she has to use seven 10¢ coins, one 50¢ coin and two 20¢ coins.
13. The total cost of a pen and a pencil is $2.90. The pen costs 60¢ more than the pencil.
What much does the pen cost?
Solution
Make a systematic list, starting with a random guess: pencil costs $1 and pen costs
$1.60.
Pen 60¢
$2.90
Pencil
Solution
Since 3N3 gives a remainder of 1 when divided by 9, then 3N3 1 = 3N2 is divisible
by 9.
Using the divisibility test for 9, 3 + N + 2 = N + 5 is also divisible by 9.
N = 4.
15. Charles has 16 marbles. He divides them into 4 piles so that each pile has a different
number of marbles. Find the smallest possible number of marbles in the biggest pile.
Solution
For each pile to have a different number of marbles, and the biggest pile to have the
smallest possible number of marbles, put 1 marble in the 1st pile, 2 marbles in the
2nd pile, 3 marbles in the 3rd pile and 4 marbles in the 4th pile. So the biggest pile is
the 4th pile, but there are only 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = 10 marbles.
The 11th marble will have to go to the 4th pile so that each pile will have a different
number of marbles. The 12th marble cannot go to the 4th pile because we want to
find the smallest possible number of marbles in the biggest pile, so the 12th marble
will have to go to the 3rd pile. Similarly, the 13th and 14th marbles will go to the 2nd
and 1st piles respectively.
The 15th marble will go to the 4th pile again, and the 16th marble to the 3rd pile.
the largest pile (which is the 4th pile) will contain 4 + 1 + 1 = 6 marbles.
16. In the following alphametic, all the different letters stand for different digits. Find the
three-digit sum SEE.
A S
+ A
S E E
Solution
Since the addition of two digits will give a maximum of 18, or a maximum of 19 if
there is a carryover (or renaming) of 1, this means that the maximum carryover is
1.
So A = 9 and there is a carryover of 1 for A to give 10, i.e. S = 1 and E = 0.
91 + 9 = 100, i.e. the three-digit sum SEE is 100.
Solution 1
18. A teacher has a bag of sweets to treat her class. If she gave 5 sweets to each student,
then she would have 40 sweets left. If she gave 7 sweets to each student, then she
would have 6 sweets left. How many students and how many sweets are there?
Solution
If the teacher gave 5 sweets to each student, then she would have 40 sweets left.
From the 40 sweets left, if she gave 2 more sweets to each student so that each student
has 7 sweets, then she would have 6 left.
This means that she gave a total of 40 6 = 34 sweets from the 40 sweets left to the
students.
Since each student receives only 2 more sweets (i.e. the 6th and 7th sweets), then there
are 34 2 = 17 students.
20. Alvin tells the truth on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. He lies on all
other days. Doris tells the truth on Monday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. She lies on
all other days. One day they both said, “Yesterday I lied.” When was that ‘one day’?
Solution
If Alvin tells the truth on that ‘one day’ that he lied ‘yesterday’, then that ‘one day’
must be Monday.
If Alvin tells the lie on that ‘one day’ that he lied ‘yesterday’, then he must be telling
the truth ‘yesterday’ and so that ‘one day’ must be Friday.
based on Alvin, it has to be either Monday or Friday.
If Carol tells the truth on that ‘one day’ that she lied ‘yesterday’, then that ‘one day’
must be Friday.
If Carol tells the lie on that ‘one day’ that she lied ‘yesterday’, then she must be
telling the truth ‘yesterday’ and so that ‘one day’ must be Tuesday.
based on Carol, it has to be either Tuesday or Friday.
Hence, that ‘one day’, when they both said that they lied ‘yesterday’, has to be Friday.
14. How many digits are there before the fifteen 7 of the following number?
37337333733337333337…
15. A box contains 30 coloured pens: 15 blue, 10 red and 5 black. Alice takes some pens
from the box without looking at the colours of the pens. What is the least number of
pens she must take so that she has at least 8 pens of the same colour?
Section B [2 marks for each question]
16. In the following alphametic, all the different letters stand for different digits. Find the
four-digit sum PEEL.
A M
+ L A P
P E E L
17. A teacher has a bag of sweets to treat her class. If she gave 4 sweets to each student,
then she would have 82 sweets left. If she gave 9 sweets to each student, then she
would have 2 sweets left. How many students and how many sweets are there?
18. When Amy, Betty and Cheryl eat out, each orders either beef or chicken.
a. If Amy orders beef, Betty orders chicken.
b. Either Amy or Cheryl orders beef, but not both.
c. Betty and Cheryl do not both order chicken.
Who could have ordered beef yesterday and chicken today?
19. What are the last 3 digits of the sum 1 + 11 + 111 + … + 111…111?
70 digits
20. The diagram shows 9 points. Draw 4 consecutive line segments (i.e. the start point of
the next segment must coincide with the endpoint of the previous segment) to pass
through all the 9 points.
1. Find the missing term in the following sequence: 1, 4, 9, 16, _____, 36.
Solution
2. Find the smallest whole number between 1 and 100 that is divisible by 5 and by 7.
Solution
3. A frog fell into a drain that was 20 cm deep. After one hour, it mastered enough
energy to make a jump of 6 cm but it then slid down 4 cm. If it continued in this
manner after every one hour, how many hours will it take to get out of the drain?
Solution
4. The diagram shows a circle with centre O and radius 5 cm. OABC is a rectangle. What
is the length of AC?
A B
O C
Solution
AC = OB (diagonal of rectangle)
= 5 cm (radius of circle)
Solution
6. A shop sells sweets where every 3 sweet wrappers can be exchanged for one more
sweet. Kelvin has enough money to buy only 19 sweets. What is the biggest number
of sweets that he can get from the shop?
Solution
7. A clock takes 6 seconds to make 3 chimes. Assuming that the rate of chiming is
constant, and the duration of each chime is negligible, how long does the clock take to
make 4 chimes?
Solution
8. The diagram shows a square being divided into four rectangles. If the sum of the
perimeter of the four rectangles is 32 cm, find the area of the square.
Solution
9. Alvin, Betty and Cheryl scored a total of 2014 points during a competition. Betty
scored 271 points less than Alvin. Betty scored 3 times as many points as Cheryl.
How many points did Betty score?
Solution
Cheryl
Betty 2014
Alvin 271
Method 2
There are 1 white square on the left side and 1 white square on the right side of the
row of black squares.
The pattern for the no. of white squares is 3 2 + 2, 4 2 + 2, 5 2
figure number with 2014 white squares = (2014 2) 2 2 = 1004
Method 3
Method 4
The pattern for the no. of white squares is 8, 10, 12, …, which is equal to 2 4, 2 5,
2 6, …
figure number with 2014 white squares = 2014 2 3 = 1004
Solution
No. of 1 1 squares = 16 = 42
No. of 2 2 squares = 9 = 32
No. of 3 3 squares = 4 = 22
No. of 4 4 squares = 1 = 12
total no. of squares in a 4 4 square grid = 12 + 22 + 32 + 42 = 30
14. How many digits are there before the fifteen 7 of the following number?
37337333733337333337…
Solution
Method 1
1 + 15 = 16
2 + 14 = 16
3 + 13 = 16 7 pairs
7 + 9 = 16
8
total no. of digits before the fifteen 7 of the number = 14 + (7 16) + 8 = 134
Method 2
15. A box contains 30 coloured pens: 15 blue, 10 red and 5 black. Alice takes some pens
from the box without looking at the colours of the pens. What is the least number of
pens she must take so that she has at least 8 pens of the same colour?
Solution
Worst case scenario for all the pens taken out by Alice to be of different colours:
7 blue, 7 red and 5 black, i.e. a total of 19 pens.
Then the next pen taken out has to be either blue or red, i.e. Alice will have at least 8
pens of the same colour, either 8 blue or 8 red pens.
least no. of pens Alice must take so that she has at least 8 pens of the same colour
= 19 + 1 = 20
16. In the following alphametic, all the different letters stand for different digits. Find the
four-digit sum PEEL.
A M
+ L A P
P E E L
Solution
Since the addition of two digits will give a maximum of 18, or a maximum of 19 if
there is a carryover (or renaming) of 1, this means that the maximum carryover is
1.
So L = 9 and there is a carryover of 1 for L to give 10, i.e. P = 1 and E = 0.
the four-digit sum PEEL is 1009.
17. A teacher has a bag of sweets to treat her class. If she gave 4 sweets to each student,
then she would have 82 sweets left. If she gave 9 sweets to each student, then she
would have 2 sweets left. How many students and how many sweets are there?
Solution
If the teacher gave 4 sweets to each student, then she would have 82 sweets left.
From the 82 sweets left, if she gave 5 more sweets to each student so that each student
has 9 sweets, then she would have 2 left.
This means that she gave a total of 82 2 = 80 sweets from the 82 sweets left to the
students.
Since each student receives only one 5 more sweets (i.e. the 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th
sweets), then there are 80 5 = 16 students.
there are 16 9 + 2 = 146 sweets.
18. When Amy, Betty and Cheryl eat out, each orders either beef or chicken.
a. If Amy orders beef, Betty orders chicken.
b. Either Amy or Cheryl orders beef, but not both.
c. Betty and Cheryl do not both order chicken.
Who could have ordered beef yesterday and chicken today?
Solution
If Amy orders beef, Condition a says that Betty orders chicken, and Condition b says
that Cheryl also orders chicken, contradicting Condition c.
19. What are the last 3 digits of the sum 1 + 11 + 111 + … + 111…111?
70 digits
Solution
20. The diagram shows 9 points. Draw 4 consecutive line segments (i.e. the start point of
the next segment must coincide with the endpoint of the previous segment) to pass
through all the 9 points.
Solution
If you try to draw the line segments within the region bounded by the dots, you will
realise that you need at least 5 consecutive line segments.
you must draw some of the line segments outside the region as shown:
3. The diagram shows a quadrant OAB of a circle with centre O. OPQR is a rectangle.
Given that PR = 7 cm, find the length of OA.
B
R Q
O P A
4. Find an even number between 300 and 400 that is divisible by 5 and by 7.
5. A shop sells sweets where every 3 sweet wrappers can be exchanged for one more
sweet. Navin has enough money to buy only 29 sweets. What is the biggest number of
sweets that he can get from the shop?
7. The percentage passes in an exam for two classes are 80% and 60%. The numbers of
students in the two classes are 20 and 30 respectively. Find the overall percentage
pass for the two classes.
8. A clock takes 9 seconds to make 4 chimes. Assuming that the rate of chiming is
constant, and the duration of each chime is negligible, how long does the clock take to
make 3 chimes?
1 1 1 1
9. Evaluate 1 1 1 1 .
2 3 4 2014
10. A frog fell into a drain that was 50 cm deep. After one hour, it mastered enough
energy to make a jump of 6 cm but it then slid down 4 cm. If it continued in this
manner after every one hour, how many hours will it take to get out of the drain?
11. A farmer’s chickens produced 4028 eggs one day. Was he able to pack all the eggs in
full cartons of one dozen eggs each?
12. A farmer wants to find out the number of sheep and ducks that he has. He counted a
total of 40 heads and 124 legs. How many sheep and how many ducks does he have?
13. Jaime puts some blue and red cubes in a box. The ratio of the number of blue cubes to
the number of red cubes is 2 : 1. She adds 12 more red cubes in the box and the ratio
becomes 4 : 5. How many blue cubes are there in the box?
14. The diagram shows a rectangle with its two diagonals. What percentage of the
rectangle is shaded?
15. Given that a b = 2014, and a and b are whole numbers such that a < b, how many
possible pairs (a, b) are there?
16. Amy had 3 times as much money as Betty. After they had spent $60 each, Amy had 4
times as much money as Betty. How much money did Amy have at first?
17. Billy uses identical square tiles to make the following figures. If he continues using
the same pattern, in which figure will there be 6044 tiles?
18. What is the least number of cuts required to cut 12 identical sausages so that they can
be shared equally among 20 people?
19. In the following alphametic, all the different letters stand for different digits. Find the
two-digit sum PI.
I S
I S
I S
+ I S
P I
20. A teacher has a bag of sweets to treat her class. If she gave 6 sweets to each student,
then she would have 5 sweets left. If she gave 7 sweets to each student, then she
would have 30 sweets short. How many students and how many sweets are there?
21. A box contains 80 coloured pens: 36 black, 24 blue, 12 red and 8 green. Alice takes
some pens from the box without looking at the colours of the pens. What is the least
number of pens she must take so that she has at least 20 pens of the same colour?
23. The diagram shows a square being divided into four rectangles. If the sum of the
perimeter of the four rectangles is 40 cm, find the area of the square.
25. Two women, Ann and Carol, and two men, Bob and David, are athletes. One is a
swimmer, a second is a skater, a third is a gymnast, and a fourth is a tennis player. On
a day they were seated around a square table:
a. The swimmer sat on Ann’s left.
b. The gymnast sat across from Bob.
c. Carol and David sat next to each other.
d. A woman sat on the skater’s left.
Who is the tennis player?
Solution
Solution
3. The diagram shows a quadrant OAB of a circle with centre O. OPQR is a rectangle.
Given that PR = 7 cm, find the length of OA.
B
R Q
O P A
Solution
OA = OQ (radii of quadrant)
= PR (diagonal of rectangle)
= 7 cm
4. Find an even number between 300 and 400 that is divisible by 5 and by 7.
Solution
5. A shop sells sweets where every 3 sweet wrappers can be exchanged for one more
sweet. Navin has enough money to buy only 29 sweets. What is the biggest number of
sweets that he can get from the shop?
Solution
Solution
From the third term onwards, the next term is obtained by multiplying the previous
two terms and then subtracting 2.
the next term is 10 38 2 = 378.
7. The percentage passes in an exam for two classes are 80% and 60%. The numbers of
students in the two classes are 20 and 30 respectively. Find the overall percentage
pass for the two classes.
Solution
No. of students in the first class who pass the exam = 80% 20 = 16
No. of students in the second class who pass the exam = 60% 30 = 18
Total no. of students in both classes who pass the exam = 16 + 18 = 34
overall percentage pass for the two classes = 34 / 50 100% = 68%
Note: Common mistake is 70%. But class size is different: the weaker class will pull
down the percentage because it has more students than the better class. So you
can’t average percentages unless the base (in this case, the number of students
in each class) is the same.
8. A clock takes 9 seconds to make 4 chimes. Assuming that the rate of chiming is
constant, and the duration of each chime is negligible, how long does the clock take to
make 3 chimes?
Solution
1 1 1 1
9. Evaluate 1 1 1 1 .
2 3 4 2014
Solution
1 1 1 1 1 2 3 2013
1 1 1 1 =
2 3 4 2014 2 3 4 2014
1
=
2014
10. A frog fell into a drain that was 50 cm deep. After one hour, it mastered enough
energy to make a jump of 6 cm but it then slid down 4 cm. If it continued in this
manner after every one hour, how many hours will it take to get out of the drain?
Solution
11. A farmer’s chickens produced 4028 eggs one day. Was he able to pack all the eggs in
full cartons of one dozen eggs each?
Solution
12. A farmer wants to find out the number of sheep and ducks that he has. He counted a
total of 40 heads and 124 legs. How many sheep and how many ducks does he have?
Solution
Method 1 (Supposition)
Make a systematic list, starting with a random guess: 20 sheep and 20 ducks.
No. of Sheep No. of Ducks No. of Sheep No. of Duck Total No. of
Legs Legs Legs
20 20 80 40 120
21 19 84 38 122
22 18 88 36 124
Method 3 (Algebra)
13. Jaime puts some blue and red cubes in a box. The ratio of the number of blue cubes to
the number of red cubes is 2 : 1. She adds 12 more red cubes in the box and the ratio
becomes 4 : 5. How many blue cubes are there in the box?
Solution
Before
Blue
Red
After
Blue
Red
12
From the diagram, 3 units = 12
1 unit = 4
4 units = 16
there are 16 blue cubes.
14. The diagram shows a rectangle with its two diagonals. What percentage of the
rectangle is shaded?
Solution
15. Given that a b = 2014, and a and b are whole numbers such that a < b, how many
possible pairs (a, b) are there?
Solution
16. Amy had 3 times as much money as Betty. After they had spent $60 each, Amy had 4
times as much money as Betty. How much money did Amy have at first?
Solution
After
Amy
Betty
Before
Amy $60
From the Before diagram, where Amy had 3 times as much money as Betty,
1 unit = $60 + $60 = $120
4 units = $480
Amy had $480 + $60 = $540 at first.
17. Billy uses identical square tiles to make the following figures. If he continues using
the same pattern, in which figure will there be 6044 tiles?
Solution
Method 1
The two corner tiles are the same for all figures.
figure number with 6044 tiles = (6044 2) 3 = 2014
Method 2
Method 3
Method 4
The no. of tiles in each figure is equal to the “area of the rectangle” minus the “area of
the hole in the middle”.
The pattern for the “area of the rectangle” is 2 3, 3 4, 4 5, 5 6, …
The pattern for the “area of the hole in the middle” is 1 1, 2 2, 3 3, 4 4, …
Thus the nth figure will have (n + 1) (n + 2) n n = 3n + 2 tiles.
figure number with 6044 tiles = (6044 2) 3 = 2014
18. What is the least number of cuts required to cut 12 identical sausages so that they can
be shared equally among 20 people?
Solution
There are 12 times sausages left. But each person must get of a sausage.
This means that 4 of the sausages must be cut into half each so that the remaining 8
people will get one sausage and one sausage each.
least no. of cuts = 12 + 4 = 16
19. In the following alphametic, all the different letters stand for different digits. Find the
two-digit sum PI.
I S
I S
I S
+ I S
P I
Solution
20. A teacher has a bag of sweets to treat her class. If she gave 6 sweets to each student,
then she would have 5 sweets left. If she gave 7 sweets to each student, then she
would have 30 sweets short. How many students and how many sweets are there?
Solution
If the teacher gave 6 sweets to each student, then she would have 5 sweets left.
But 5 sweets left are not enough to give one more sweet to each student since she
would have 30 sweets short.
So if she had 30 more sweets, then she could give 30 + 5 = 35 sweets to the students
so that each student has one more sweet, i.e. 6 sweets each.
Since each student receives only 1 more sweet (i.e. the 6th sweet), then there are 35
students.
there are 35 6 + 5 = 215 sweets.
21. A box contains 80 coloured pens: 36 black, 24 blue, 12 red and 8 green. Alice takes
some pens from the box without looking at the colours of the pens. What is the least
number of pens she must take so that she has at least 20 pens of the same colour?
Solution
Worst case scenario for all the pens taken out by Alice to be of different colours:
19 black, 19 blue, 12 red and 8 green, i.e. a total of 58 pens.
Then the next pen taken out has to be either black or blue, i.e. Alice will have at least
20 pens of the same colour, either 20 black or 20 blue pens.
least no. of pens Alice must take so that she has at least 20 pens of the same colour
= 58 + 1 = 59
Solution
.
23. The diagram shows a square being divided into four rectangles. If the sum of the
perimeter of the four rectangles is 40 cm, find the area of the square.
Solution
Solution
Since 2014! contains the factor 10, and any number multiplied by 10 will have 0 as
the last digit, then the last digit of 2014! is 0.
25. Two women, Ann and Carol, and two men, Bob and David, are athletes. One is a
swimmer, a second is a skater, a third is a gymnast, and a fourth is a tennis player. On
a day they were seated around a square table:
a. The swimmer sat on Ann’s left.
b. The gymnast sat across from Bob.
c. Carol and David sat next to each other.
d. A woman sat on the skater’s left.
Who is the tennis player?
Solution
There are only two possibilities to satisfy the first two conditions:
Bob
Possibility 1 Possibility 2
10
1. A clock takes 3 seconds to make 4 chimes. Assuming that the rate of chiming is
constant, and the duration of each chime is negligible, how long does the clock take to
make 8 chimes?
3. Find the smallest whole number between 1 and 100 that is divisible by 12 and by 30.
4. A shop sells sweets where every 3 sweet wrappers can be exchanged for one more
sweet. Catherine has enough money to buy only 26 sweets. What is the biggest
number of sweets that she can get from the shop?
10. Amy buys an item for a 20% discount during a sale, but she still needs to pay a 5%
GST (Goods and Services Tax). She is given two options.
11. The digits 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 are all used to write a five-digit number ABCDE where the
three-digit number ABC is divisible by 4, BCD is divisible by 5 and CDE is divisible
by 3. Find all the possible values of the five-digit number ABCDE.
12. At a workshop, there are 20 participants. Each of them shakes hand once with one
another. How many handshakes are there?
13. In the following cryptarithm, different letters represent different digits and an asterisk
* may represent any digit. The product MATH is a four-digit number less than 5000.
What number does MATH represent?
E H
E H
* * 6
+ * * 8
M A T H
14. There are 100 buns to be shared among 100 monks (consisting of senior and junior
monks). The senior monks get 3 buns each and every 3 junior monks share 1 bun.
How many senior monks are there?
15. What is the least number of cuts required to cut 5 identical sausages so that they can
be shared equally among 9 people?
16. How many digits are there before the 50th ‘8’ of the following number?
85855855585555855555…
18. A teacher has a bag of sweets to treat her class. If she gave 5 sweets to each student,
then she would have 13 sweets left. If she gave 8 sweets to each student, then she
would have 20 sweets short. How many students and how many sweets are there?
20. Susie has 23 coins. She divides them into 5 piles so that each pile has a different
number of coins. Find the smallest possible number of coins in the biggest pile.
22. Given that 5! means 5 4 3 2 1, find the last two digits of 2014!.
23. There were 210 students in the hall. 2 of the boys and 1 of the girls wore T-shirts. If
5 3
there were 78 students in the hall who wore T-shirts, how many boys were in the hall?
24. A farmer wants to plant 10 trees in 5 rows such that there are exactly 4 trees in each
row. Draw a diagram to show how the trees should be planted.
25. Frank knows 5 women: Amy, Betty, Cheryl, Doris and Elaine.
a. 3 women are under 30 and the other 2 women are over 30.
b. 3 women are nurses and the other 2 women are teachers.
c. Amy and Cheryl are in the same age bracket.
d. Doris and Elaine are in different age brackets.
e. Betty and Elaine have the same occupation.
f. Cheryl and Doris have different occupations.
g. Of the 5 women, Frank will marry the teacher over 30.
Who will Frank marry?
1. A clock takes 3 seconds to make 4 chimes. Assuming that the rate of chiming is
constant, and the duration of each chime is negligible, how long does the clock take to
make 8 chimes?
Solution
Solution
3. Find the smallest whole number between 1 and 100 that is divisible by 12 and by 30.
Solution
4. A shop sells sweets where every 3 sweet wrappers can be exchanged for one more
sweet. Catherine has enough money to buy only 26 sweets. What is the biggest
number of sweets that she can get from the shop?
Solution
Method 1
Method 2
Duck 1.2
Chicken
Solution
Since the number leaves a remainder of 3 when divided by 5, then it must end with 3
or 8, i.e. the possible values of the number are 53, 58, 63, 68, …, 98.
Since the number leaves a remainder of 3 when divided by 5, we can either check
each of the above possible values one by one, or we can start with 7 7 + 5 = 54, and
then add 7 until we get a number ending in 3 or 8, i.e. 54, 61, 68, …
the number is 68.
9. A man travelled at 120 km/h for the first half of a 12-km journey. Then he travelled at
60 km/h for the rest of his journey. What is his average speed for the whole journey?
Solution
Time taken for first half of the 12-km journey = 6 km / 120 km/h = 0.05 h
Time taken for second half of the 12-km journey = 6 km / 60 km/h = 0.1 h
average speed for whole journey = 12 km / 0.15 h = 80 km/h
Note: Common mistake is 90 km/h. Since speed = distance / time, if you want to
average speeds, then the base (in this case, the time taken) must be the same.
But instead the distance travelled for both parts of the journey is the same, so
you cannot average speeds.
10. Amy buys an item for a 20% discount during a sale, but she still needs to pay a 5%
GST (Goods and Services Tax). She is given two options.
Solution
Note: Common mistake is Option A. If you pay 5% GST first (Option B), although
this GST is bigger than the GST in Option A, this GST is also discounted 20%,
so it ends up the same as if you pay the GST after the discount (Option A).
Notice that the base is the same (in this case, the selling price).
11. The digits 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 are all used to write a five-digit number ABCDE where the
three-digit number ABC is divisible by 4, BCD is divisible by 5 and CDE is divisible
by 3. Find all the possible values of the five-digit number ABCDE.
Solution
12. At a workshop, there are 20 participants. Each of them shakes hand once with one
another. How many handshakes are there?
Solution
Method 1
1 + 19 = 20
2 + 18 = 20
3 + 17 = 20 9 pairs
9 + 11 = 20
10
Method 2
13. In the following cryptarithm, different letters represent different digits and an asterisk
* may represent any digit. The product MATH is a four-digit number less than 5000.
What number does MATH represent?
E H
E H
* * 6
+ * * 8
M A T H
Solution
14. There are 100 buns to be shared among 100 monks (consisting of senior and junior
monks). The senior monks get 3 buns each and every 3 junior monks share 1 bun.
How many senior monks are there?
Solution
Observe that if you group one senior monk and 3 junior monks together, they will get
a total of 4 buns.
And 25 such groups will give a total of 100 monks and 100 buns.
there are 25 senior monks.
Method 2 (Algebra)
8x = 200
x = 25
there are 25 senior monks.
15. What is the least number of cuts required to cut 5 identical sausages so that they can
be shared equally among 9 people?
Solution
16. How many digits are there before the 50th ‘8’ of the following number?
85855855585555855555…
Solution
Method 1
1 + 49 = 50
2 + 48 = 50
3 + 47 = 50 24 pairs
24 + 26 = 50
25
total no. of digits before the 50th ‘8’ = 49 + 50 24 + 25 = 1274
Method 2
Since 1 + 2 + 3 + … + n = , then total no. of digits before the 50th ‘8’ of the
number = 49 + = 1274
Solution 1
18. A teacher has a bag of sweets to treat her class. If she gave 5 sweets to each student,
then she would have 13 sweets left. If she gave 8 sweets to each student, then she
would have 20 sweets short. How many students and how many sweets are there?
Solution
If the teacher gave 5 sweets to each student, then she would have 13 sweets left.
But 13 sweets left are not enough to give 3 more sweets to each student since she
would have 20 sweets short.
So if she had 20 more sweets, then she could give 20 + 13 = 33 sweets to the students
so that each student has 3 more sweets, i.e. 8 sweets each.
Since each student receives only 3 more sweets (i.e. the 6th, 7th and 8th sweets), then
there are 33 3 = 11 students.
there are 11 5 + 13 = 68 sweets.
Solution
Method 1
.
Method 2
20. Susie has 23 coins. She divides them into 5 piles so that each pile has a different
number of coins. Find the smallest possible number of coins in the biggest pile.
Solution
For each pile to have a different number of coins, and the biggest pile to have the
smallest possible number of coins, put 1 coin in the 1st pile, 2 coins in the 2nd pile,
3 coins in the 3rd pile, 4 coins in the 4th pile and 5 coins in the 5th pile. So the
biggest pile is the 5th pile, but there are only 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 = 15 coins.
The 16th coin will have to go to the 5th pile so that each pile will have a different
number of coins. The 17th coin cannot go to the 5th pile because we want to find the
smallest possible number of coins in the biggest pile, so the 17th coin will have to
go to the 4th pile. Similarly, the 18th, 19th and 20th coins will go to the 3rd, 2nd and
1st piles respectively.
The 21st coin will go to the 5th pile again, the 22nd coin to the 4th pile, and the 23rd coin
to the 3rd pile.
the largest pile (which is the 5th pile) will contain 5 + 1 + 1 = 7 coins.
Solution
Observe that the first 3 terms are perfect squares: 12, 22 and 32. But subsequent terms
are not perfect squares.
However, if you compare the given sequence with perfect squares (1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36,
49, 64, 81, 100, …), you will observe that the n-th term can be found by squaring n
and then adding the digits continuously until a single-digit number is obtained.
the next term, which is the 11th term, is obtained by: 112 = 121 1 + 2 + 1 = 4.
22. Given that 5! means 5 4 3 2 1, find the last two digits of 2014!.
Solution
Since 2014! contains the factor 100, and any number multiplied by 100 will have 00
as the last two digits, then the last two digits of 2014! are 00.
23. There were 210 students in the hall. 2 of the boys and 1 of the girls wore T-shirts. If
5 3
there were 78 students in the hall who wore T-shirts, how many boys were in the hall?
Solution
The first model shows 2 of the boys and 1 of the girls wearing T-shirts (indicated by
5 3
solid boxes, not the dotted ones). We will call an unshaded box from the boys as B-
box, and a shaded box from the girls as G-box.
Boys B1 B1 B2 B2
210
Girls G1 G2
The 2 solid B-boxes and the one solid G-box (i.e. B1 + B1 + G1) represent a total of 78
students.
If you take 2 dotted B-boxes and 1 dotted G-box (i.e. B2 + B2 + G2), the 3 dotted
boxes also represent a total of 78 students.
But you can’t do anything with the remaining 2 dotted boxes.
So we double all the boxes as shown in the second model, where the total no. of
students is 210 2 = 420.
Boys B1 B1 B2 B2 B3 B3 B4 B4 B5 B5
420
Girls G1 G2 G3 G4 G5
From the second model, we are able to form 5 groups of 2 B-boxes and 1 G-box (i.e.
from B1 and G1 to B5 and G5), leaving behind only one G-box, where each group of
2 B-boxes and 1 G-box represent a total of 78 students.
This means that the last G-box represents 420 5 78 = 420 390 = 30 students.
there are 30 3 = 90 girls and 210 90 = 120 boys in the hall.
Method 2 (Algebra)
24. A farmer wants to plant 10 trees in 5 rows such that there are exactly 4 trees in each
row. Draw a diagram to show how the trees should be planted.
Solution
If you start with 10 trees and then try fitting 5 lines onto them, you will realise that the
lines must overlap because there are not enough trees, and it’s not easy to fit 5 lines
onto 10 trees.
try to draw 5 overlapping lines first, and a common figure with 5 overlapping lines
is the following star:
25. Frank knows 5 women: Amy, Betty, Cheryl, Doris and Elaine.
a. 3 women are under 30 and the other 2 women are over 30.
b. 3 women are nurses and the other 2 women are teachers.
c. Amy and Cheryl are in the same age bracket.
d. Doris and Elaine are in different age brackets.
e. Betty and Elaine have the same occupation.
f. Cheryl and Doris have different occupations.
g. Of the 5 women, Frank will marry the teacher over 30.
Who will Frank marry?
Solution
Conditions a, c and d Amy and Cheryl are under 30, and Betty is over 30.
Conditions b, e and f Betty and Elaine are nurses, and Amy is a teacher.
10
2. Find the product of the highest common factor and the lowest common multiple of 8
and 12.
4. The last day of 2013 was a Tuesday. There are 365 days in 2014. In what day of the
week will 2014 end?
5. What is the maximum number of parts that can be obtained from cutting a circular disc
using 3 straight cuts?
6. A man bought two paintings and then sold them for $300 each. He made a profit of
20% for the first painting, but a loss of 20% for the second painting. Overall, did he
make a profit, a loss or break even? If he did not break even, state the amount of profit
or loss.
7. Solve = 2.
8. Given that xyz = 2014, and x, y and z are positive integers such that x < y < z, how
many possible triples (x, y, z) are there?
9. At a workshop, there are 27 participants. Each of them shakes hand once with one
another. How many handshakes are there?
10. A perfect number is a positive integer that is equal to the sum of its proper positive
factors. Proper positive factors of a number are positive factors that are less than the
number. For example, 6 = 1 + 2 + 3 is a perfect number because 1, 2 and 3 are the only
proper positive factors of 6. Find the next perfect number.
11. The dimensions of a rectangle are x cm by y cm, where x and y are integers, such that
the area and perimeter of the rectangle are numerically equal. Find all the possible
values of x and y.
12. If a and b are positive integers such that a < b and ab = ba, find a possible value for a
and for b.
1
13. Find the value of .
1
1 2
1 2 1
1
15. The diagram shows 9 points. Draw 4 consecutive line segments (i.e. the start point of
the next segment must coincide with the endpoint of the previous segment) to pass
through all the 9 points.
16. What are the last 5 digits of the sum 1 + 11 + 111 + … + 111…111?
2014 digits
17. What is the least number of cuts required to cut 10 identical sausages so that they can
be shared equally among 18 people?
21. In the following cryptarithm, all the letters stand for different digits. Find the values of
A, B, C and D.
A 8 B C
3 D 9 8
2 0 1 4
22. Find the sum of the terms in the nth pair of brackets:
23. In the diagram, PQ is parallel to RS, PA = PB and RB = RC. Given that BCA = 60,
find BAC.
P A
Q
B
60
R S
C
25. The diagram shows a triangle ABC where AB = AC, BC = AD and BAC = 20. Find
ADB.
A
20
B C
Solution
From the third term onwards, the next term is obtained by adding the previous two
terms.
the next term is 4 + 7 = 11.
Note: These are called Lucas numbers, which is a particular Lucas sequence.
2. Find the product of the highest common factor and the lowest common multiple of 8
and 12.
Solution
Method 1
For any two natural numbers a and b, HCF(a, b) LCM(a, b) = ab. [It does not work
for 3 or more numbers.]
HCF(8, 12) LCM(8, 12) = 8 12 = 96
Method 2
8 = 23
12 = 22 3
HCF(8, 12) = 22 = 4
LCM(8, 12) = 23 3 = 24
HCF(8, 12) LCM(8, 12) = 4 24 = 96
Solution
Since and cannot be negative for any values of x and y, then the only
way for to be equal to 0 is when = 0 and =
0.
x = 7 and y = 8
4. The last day of 2013 was a Tuesday. There are 365 days in 2014. In what day of the
week will 2014 end?
Solution
5. What is the maximum number of parts that can be obtained from cutting a circular disc
using 3 straight cuts?
Solution
6. A man bought two paintings and then sold them for $300 each. He made a profit of
20% for the first painting, but a loss of 20% for the second painting. Overall, did he
make a profit, a loss or break even? If he did not break even, state the amount of profit
or loss.
Solution
7. Solve = 2.
Solution
=2
=4
x+2=4
x=2
8. Given that xyz = 2014, and x, y and z are positive integers such that x < y < z, how
many possible triples (x, y, z) are there?
Solution
9. At a workshop, there are 27 participants. Each of them shakes hand once with one
another. How many handshakes are there?
Solution
Method 1
1 + 26 = 27
2 + 25 = 27
3 + 24 = 27 13 pairs
13 + 14 = 27
Method 2
10. A perfect number is a positive integer that is equal to the sum of its proper positive
factors. Proper positive factors of a number are positive factors that are less than the
number. For example, 6 = 1 + 2 + 3 is a perfect number because 1, 2 and 3 are the only
proper positive factors of 6. Find the next perfect number.
Solution
By systematic trial and error from 7 to 28, since 28 = 1 + 2 + 4 + 7 + 14, the next
perfect number is 28.
11. The dimensions of a rectangle are x cm by y cm, where x and y are integers, such that
the area and perimeter of the rectangle are numerically equal. Find all the possible
values of x and y.
Solution
Method 1
Area = perimeter
xy 2x y
2x
y
x2
Since x 2 > 0, then x > 2.
When x = 3, y = 6.
When x = 4, y = 4.
Method 2
Area = perimeter
xy 2x y
2x
y
x2
2x 4 4
x2
2x 2 4
x2
4
2
x2
Since x 2 > 0, then x > 2.
4
For y to be an integer, must also be an integer.
x2
This means that 4 x – 2, i.e. x 6.
So the only possible solutions are when x = 3, 4, 5 and 6.
When x = 3, y = 6.
When x = 4, y = 4.
When x = 5, y = is not an integer.
When x = 6, y = 3.
the dimensions of all the rectangles with integral sides whose area and perimeter are
numerically equal are 3 by 6, 4 by 4, and 6 by 3.
12. If a and b are positive integers such that a < b and ab = ba, find a possible value for a
and for b.
Solution
1
13. Find the value of .
1
1 2
1 2 1
1
Solution
1 1
Let = x. Then = x, i.e. 2x2 + x 1 = 0.
1 1 2x
1 2
1 2 1
1
(2x 1) (x + 1) = 0, i.e. x = or 1 (rejected because x > 0)
1
= .
1
1 2
1 2 1
1
Solution
Since the last digit of a product ab depends only on the last digit of a and of b, then
4=4
4 4 = 16
6 4 = 24
the last digit repeats with a period of 2.
Since the index 2014 is even, then the last digit of 20142014 is 6.
15. The diagram shows 9 points. Draw 4 consecutive line segments (i.e. the start point of
the next segment must coincide with the endpoint of the previous segment) to pass
through all the 9 points.
Solution
If you try to draw the line segments within the region bounded by the dots, you will
realise that you need at least 5 consecutive line segments.
you must draw some of the line segments outside the region as shown:
16. What are the last 5 digits of the sum 1 + 11 + 111 + … + 111…111?
2014 digits
Solution
17. What is the least number of cuts required to cut 10 identical sausages so that they can
be shared equally among 18 people?
Solution
Method 1
There are 10 times sausages left. But each person must get of a sausage.
This means that 2 of the sausages must be cut into 4 equal parts each (i.e. 3 cuts
each) so that the remaining 8 people will get one sausage and one sausage each.
least no. of cuts = 10 + 3 2 = 16
Method 2
Least number of cuts required to cut one sausage so that it can be shared equally
among n’ people = n’ 1
If m’ and n’ are relatively prime, it can be proven by putting the m’ identical sausages
end to end in one row that the least number of cuts required to cut them so that they
can be shared equally among n’ people is still n’ 1, i.e. the cuts will not coincide
with the gaps between the sausages.
If m and n are not relatively prime, some cuts will coincide with the gaps between the
sausages, and this occurs at the end of every set of m’ identical sausages, where m =
m’ HCF(m, n) and n = n’ HCF(m, n), i.e. where m’ and n’ are relatively prime.
Thus the least number of cuts required to cut m identical sausages so that they can
be shared equally among n people is (n’ 1) HCF(m, n) = n HCF(m, n).
In general, this formula is true for any positive integers m and n, even if m and n are
relatively prime since HCF(m, n) = 1 in the latter case.
least no. of cuts required to cut 12 identical sausages so that they can be shared
equally among 20 people = 18 HCF(10,18)
= 18 2
= 16
Solution
Solution
x5 + 2x3 x2 2 = 0
x3(x2 + 2) (x2 + 2) = 0
(x2 + 2) (x3 1) = 0
Since x2 + 2 > 0, then x3 1 = 0, i.e. x3 = 1.
x = 1.
Note: If participants solve by guess and check correctly, award 0 mark because they
cannot exclude the possibility that there are other solutions.
Solution
Method 1
1 + 2014 = 2015
2 + 2013 = 2015
3 + 2012 = 2015 There are 1007 pairs of numbers that add up to 2015
=
= 1007.5
Method 2
21. In the following cryptarithm, all the letters stand for different digits. Find the values of
A, B, C and D.
A 8 B C
3 D 9 8
2 0 1 4
Solution
Method 1
In the ones column, C 8 < 4 since C 9, so need to borrow from the tens column.
10 + C 8 = 4 implies that C = 2.
In the tens column, B 1 9 = B 10 < 1 since B 9, so need to borrow from the
hundreds column.
10 + B 10 = 1 implies that B = 1.
In the hundreds column, 8 1 D = 0 implies that D = 7.
In the thousands column, A 3 = 2 implies that A = 5.
Check: 5812 3798 = 2014
Method 2
Rephrase as addition:
3 D 9 8
+ 2 0 1 4
A 8 B C
22. Find the sum of the terms in the nth pair of brackets:
Solution
The sums of the terms in each pair of brackets form the following sequence: 3, 7, 11,
15, …
Method 1
Method 2
23. In the diagram, PQ is parallel to RS, PA = PB and RB = RC. Given that BCA = 60,
find BAC.
P A
Q
B
60
R S
C
Solution
Method 1
Method 2
Solution
Method 1
Method 2
25. The diagram shows a triangle ABC where AB = AC, BC = AD and BAC = 20. Find
ADB.
A
20
B C
Solution
Draw AE perpendicular to BC. Then AE bisects BAC, i.e. BAE = 10 ----- (1)
Draw the point F on AE such that BCF is an equilateral triangle [diagram not drawn
to scale], i.e. FBC = 60.
Draw the line DF.
20
G
F
B C
E
1. The first day of 2014 was a Wednesday. There are 365 days in 2014. In what day of
the week will 2015 begin?
2. What is the maximum number of parts that can be obtained from cutting a circular
cake using 3 straight cuts?
3. Evaluate 2014 2014 2013 2015.
4. Solve = 3.
6. Mersenne primes are prime numbers of the form Mp = 2p 1, where p is a prime. For
example, 3 = 22 1 is a Mersenne prime. Find the 4th largest Mersenne prime.
7. Simplify (x a) (x b) (x c) … (x z).
8. How many squares are there in a 5 5 square grid?
9. If x and y are positive integers, find the values of x and y which satisfy the equation
x2 4y2 = 41.
10. Find the dimensions of all the rectangles with integral sides whose area and perimeter
are numerically equal.
11. A whole number is between 40 and 70. When it is divided by 3, the remainder is 1.
When it is divided by 7, the remainder is 2. Find the number.
2
12. Find the value of .
2
2 12
2 12 2
2
14. Find the sum of the terms in the nth pair of brackets:
(1, 2, 3, 4), (5, 6, 7, 8), (9, 10, 11, 12), …
15. In the diagram, PQ and RS are parallel, PA = PB and RA = RC. Find BAC.
P
A
R
B
S
Downloaded from studyland.edu.vn
Downloaded from studyland.edu.vn
16. There are 367 students in the school hall. What is the probability that two of the
students have their birthday falling on the same day of the year?
1 1
17. Let x be a number such that x 5 . Find the value of x 3 3 .
x x
19. Find all the solutions to the trigonometric equation sin2 x cos2 x = 1 for 0 x 360.
20. The diagram shows a square AEFG with an inscribed circle. ABCD is a rectangle such
that AB = 2 cm and AD = 4 cm. Find the radius of the circle.
A B E
D C
G F
21. In the following cryptarithm, all the letters stand for different digits. Find the final
four-digit product.
H E
E H
* 8
+ * *
* * * *
22. A farmer wants to plant 10 trees in 5 rows such that there are exactly 4 trees in each
row. Draw a diagram to show how the trees should be planted.
23. Find the last three digits of 2525.
24. Find the remainder when 32014 is divided by 5.
25. Find the largest number of composite numbers less than 2014 that are relatively prime
to one another, i.e. the highest common factor of any two of them is 1.
1. The first day of 2014 was a Wednesday. There are 365 days in 2014. In what day of
the week will 2015 begin?
Solution
2. What is the maximum number of parts that can be obtained from cutting a circular
cake using 3 straight cuts?
Solution
First Cut
Maximum number of parts = 8
Second Cut
Third Cut
Solution
Method 1
Method 2
4. Solve = 3.
Solution
=3
=9
x+3=9
x=6
Solution
Let x = 0.99999…
Then 10x = 9.99999…
9x = 10x – x = 9
x= =1
0.99999… = 1
i.e. 1 0.99999… = 0
Note: 0.00000… is not acceptable since it suggests that the participant does not
know that the answer is exactly 0.
6. Mersenne primes are prime numbers of the form Mp = 2p 1, where p is a prime. For
example, 3 = 22 1 is a Mersenne prime. Find the 4th largest Mersenne prime.
Solution
7. Simplify (x a) (x b) (x c) … (x z).
Solution
Since x x = 0, then (x a) (x b) (x c) … (x z) = 0.
Solution
No. of 1 1 squares = 25 = 52
No. of 2 2 squares = 16 = 42
No. of 3 3 squares = 9 = 32
No. of 4 4 squares = 4 = 22
No. of 5 5 squares = 1 = 12
total no. of squares in a 5 5 square grid = 12 + 22 + 32 + 42 + 52 = 55
9. If x and y are positive integers, find the values of x and y which satisfy the equation
x2 4y2 = 41.
Solution
x2 4y2 = 41
(x + 2y)(x 2y) = 41
Since 41 is prime, there are only two factors of 41, i.e. 1 and 41.
Since x and y are positive integers and x + 2y > x 2y, then x + 2y = 41 and x 2y = 1.
10. Find the dimensions of all the rectangles with integral sides whose area and perimeter
are numerically equal.
Solution
Method 1
Method 2
2b
l
b2
2b 4 4
b2
2b 2 4
b2
4
2
b2
Since b 2 > 0, then b > 2.
4
For l to be an integer, must also be an integer.
b2
This means that 4 b – 2, i.e. b 6.
So the only possible solutions are when b = 3, 4, 5 and 6.
When b = 3, l = 6.
When b = 4, l = 4.
When b = 5, l = is not an integer.
When b = 6, l = 3, which is essentially the same as b = 3, l = 6.
the dimensions of all the rectangles with integral sides whose area and perimeter are
numerically equal are 3 by 6 and 4 by 4.
11. A whole number is between 40 and 70. When it is divided by 3, the remainder is 1.
When it is divided by 7, the remainder is 2. Find the number.
Solution
Method 1
Since the number leaves a remainder of 1 when divided by 3, then the possible values
of the number are 40, 43, 46, 49, 52, 55, 58, …, 70.
Since the number leaves a remainder of 2 when divided by 7, we can either check each
of the above possible values one by one, or we can start with 7 6 + 2 = 44, and then
add 7 until we get a number in the first list, i.e. 44, 51, 58, …
the number is 58.
Method 2
2
12. Find the value of .
2
2 12
2 12 2
2
Solution
2 2
Let = x. Then = x, i.e. 12x2 + 2x 2 = 0.
2 2 12 x
2 12
2 12 2
2
6x + x 1 = 0 implies (3x 1) (2x + 1) = 0, i.e. x = or (rejected because x > 0)
2
2
= .
2
2 12
2 12 2
2
Solution
Method 1
1 + 2013 = 2014
3 + 2011 = 2014
5 + 2009 = 2014 There are = 503 pairs of numbers that add up to 2014
=
= 503 +
= 503.5
Method 2
1 + 2013 = 2014
3 + 2011 = 2014
5 + 2009 = 2014 There are = 1007 pairs of numbers that add up to 2014
2013 + 1 = 2014
So 1 + 3 + 5 + … + 2013 = = 1007 1007
=
=
=
= 503.5
14. Find the sum of the terms in the nth pair of brackets:
Solution
The sums of the terms in each pair of brackets form the following sequence: 3, 7, 11,
15, …
Method 1
Method 2
15. In the diagram, PQ and RS are parallel, PA = PB and RA = RC. Find BAC.
P
A
R
B
S
Q
Solution
16. There are 367 students in the school hall. What is the probability that two of the
students have their birthday falling on the same day of the year?
Solution
1 1
17. Let x be a number such that x 5 . Find the value of x 3 3 .
x x
Solution
2
1 1 1
x = 52 x 2 2 = 25 x 2 2 = 23
x 2
x x
2 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1
x 2 x = x x 3 x 3 = x 2 x x
3 3
x x x x x x x x
1 1
= x x 2 2 1
x x
= 5 (23 1)
= 110
Solution
19. Find all the solutions to the trigonometric equation sin2 x cos2 x = 1 for 0 x 360.
Solution
Since sin2 x 1 and cos2 x 0, then the only possible solution to sin2 x cos2 x = 1 is
when sin2 x = 1 and cos2 x = 0, i.e. when sin x = 1 and cos x = 0.
x = 90 or 270
20. The diagram shows a square AEFG with an inscribed circle. ABCD is a rectangle such
that AB = 2 cm and AD = 4 cm. Find the radius of the circle.
A B E
D C
G F
Solution
Draw CJ and OH parallel to AE, and OI parallel to AG. Then OCJ is a right-angled
triangle.
A B I E
D J
C
H O
G F
Let the radius of the circle be r cm. Then OC = OH = OI = r.
So CJ = r 2 and OJ = r 4.
By Pythagoras’ Theorem, OC 2 = CJ 2 + OJ 2, i.e. r2 = (r 2)2 + (r 4)2.
Simplifying, we have r2 12r + 20 = 0, i.e. (r 2) (r 10) = 0.
Since r > 4, then the radius of the circle is 10 cm.
21. In the following cryptarithm, all the letters stand for different digits. Find the final
four-digit product.
H E
E H
* 8
+ * *
* * * *
Solution
H E
E H
A 8
+ B C
D F G I
First I = 8.
Since the addition of two digits will give a maximum of 18, or a maximum of 19 if
there is a carryover (or renaming) of 1, this means that the maximum carryover is 1.
So B = 9 and there is a carryover of 1 for B to give 10, i.e. D = 1 and F = 0.
22. A farmer wants to plant 10 trees in 5 rows such that there are exactly 4 trees in each
row. Draw a diagram to show how the trees should be planted.
Solution
If you start with 10 trees and then try fitting 5 lines onto them, you will realise that the
lines must overlap because there are not enough trees, and it’s not easy to fit 5 lines
onto 10 trees.
try to draw 5 overlapping lines first, and a common figure with 5 overlapping lines
is the following star:
Solution
Since the last three digits of a product ab depends only on the last three digits of a and
of b, then
25 = 025
025 25 = 625
625 25 = 15 625
the last three digits are always 625, with the exception of the first power.
the last three digits of 2525 are 625.
Solution
Method 1
Method 2
25. Find the largest number of composite numbers less than 2014 that are relatively prime
to one another, i.e. the highest common factor of any two of them is 1.
Solution
If 6 = 2 3 is one of the composite numbers, then all the multiples of 2 and all the
multiples of 3 will not be relatively prime to 6.
Thus, to get the largest number of composite numbers, we have to choose 2n and 3m
instead of 6k.
In other words, we have to choose pn, where p is prime.
Since the composite numbers must be less than 2014, then n must not be too big, esp.
when p is big enough.
Now, the largest value for p is 43, since 432 = 1849 < 2014 but 472 = 2209 > 2014.
Without loss of generality, to get the largest number of composite numbers less than
2014 that are relatively prime to one another, choose the following numbers: 22, 32,
52, 72, …, 432 (although we can choose, e.g. 210 = 1024 < 2014 instead of 22).
largest number of composite numbers less than 2014 that are relatively prime to one
another = number of primes 43
= 14