Clock, Variation, Progression and Miscellaneous Problems

Problem 1: CE Board May 1995 Problem 7: GE Board February 1994

In how many minutes after 2 o’clock will the Form the time 6:15 PM to the time 7:45 PM of
hands of the clock extend in opposite directions the same day, the minute hand of a standard
for the first time? clock describes an arc of?
A. 42.4 minutes A. 60°
B. 42.8 minutes B. 90°
C. 43.2 minutes C. 180°
D. 43.6 minutes D. 540°

Problem 2: CE Board November 1995 Problem 8: EE Board April 1990

In how many minutes after 7 o’clock will the A storage battery discharges at a rate which is
hands be directly opposite each other for the first proportional to the charge. If the charge is
time? reduced by 50% of its original value at the end of
A. 5.22 minutes 2 days, how long will
B. 5.33 minutes it take to reduce the
C. 5.46 minutes charge to 25% of its
D. 5.54 minutes original charge?
A. 3
Problem 3: CE Board May 1997 B. 4
What time after 3 o’clock will the hands of the C. 5
clock are together for the first time? D. 6
A. 3:02.30
B. 3:17.37 Problem 9: ECE Board April 1990
C. 3:14.32 The resistance of a wire varies directly with its
D. 3:16.36 length and inversely with its area. If a certain
piece of wire 10 m long and 0.10 cm in diameter
has a resistance of 100 ohms, what will its
Problem 4: GE Board February 1997 resistance be if its is
At what time after 12:00 noon will the hour hand uniformly stretched so
and minute hand of the clock first form an angle that its length
of 120o? becomes 12 m?
A. 12:18.818 A. 80
B. 12:21.818 B. 90
C. 12:22.818 C. 144
D. 12:24.818 D. 120

Problem 5: Problem 10: CE Board May 1993

At what time between 8 and 9 o’clock will the Given that “w” varies directly as the product of
minute hand coincide with the hour hand? “x” and “y” and inversely as the square of “z”
A. 8:42.5 and that w = 4 when x = 2, y = 6 and z = 3. Find
B. 8:43.2 the value of “w” when
C. 8:43.6 x = 1, y = 4 and z = 2.
D. 8:43.9 A. 3
B. 4
Problem 6: EE Board October 1990 C. 5
A man left his home at past 3:00 o’clock PM as D. 6
indicated in his wall clock, between 2 to 3 hours
after, he returns home Problem 11: ECE Board November 1993
and noticed the hands of If x varies directly as y and inversely as z, and x
the clock interchanged. = 14 when y =7 and z = 2, find the value of x
At what time did the man when y = 16 and z = 4.
leave his home? A. 14
A. 3:31.47 B. 4
B. 3:21.45 C. 16
C. 3:46.10 D. 8
D. 3:36.50
Clock, Variation, Progression and Miscellaneous Problems

Problem 12: EE Board March 1998 Problem 16: EE Board March 1998
The electric power which a transmission line can A bookstore purchased a best selling price book
transmit is proportional to the product of its at P200.00 per copy. At what price should this
design voltage and current capacity, and book be sold so that, giving a 20% discount, the
inversely to the transmission distance. A 115- profit is 30%?
kilovolt line rated at 100 amperes can transmit A. P 450
150 megawatts over 150 km. How much power, B. P 500
in megawatts can a 230 kilovolt line rated at 150 C. P 357
amperes transmit over 100 km? D. P 400
A. 785
B. 485 Problem 17: ECE Board November 1993
C. 675 Jojo bought a second hand Betamax VCR and
D. 595 then sold it to Rudy at a profit of 40%. Rudy then
sold the VCR to Noel at a profit of 20%. If Noel
Problem 13: ME Board October 1992 paid P2, 856 more than it cost to Jojo, how much
The time required for an elevator to lift a weight did Jojo paid for the
varies directly with the weight and the distance unit?
through which it is to be lifted and inversely as A. P 4,000
the power of the motor. If it takes 30s seconds B. P 4,100
for a 10hp motor to lift 100 lbs through 50 feet, C. P 4,200
what size of motor is required to lift 800 lbs in D. P 4,300
40s seconds
through 40 feet? Problem 18: EE Board March 1998
A. 42 In a certain community of 1,200 people, 60% are
B. 44 literate. Of the males, 50% are literate and of the
C. 46 females 70% are literate. What is the female
D. 48 population?
A. 850
Problem 14: B. 500
The selling price of TV set is double that of its C. 550
cost. If the TV set was sold to a customer at a D. 600
profit of 25% of the net cost, how much discount
was given to the
customer? Problem 19: ECE Board March 1996
A. 33.7% A merchant has three items on sale, namely a
B. 35.7% radio for P50, a clock for P30 and a flashlight for
C. 37.7% P1. At the end of the day, he sold a total of 100
D. 34.7% of the three items and has taken exactly P1000
on the total sales. How
Problem 15: many radios did he
A group of EE examinees decided to hire a sale?
mathematics tutor from Excel Review Center A. 16
and planned to contribute equal amount for the B. 20
tutor’s fee. If there were 10 more examinees, C. 18
each would have paid P2 less. However, if there D. 24
were 5 less examinees, each would have paid
P2 more. How
many examinees
are there in the
group? Problem 20: ME Board October 1996
A. 14 The arithmetic mean of a and b is?
B. 16
C. 18 A. 
D. 20
B. 
Clock, Variation, Progression and Miscellaneous Problems

A. 11
C.  B. 12
C. 13
D.  D. 14

Problem 21: Problem 27: CE Board May 1995

The sum of three arithmetic means between 34 What is the sum of the progression 4, 9, 14, 19
and 42 is? … up to the 20th term?
A. 114 A. 1030
B. 124 B. 1035
C. 134 C. 1040
D. 144 D. 1045

Problem 22: EE Board March 1998 Problem 28: EE Board April 1997
Gravity causes a body to fall 16.1 ft in the first A stack of bricks has 61 bricks in the bottom
second, 48.3 in the 2nd second, 80.5 in the 3rd layer, 58 bricks in the second layer, 55 bricks in
second. How far did the body fall during the 10th the third layer, and so on until there are 10
second? bricks in the last layer. How many bricks are
A. 248.7 ft there all
B. 308.1 ft together?
C. 241.5 ft A. 638
D. 305.9 ft B. 637
C. 639
Problem 23: D. 640
If the first term of arithmetic progression is 25
and the fourth term is 13, what is the third term? Problem 29: CE Board May 1998
A. 17 Determine the sum of the progression if there
B. 18 are 7 arithmetic mean between 3 and 35.
C. 19 A. 171
D. 20 B. 182
C. 232
Problem 24: ECE Board November 1998 D. 216
Find the 30th term of the arithmetic progression
4, 7, 10, …. Problem 30: ECE Board April 1995
A. 75 A besiege fortress is held by 5700 men who
B. 88 have provisions for 66 days. If the garrison
C. 90 losses 20 men each day, for how many days can
D. 91 the provision
hold out?
Problem 25: CE Board May 1993, CE Board A. 72
May 1994, CE Board November 1994 B. 74
How many terms of the progression 3, 5, 7, … C. 76
must be taken in order that their sum will be D. 78
2600?
A. 48 Problem 31: CE Board May 1991
B. 49 In the recent “Gulf War” in the Middle East, the
C. 50 allied forces captured 6400 of Saddam’s soldiers
D. 51 and with provisions on hand it will last for 216
meals while feeding 3 meals a day. The
Problem 26: ME Board April 1995 provision lasted 9 more days because of daily
In pile of logs, each layer contains one more log deaths. At an
than the layer above average, how many
and the top contains died per day?
just one log. If there are A. 15
105 logs in the pile, how B. 16
many layers are there? C. 17
Clock, Variation, Progression and Miscellaneous Problems

D. 18
Problem 32: GE Board July 1993
A Geodetic Engineering student got a score
of 30% on Test 1 of the five number test in Problem 37:
Surveying. On the last number he got 90% in How many times will a grandfather’s clock
which a constant difference more on each strikes in one day if it strikes only at the hours
number that he had on the immediately and strike once at 1 o’clock, twice at 2 o’clock,
preceding one. thrice at 3 o’clock
What was his and so on?
average score in A. 210
Surveying? B. 24
A. 50 C. 156
B. 55 D. 300
C. 60
D. 65 Problem 38: CE Board May 1992
To conserve energy due to the present energy
Problem 33: ME Board April 1999 crisis, the Meralco tried to re-adjust their charges
If the sum of 220 and the first term is 10, find the to electrical energy users who consume more
common difference if than 2000 kw-hrs. For the first 100 kw-hr, they
the last term is 30. charged 40 centavos and increasing at a
A. 2 constant rate more than the preceding one until
B. 5 the fifth 100 kw-hr, the charge is 76 centavos.
C. 3 How much is the average charge for the
D. 2/3 electrical energy
per 100 kw-hr?
Problem 34: EE Board April 1997 A. 58 centavos
Once a month, a man puts some money into the B. 60 centavos
cookie jar. Each month he puts 50 centavos C. 62 centavos
more into the jar than the month before. After 12 D. 64 centavos
years, he counted his money, he had P5, 436.
How much money did he put in the jar in the last Problem 39: CE Board November 1993
month? The 3rd term of a
A. P 73.50 harmonic progression
B. P 75.50 is 15 and the 9th term is 6.
C. P 74.50 Find the 11th term.
D. P 72. 50 A. 4
B. 5
Problem 35: EE Board April 1997 C. 6
A girl on a bicycle coasts downhill is covering 4 D. 7
feet the first second, 12 feet the second second,
and in general, 8 feet more each second than Problem 40: ECE Board November 1995
the previous second. If she reaches the bottom Find the fourth term of the progression ½, 0.2,
at the end of 14 seconds, how far did she 0.125, . . .
coasts? A. 1/10
A. 782 feet B. 1/11
B. 780 feet C. 0.102
C. 784 feet D. 0.099
D. 786 feet
Problem 41: Find the 9th term of the harmonic
Problem 36: progression 3, 2,
When all odd numbers from 1 to 101 are added, 3/2….
the result is? A. 3/5
A. 2500 B. 3/8
B. 2601 C. 4/5
C. 2501 D. 4/9
D. 3500
Clock, Variation, Progression and Miscellaneous Problems

Problem 42: The sum of the first 10 terms

Find the sum of 4 geometric means between of geometric progression 2,
160 and 5. 4, 8, …
A. 130 A. 1023
B. 140 B. 2046
C. 150 C. 225
D. 160 D. 1596
Problem 49:
Problem 43: EE Board October 1991 If the first term of G.P. is 9 and the common
The fourth term of a ration is -2/3, find the fifth term.
G.P. is 216 and the A. 8/5
6th term is 1944. B. 16/9
Find the 8th term. C. 15/7
A. 17649 D. 13/4
B. 17496
C. 16749 Problem 50: EE Board April 1997
D. 17964 The seventh term is 56 and the twelfth term is -
1792 of a geometric progression. Find the
Problem 44: ECE Board April 1999 common ratio and the first term. Assume the
Determine x so that: x, 2x + 7, 10x – 7 will be a rations are equal.
geometric progression. A. -2, 5/8
A. 7, -7/12 B. -1, 5/8
B. 7, -5/6 C. -1, 7/8
C. 7, -14/5 D. -2, 7/8
D. 7, -7/6
Problem 51:
Problem 45: ECE Board April 1999 A person has 2 parents, 4 grandparents, 8 great
If one third of the air in a tank is removed by grandparents and so on. How many ancestors
each stroke of an air pump, what fractional part during the 15 generations preceding his own,
of the total air is assuming no duplication?
removed in 6 strokes? A. 131070
A. 0.7122 B. 65534
B. 0.9122 C. 32766
C. 0.6122 D. 16383
D. 0.8122
Problem 52:
Problem 46: ME Board October 1996 If the PBA three-point shootout-contest, the
A product has a current selling of P325.00. If it’s committee decided to give a prize in the
selling price is expected to decline at the rate of following manner. A price of P1 for the first
10% per annum because of obsolescence, what basket made, P2 for the second, P4 for the third,
will be its selling price four years hence? P8 for the fourth and so on. If the contestant
A. P 213.33 wants to win a
B. P 202.75 prize of no less
C. P 302.75 than a million
D. P156.00 pesos, what is the
minimum number
Problem 47: CE Board May 1995 of baskets to be
The numbers 28, x + 2, converted?
112 form a G.P. What is A. 20
the 10th term? B. 19
A. 14336 C. 18
B. 13463 D. 21
C. 16433
D. 16344 Problem 53: CE Board November 1994
In a benefit show, a number of wealthy men
Problem 48: ECE Board April 1998 agreed that the first one
Clock, Variation, Progression and Miscellaneous Problems

to arrive would pay 10 centavos to enter and D. 275 feet

each later arrive would pay twice as much as the
preceding man. The total amount collected from Problem 58: EE Board April 1990
all of them was  What is the fraction in lowest term equivalent to
P104,857.50. How many wealthy men paid? 0.133133133?
A. 18
B. 19 A. 
C. 20
D. 21
B. 
Problem 54:
A man mailed 10 chain letters to ten of his C. 
friends with a request to continue by sending
similar letter to each of their ten friends. If this D. 
continue for 6 sets of letters and if all responded,
how much will the Phil. Postal Office earn if
minimum postage Problem 59: ECE Board April 1998
costs P4 per Find the sum of the infinite geometric
letter? progression 6, -2,
A. P 6,000,000 2/3, . . .
B. P 60,000 A. 9/2
C. P 2,222,220 B. 5/2
D. P 4,444,440 C. 7/2
D. 11/2
Problem 55: EE Board March 1998
Problem 60: CE Board May 1998
Determine the sum of
Find the sum of 1, –  ,  , . . .
the infinite series: S =    A. 5/6
B. 2/3
+   +   + …. +  n C. 0.84
A. 4/5 D. 0.72
B. 3/4
C. 2/3 Problem 61: ECE Board November 1998
D. 1/2 Find the ratio of an infinite
geometric progression if
Problem 56: the sum is 2 and the first
Under the favourable condition, single cell term is ½.
bacteria divided into two about every 20 A. 1/3
minutes. If the same rate of division is B. 1/2
maintained for 10 hours, how many organisms is C. 3/4
produced from a single cell? D. 1/4
A. 1,073,741
B. 1,730.74 Problem 62: EE Board April 1997
C. 1,073,741,823 If equal spheres are piled in the form of a
D. 1,037,417 complete pyramid with an equilateral; triangle as
base, find the total number of spheres in the pile
Problem 57: EE Board October 1994 if each side of the base contains 4 spheres.
A rubber ball is made to fall from a height of 50 A. 15
feet and is observed to rebound 2/3 of the B. 20
distance it falls. How far will the ball travel before C. 18
coming to rest if the ball continues to fall in this D. 21
manner?
A. 200 feet Problem 63:
B. 225 feet Find the 6th term of the sequence 55, 40, 28,
C. 250 feet 19, 13, . . .
Clock, Variation, Progression and Miscellaneous Problems

A. 10 D. 254
B. 9
C. 8 Problem 70
D. 11 The sum of all even numbers from 0 to 420 is:
A. 43410
B. 44300
Problem 64: EE Board October 1997
C. 44310
In the series 1, 1, ½, 1/6, 1/24, . . .determine
D. 44130
the 6th term.
A. 1/80
B. 1/74 Problem 71 (CE May 1997)
C. 1/100 Which of the following numbers should be
D. 1/120 changed to make all the numbers form an
arithmetic progression when properly arranged?
A. 27/14
Problem 65: ECE Board April 1998 B. 33/28
Find the 1987th in the decimal equivalent C. 45/28
D. 20/14
to     starting from the decimal point.
A. 8
Problem 72
B. 1
The first term of an arithmetic progression (A.P.)
C. 7
D. 5 is 6 and the 10th term is 3 times the second
number. What is the common difference?
Problem 66 (ECE November 1996) A. 1
How many terms of the sequence -9, -6, -3 … B. 2
must be taken so that the sum is 66? C. 3
A. 13 D. 4
B. 12
C. 4 Problem 73
D. 11 The sum of five arithmetic means between 34
and 42 is:
Problem 67 (CE November 1997) A. 150
The sum of the progression 5, 8, 11, 14 …. is B. 160
1025. How many terms are there? C. 190
A. 22 D. 210
B. 23
C. 24 Problem 74
D. 25 The positive values of a so that 4x, 5x + 4, 3x 2 –
1will be in arithmetic progression is:
Problem 68 (CE May 1998) A. 2
There are seven arithmetic means between 3 B. 3
and 35. Find the sum of all terms. C. 4
A. 169 D. 5
B. 171
C. 167 Problem 75
D. 173 Solve for x if x + 3x + 5x + 7x + … + 49x = 625
A. ¼
Problem 69 (CE May 1999) B. ½
There are line (9) arithmetic means between 11 C. 1
and 51. The sum of the progression is: D. 1 ¼
A. 279
B. 341 Problem 76
C. 376
Clock, Variation, Progression and Miscellaneous Problems

The 10th term of the series a, a – b, a – 2b, … C. 213

is: D. 340
A. a – 6b
B. a – 9b Problem 83
C. 2a – b Find x in the series: 1, 1/3, 0.2, x.
D. a + 9b A. 1/6
B. 1/8
Problem 77 C. 1/7
If the sum of the first 13 terms of two arithmetic D. 1/9
progressions are in the ratio 7:3, find the ratio of
their corresponding 7th term.
A. 3:7 Problem 84 (ECE November 1995)
B. 1:3 Find the fourth term of the progression ½, 0.2,
C. 7:3 0.125, …
D. 6:7 A. 0.102
B. 1/10
Problem 78 C. 1/11
If 1/x, 1/y, 1/z are in arithmetic progression, then D. 0.099
y is equal to:
A. x – z Problem 85
B. ½(x + 2z) The 10th term of the progression 6/4, 4/3, 3/2, …
C. (x + z)/2xz is:
D. 2xz/(x + z) A. 12
B. 10/3
Problem 79 (ECE November 1997) C. 12/3
Find the 30th term of the A.P. 4, 7, 10 … D. 13/3
A. 88
B. 91 Problemv 86 (ME October 1997)
C. 75 The geometric mean of 4 and 64 is:
D. 90 A. 48
B. 16
Problem 80 (ECE November 1997) C. 34
Find the 100th term of the sequence 1.01, 1.00, D. 24
0.99….
A. 0.05 Problem 87 (ME October 1997)
B. 0.04 The geometric mean of a and b is:
C. 0.03 A. √ab
D. 0.02 B. (a+b)/2
C. 1/b
Problem 81 D. ab/2
The sum of all numbers between 0 and 10000
which is exactly divisible by 77 is: Problem 88 (CE May 1998)
A. 546546 Determine the sum of the infinite geometric
B. 645568 series of 1, -1/5,+1/25, …?
C. 645645 A. 4/5
D. 645722 B. 5/7
C. 4/6
Problem 82 (ME April 1998) D. 5/6
What is the sum of the following finite sequence
of terms? 18, 25, 32, 39, .., 67. Problem 80
A. 234 There are 6 geometric means between 4 and
B. 181 8748. Find the sum of all terms.
Clock, Variation, Progression and Miscellaneous Problems

A. 13120 A. -5
B. 15480 B. 10
C. 10250 C. 6
D. 9840 D. 5

Problem 90 (ECE April 1998) Problem 96

Find the sum of the infinite progression 6, -2, The geometric mean and the harmonic mean of
-2/3 … two numbers are 12 and 36/5 respectively. What
A. 5/2 are the numbers?
B. 9/2 A. 36 & 4
C. 7/2 B. 72 & 8
D. 11/2 C. 36 & 8
D. 72 & 4
Problem 91 (ECE April 1998)
Find the sum of the first 10 terms of the Problem 97
Geometric Progression 2, 4, 8, 16 … If x, 4x + 8, 30x + 24 are in geometrical
A. 1023 progression, find the common ratio.
B. 2046 A. 2
C. 1596 B. 4
D. 225 C. 6
D. 8
Problem 92
The 1st, 4th, 8th terms of an A.P. are Problem 98 (ECE April 1995)
themselves geometric progression (G.P.). What A besiege fortress is held by 5700 men who
is the common ratio of the G.P.? have provision for 66 days. If the garrison loses
A. 4/3 20 men each day, for how many days can the
B. 5/3 provision hold out?
C. 2 A. 60
D. 7/3 B. 72
C. 76
Problem 93 D. 82
Determine x so that x, 2x + 7, 10x – 7 will form a
geometric progression. Problem 99 (ECE April 1999)
A. -7 If one third of the air in the tank is removed by
B. 6 each stroke of an air pump, what fractional part
C. 7 of the total air is removed in 6 strokes?
D. -6 A. 0.9122
B. 0.0877
Problem 94 C. 0.8211
The fourth term of a geometric progression is D. 0.7145
189 and the sixth term is 1701, the 8th term is:
A. 5103 Problem 100
B. 1240029 A rubber ball is dropped from a height of 15 m.
C. 45927 On each rebound, it rises 2/3 of the height from
D. 15309 which it last fell. Find the distance traveled by
the ball before it becomes to rest.
Problem 95 A. 75 m
The sum of the numbers in arithmetical B. 96 m
progression is 45. If 2 is added to the first C. 100 m
number, 3 to the second and 7 to the third, the D. 85 m
new numbers will be in geometrical progression.
Find the common difference in A.P. Problem 101 (CE May 1991)
Clock, Variation, Progression and Miscellaneous Problems

In the recent Bosnia conflict, The NATO forces D. 25

captured 6400 soldiers. The provisions on hand
will last for 216 meals while feeding 3 meals a Problem 106 (ECE November 1992)
day. The provisions lasted 9 more days because The probability for the ECE board examinees
of daily deaths. At an average, how many died from a certain school to pass the Mathematics
per day? subject is 3/7 and that for the Communications
A. 15.2 subject is 5/7. If none of the examinees failed in
B. 17.8 both subjects and there are 4 examinees who
C. 18.3 pass both subjects, how many examinees from
D. 19.4 the school took the examination?
A. 28
Problem 102 B. 27
To build a dam, 60 men must work 72 days. If all C. 26
60 men are employed at the start but the D. 32
number is decreased by 5 men at the end of
each 12-day period, how long will it take to Problem 107 (EE March 1998)
complete the dam? In a commercial survey involving 1000 persons
A. 108 days on brand preferences, 120 were found to prefer
B. 9 days brand x only, 200 persons prefer brand y only,
C. 94 days 150 persons prefer brand z only, 370 prefer
D. 60 days either brand x or y not z, 450 prefer brand y or z
but not x, and 370 prefer wither brand z or x but
Problem 103 (CE November 1994) not y, and none prefer all the three brands at a
In a benefit show, a number of wealthy men time. How many persons have no brand
agreed that the first one to arrive would pay 10 preference with any of the three brands?
centavos to enter and each later arrival would A. 120
pay twice as much as the preceding man. The B. 280
total amount collected from all of them was C. 70
P104857.50. How may wealthy men had paid? D. 320
A. 18
B. 19
C. 20
D. 21

Problem 104 (EE October 1993)

In a class of 40 students, 27 students like
Calculus and 25 like Geometry. How many
students liked both Calculus and Geometry?
A. 10
B. 14
C. 11
D. 12

Problem 105
A class of 40 took examination in Algebra and
Trigonometry. If 30 passed Algebra, 36 passed
Trigonometry, and 2 failed in both subjects, the
number of students who passed the two subjects
is:
A. 2
B. 8
C. 28