Elon University High School Mathematics Contest

Elon University
April 1,2006

1. The remainder when f (x) = 4x4 + 10x3 + kx2 + bx 2 is divided by x + 1 is 3. When f (x) is divided
by x 1, the remainder is 25. What is the remainder when f (x) is divided by x + 2?

(a) -5.
(b) -3.
(c) 0.
(d) 10.
(e) 22.

2. A swimming pool is 30 meters wide, 50 meters long, and 7

meters deep. After an earthquake, the pool is tilted along edge
AB as shown in the figure. No water spills out of the pool and 7
the water completely covers side ABCD. At this point 3/4
of the base is covered with water. If the sides and bottom D
C 50
all meet at right angles, what was the water level before the
earthquake?
A 30 B
(a) 2.625 meters.
(b) 5.25 meters.
(c) 7 meters.

(d) 7.875 meters.

(e) Can not be determined.
3. A van can travel at a maximum speed of 100 km/h. Its speed decreases in proportion to the number of
people in the van. The van can carry at most 8 people total (including the driver). Given that the van
can travel at a maximum speed of 88 km/h when there are 4 people in the van, what will the speed
be when 7 people are in the van?

(a) 44 km/h.
(b) 76 km/h.
(c) 88 km/h.
(d) 100 km/h.
(e) 176 km/h.
2 Elon University

4. A parabola with vertex (2, 0) and axis of symmetry parallel to the y-axis passes through (3, 1) and
(3, t). What is the value of t?
(a) -1.
(b) 1.
(c) 15.
(d) 17.
(e) 25.
5. An unknown chemical is found to lose 15% of its original mass over a 20 year period. If the rate of loss
is proportional to the mass, what is the half life of the chemical?
(a) 6.66 years.
(b) 54.86 years.
(c) 85.3 years.
(d) 91.4 years.
(e) 100.72 years.
6. A lattice point is a point in the plane with integer coordinates. How many lattice points are on the
line segment whose endpoints are (3, 17) and (48, 281)? (Include both endpoints of the segment in your
count.)
(a) 2.
(b) 4.
(c) 6.
(d) 16.
(e) 46.

7. Let x be a real number
selected uniformly at random between 100 and 200. If b xc = 12, find the
probability that b 100xc = 120. (bvc means the greatest integer less than or equal to v.)
2
(a) .
25
241
(b) .
2500
1
(c) .
10
96
(d) .
625
(e) 1.
8. A square flag has a red cross of uniform width with a blue square in
the center on a white background as shown. (The cross is symmetric
with respect to each of the diagonals of the square.) If the entire cross RED RED
(both the red arms and the blue center) takes up 36% of the area of
the flag, what percent of the area of the flag is blue?
BLUE
(a) 0.5%.
(b) 1%. RED RED
(c) 2%.
(d) 6%.
(e) 8%.
2006 High School Math Contest 3

9. Five people are sitting at a round table. Let f 0 be the number of people sitting next to at least one
female and m 0 be the number of people sitting next to at least one male. The number of possible
ordered pairs (f, m) is

(a) 7.
(b) 8.
(c) 9.
(d) 10.
(e) 11.

10. In 4ABC, AB = 5, BC = 7, AC = 9, and D is on AC with B

BD = 5. What is the ratio AD : DC?

(a) 4:3.
(b) 7:5.
A D C
(c) 11:6.
(d) 19:8.
(e) 13:5.
11. Let x and y be two numbers (possibly complex) that satisfy the equations x + y = 5 and xy = 8. Find
the value of x3 + y 3 .

(a) 5.
(b) 10.
(c) 15.
(d) 20.
(e) 25.

12. The product of a positive number, its reciprocal, and its square is 5. Which of the following is closest
to the sum of the positive number and its reciprocal?

(a) 2.46.
(b) 2.57.
(c) 2.68.
(d) 2.79.
(e) 2.90.

13. In a math class of size 50, the average score on the final exam is 68. The best ten exams are all 100.
The average of the other 40 exam scores is

(a) 50.
(b) 55.
(c) 60.
(d) 65.
(e) 70.
4 Elon University

14. Suppose you have a 3 3 3 cube made from 27 unit blocks. Now, suppose you remove the eight
corner blocks. How much has the surface area changed as a result of removing the eight corner blocks?

(a) -8 square units.

(b) 0 square units.
(c) 8 square units.
(d) 12 square units.
(e) 16 square units.

Q
2006 2n + 1
15. Simplify the follow product:
n=1 2n 3

(a) -16096143.
(b) -16096141.
(c) 16096141.
(d) 16096143.
(e) 16096145.

P
2006
16. What is the units digit of 9n ?
n=1

(a) 0.
(b) 1.
(c) 2.
(d) 3.
(e) 9.

17. How many solutions are there to the equation 2|x| x = 3?

(a) 0.
(b) 1.
(c) 2.
(d) 3.
(e) 4.

18. Let R be the solution region in the Cartesian plane for the equation x y 2 . Let C be a disk centered
at the point (1,0). What is the largest radius of C so that C is contained in the region R?
3
(a) 4.

3
(b) 2 .
(c) 1.
(d) 2 .
3
(e) 2.
2006 High School Math Contest 5

19. Let a > b > c be positive integers. How many positive solutions does the equation

loga x logb x logc x = loga x logb x + loga x logc x + logb x logc x

have?

(a) 0.
(b) 1.
(c) 2.
(d) 3.
(e) infinite.

20. The probability that it will be sunny tomorrow is 1/3. If it is sunny, the probability that Susan plays
tennis is 4/5. If it is not sunny, the probability that Susan plays tennis is 2/5. Find the probability
that Susan plays tennis tomorrow.

(a) 1/3.
(b) 2/5.
(c) 8/15.
(d) 2/3.
(e) 4/5.

21. The people living on Main Street all decide to buy new house numbers, so they line up at the store in
order of their addresses: 1, 2, 3, . . . . If the store has 100 of each digit, what is the first address that
wont be able to buy its house number?

(a) House #100.

(b) House #111.
(c) House #113.
(d) House #163.
(e) House #164.

22. An eagle 200 meters from the ground is observed from two points x meters apart at ground level. From
one point which is due south of the eagle, the angle of elevation is 30 and from the other point, which
is due east of the eagle, the angle of elevation is 40 . Calculate the value of x.

(a) 200 meters.

(b) 238.4 meters.
(c) 346.4 meters.
(d) 400 meters.
(e) 420.5 meters.

23. Assume the probability of being born in any given month is 1/12. The probability that at least two
people in a group of five are born in the same month is

(a) 25/144.
(b) 55/144.
(c) 5/12.
(d) 89/144.
(e) None of the above.
6 Elon University

24. The sum of the squares of three consecutive positive integers is 21,170. What is the sum of the cubes
of those three consecutive positive integers?

(a) 332,064.
(b) 1,778, 616.
(c) 2,080,217.
(d) 2,985,984.
(e) 16,003,008.

25. What is the remainder when 33333 is divided by 5?

(a) 0.
(b) 1.
(c) 2.
(d) 3.
(e) 4.

26. Let f (x) = x2 10. How many real solutions does f (f (f (x))) = 100 have?

(a) 0.
(b) 1.
(c) 2.
(d) 4.
(e) 8.

27. Let T be the triangle whose vertices are at (0, 0), (1, 1), and (2, 0). Find m so that y = mx divides T
into two triangles of equal area.

(a) 1/3.
(b) 2/5.
(c) 1/2.

(d) 2/2.

(e) 3/2.

28. A teacher gave a test to seven students. After returning the tests, she realized that she had only
recorded six of the seven test scores (58, 70, 75, 78, 86, 95), and the mean of all seven scores (79).
What is the median of the seven test scores?

(a) 75.
(b) 76.5.
(c) 78.
(d) 79.
(e) 86.
2006 High School Math Contest 7

29. For what value of d > 0 is the area of the region bounded by the yaxis and x = d 9|y| equal to 36?

(a) 2.
(b) 4.
(c) 9.
(d) 18.
(e) 36.

30. You used 48 coins to buy a $1.00 item, and received no change. What is the largest number of nickels
you could have used?

(a) 7.
(b) 9.
(c) 11.
(d) 13.
(e) 15.

31. Suppose that an isosceles triangle and a rectangle share a common base. If the area of the rectangle
is four times the area of the triangle, and the area of the triangle is 64 m2 with a height of 16m, what
are the dimensions of the rectangle?

(a) 4m 64m.
(b) 8m 32m.
(c) 24m 10m.
(d) 12m 20m.
(e) 8m 64m.

32. Let p(x) be the cubic polynomial satisfying the following equations:

p(x) = p(x)
p(1) = 5
p(2) = 6

What is p(3)?

(a) -35.
(b) -12.
(c) -5.
(d) -1.
(e) 1.
8 Elon University

33. Find |a b| given the following equations.

a+b = 3
ln a + ln b = 0

(a) 2.

(b) 3.
(c) 2.

(d) 5.

(e) 6.

34. If sin x + cos y = 2, what is cos x sin y?

(a) -2.
(b) -1.
(c) 0.
(d) 1.
(e) 2.

35. If S is a finite set, let |S| be the number of elements of S. Let A, B, and C be finite sets. If
|A| + |B| = |A B| + |A C| + |B C|, |A B C| = 2, and C B A, then what is |A B C|?

(a) 1.
(b) 2.
(c) 3.
(d) 4.
(e) Not enough information.