High School Math Contest

Elon University Mathematics Department

Saturday March 1, 2003

1. Find the product of the solutions for x4 18x3 25x2 + 114x = 0.

(a) 114.
(b) 6.
(c) 6.
(d) 114.
(e) None of the above.

2. Which of the following is equal to 66 + 66 + 66 + 66 + 66 + 66 ?

(a) 67 .
(b) 366 .
(c) 636 .
(d) 369 .
(e) 636 .

3. A population of deer follows an exponential model. 10 years ago the population was 345 deer
and this year the population is 272 deer. How many deer does the model predict for the
population in ten years (rounded to the nearest deer)?

(a) 199 deer.

(b) 214 deer.
(c) 345 deer.
(d) 418 deer.
(e) None of the above.

4. Consider two squares with sides 4 and 10. What is the area of the shaded region?
20 10
(a) 7 .
40
(b) 7 .
80
(c) 7 .
(d) 20.
(e) 40.
4
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5. In 1937 a man stated that he turned x years old in the year x2 . He added, If the number
of my years be added to the number of my month, the result equals the square of the day of
the month on which I was born. If months are numbered as 1=January, 2=February and
so on, when was he born?

(a) April 7, 1892.

(b) May 7, 1892.
(c) July 5, 1892.
(d) May 6, 1893.
(e) June 6, 1893.

6. There are 29 people in a room. Of these, 11 speak Spanish, 24 speak English and 3 speak
neither Spanish nor English. How many people in the room speak both Spanish and English?

(a) 3.
(b) 4.
(c) 6.
(d) 8.
(e) 9.

7. A ball was floating in a lake when the lake froze. The ball was removed (without breaking
the ice), leaving a hole 24 cm across at the top and 8 cm deep. What is the radius of the ball
(in centimeters)?

(a) 8.
(b) 12.
(c) 13.

(d) 8 3.

(e) 6 6. 24 cm

8 cm

8. The first four terms of an arithmetic sequence are a, x, b, 2x. The ratio of a to b is

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

9. The solution of cos x sin x on [0, 2] is

(a) [0, ].

(b) 2 , .

(c) 54 , 2 .

(d) 4 , 5
4 .
(e) None of the above.
2003 High School Math Contest 3

10. A boy entered a store and bought x flowers for exactly y one dollar bills. When he was about
to leave, the clerk said If you buy ten more flowers, I will give you all for $2 and you will
save 80 cents per dozen. What is x?
(a) 3.
(b) 5.
(c) 6.
(d) 10.
(e) 12.
11. A square has perimeter p > 0 and area A. If A = 3p, then what is the value of p?
(a) 24.
(b) 32.
(c) 36.
(d) 48.
(e) 54.
12. There are 6 red, 4 green, and 2 yellow marbles in an urn. What is the probability of picking
a red marble and then a green marble (without replacement)?
2
(a) 11 .
1
(b) 6.
1
(c) 24 .
6
(d) 5.
1
(e) 10 .

13. If you pick a positive factor of 144 at random, what is the probability that it is a perfect
square?
(a) 1/3.
(b) 2/5.
(c) 4/15.
(d) 7/15.
(e) None of the above.
14. Mr. Magoo gave an exam in which the average mark of those passing was 65, and the average
mark of those failing was 35. If the average mark of all participants was 53, what percentage
of the participants passed? Assume that a 60 or higher is passing.
(a) 30%.
(b) 40%.
(c) 50%.
(d) 60%.
(e) 65%.
15. The area (to the nearest tenth) of the triangle with vertices at the points (0, 0), (3, 4) and
(2, 2) is:
(a) 4.0 square units.
(b) 7.0 square units.
(c) 7.1 square units.
(d) 8.6 square units.
(e) None of the above.
4 Elon University

16. Suppose that 3a = 4, 4b = 5, 5c = 6, 6d = 7, 7e = 8, and 8f = 9. What is the value of the

product abcdef ?

(a) 1.
(b) 2.

(c) 6.
(d) 3.

(e) 3 2.

17. There are two natural ways to inscribe a square in a given isosceles right triangle. If it is
done as in Figure 1 below, then one finds that the area of the square is 441 cm2 . What is
the area (in cm2 ) of the square inscribed in the same 4ABC as shown in Figure 2 below?

(a) 378. A A
(b) 392.
(c) 400.
(d) 441.
(e) 484.

B C B C

Figure 1. Figure 2.

18. A boy bought one dollar worth of stamps. He asked for some 2-cent stamps, ten times as
many 1-cent stamps, and the rest in 5 cent stamps. How many 2 cent stamps did he buy?

(a) 5.
(b) 8.
(c) 10.
(d) 25.
(e) None of the above.

19. If the length of each side of a triangle is increased by 20%, then the area of the triangle is
increased by

(a) 40%.
(b) 44%.
(c) 48%.
(d) 52%.
(e) 60%.
2003 High School Math Contest 5

sin cos
20. + =
1 + cos sin
(a) sin .
(b) csc .
(c) cos .
(d) sec .
(e) tan .

21. On a 26-question test, five points were deducted for each wrong answer and eight points were
credited for each correct answer. If all the questions were answered, how many were correct
if the score was zero?

(a) 8.
(b) 10.
(c) 13.
(d) 16.
(e) 20.

22. What is the probability that the top four cards in a shuffled deck of 52 cards will consist of
three aces and a single two (in any order)?

(a) 5.9 103 .

(b) 5.9 104 .
(c) 5.9 105 .
(d) 5.9 106 .
(e) 5.9 107 .

23. Let C be a circle of radius 2 that is tangent to two line segments that form a 90 angle.
Another circle, call it S, is tangent to the same two line segments and circle C. What is the
radius of S?

(a) 1.

(b) 6 4 2.

(c) 3.
(d) 2. 2

(e) 5.
6 Elon University

24. If loga x = 0.277, logx a = 3.61, logb x = 0.622, and logx b = 1.608, what is logb a (to the
nearest thousandth)?

(a) 0.194.
(b) 0.759.
(c) 1.317.
(d) Cant be done with the given information.
(e) None of the above.

25. Suppose that 7 distinct points lie on a circle. How many triangles can be constructed using
only the seven points for vertices?

(a) 21.
(b) 35.
(c) 210.
(d) 336.
(e) None of the above.

26. In a mathematics competition, the sum of the scores of Bill and Dick equaled the sum of
the scores of Ann and Carol. If the scores of Bill and Carol had been interchanged, then
the sum of the scores of Ann and Carol would have exceeded the sum of the scores of the
other two. Also, Dicks score exceeded the sum of the scores of Bill and Carol. Determine
the order in which the four contestants finished, from highest to lowest. Assume all scores
were nonnegative.

(a) Dick, Ann, Carol, Bill.

(b) Dick, Ann, Bill, Carol.
(c) Dick, Carol, Bill, Ann.
(d) Ann, Dick, Carol, Bill.
(e) Ann, Dick, Bill, Carol.

27. The tide level at a particular beach on the coast of North Carolina is very regular. The level
obeys a sinusoidal curve. Low tide this morning was at 1:04 am and the next high tide after
that was at 7:01 am this morning. When is the next day that will have three high tides in
the same day?

(a) March 30, 2003.

(b) April 5, 2003.
(c) March 1, 2004.
(d) Never.
(e) None of the above.

28. Jim estimated that one of his two bricklayers, Lisa, would take 9 hours to build a certain
wall. His other brick layer, Lauren, would take 10 hours to build the same wall. However, he
knew from experience that when Lisa and Lauren worked together, 10 fewer bricks were laid
per hour than they should have been able to lay combined. Since Jim was in a hurry, he put
both women on the job and found that it took exactly 5 hours to build the wall. How many
bricks did the wall contain?

(a) 400.
(b) 500.
(c) 900.
(d) 1000.
(e) Can not be determined.
2003 High School Math Contest 7

29. Let be a right triangle. If has sides of length 3 and 4, what is the shortest possible third
side?

(a) 0.
(b) 1.

(c) 5.

(d) 7.
(e) 5.

30. Let P and Q be propositions which are independently sometimes true and sometimes false.
Which is true more often?

(a) P .
(b) P Q.
(c) P Q.
(d) (P Q) P .
(e) (Q P ) P .

31. A rancher decided that he needs to fence in 54, 450 square feet for use as a stock pen. A high
straight cliff could be used as one side of the rectangular area. What dimensions will enable
him to fence in the area with minimum cost?

(a) 30 feet by 1815 feet.

(b) 110 feet by 495 feet.
(c) 121 feet by 450 feet.
(d) 150 feet by 363 feet.
(e) 165 feet by 330 feet.

32. ABCD is a square and M and N are the midpoints of BC and CD respectively. Then sin =

5 M
(a) . B C
5
3
(b) .
5

10
(c) .
5 N
4
(d) .
5
(e) None of the
above.
A D
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33. Let P be the product of the first 100 primes. What is the units digit of P?

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

34. Find the domain of the following function.

r
1
f (x) = x2
x
(a) (1, ).
(b) [1, ).
(c) (0, 1) (1, ) .
(d) (, 0) (1, ).
(e) (, 0) [1, ).
35. Let c be a constant. The simultaneous equations

x y = 2
cx + y = 3

have a solution (x, y) inside the first quadrant if and only if

(a) c = 1.
(b) c > 1.
(c) c < 3/2.
(d) 0 < c < 3/2.
(e) 1 < c < 3/2.