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Problems 4

The document is a mathematics tournament test from the Harvard-MIT Mathematics Tournament held on February 19, 2005. It contains a series of ten math problems ranging from algebra and geometry to probability and combinatorics. Each problem challenges participants to find solutions or calculate specific values based on the given scenarios.

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15 views1 page

Problems 4

The document is a mathematics tournament test from the Harvard-MIT Mathematics Tournament held on February 19, 2005. It contains a series of ten math problems ranging from algebra and geometry to probability and combinatorics. Each problem challenges participants to find solutions or calculate specific values based on the given scenarios.

Uploaded by

nkuchlous057
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Harvard-MIT Mathematics Tournament

February 19, 2005

Individual Round: General Test, Part 1

1. How many real numbers x are solutions to the following equation?

|x − 1| = |x − 2| + |x − 3|

2. A true-false test has ten questions. If you answer five questions “true” and five “false,”
your score is guaranteed to be at least four. How many answer keys are there for which
this is true?

3. Let ABCD be a regular tetrahedron with side length 2. The plane parallel to edges
AB and CD and lying halfway between them cuts ABCD into two pieces. Find the
surface area of one of these pieces.

4. Find all real solutions to x3 + (x + 1)3 + (x + 2)3 = (x + 3)3 .

5. In how many ways can 4 purple balls and 4 green balls be placed into a 4 × 4 grid such
that every row and column contains one purple ball and one green ball? Only one ball
may be placed in each box, and rotations and reflections of a single configuration are
considered different.

6. In an election, there are two candidates, A and B, who each have 5 supporters. Each
supporter, independent of other supporters, has a 21 probability of voting for his or her
candidate and a 21 probability of being lazy and not voting. What is the probability of
a tie (which includes the case in which no one votes)?
¥ ¦ ¥ b+c ¦ ¥ c+a ¦
7. If a, b, c > 0, what is the smallest possible value of a+b
c
+ a + b ? (Note that
bxc denotes the greatest integer less than or equal to x.)

8. Ten positive integers are arranged around a circle. Each number is one more than the
greatest common divisor of its two neighbors. What is the sum of the ten numbers?

9. A triangular piece of paper of area 1 is folded along a line parallel to one of the sides
and pressed flat. What is the minimum possible area of the resulting figure?

10. What is the smallest integer x larger than 1 such that x2 ends in the same three digits
as x does?

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