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2015 4
Chapter Competition
5
Sprint Round
Problems 1−30 6
7
HONOR PLEDGE
I pledge to uphold the highest principles of honesty and integrity as a Mathlete®. I will neither give nor 8
accept unauthorized assistance of any kind. I will not copy another’s work and submit it as my own. I
understand that any competitor found to be in violation of this honor pledge is subject to disqualification. 9
Signature ______________________________________________ Date  _______________

Printed Name ________________________________________________________________

School ______________________________________________________________________

DO NOT BEGIN UNTIL YOU ARE INSTRUCTED TO DO SO.

This section of the competition consists of 30 problems. You will have 40 minutes to complete
all the problems. You are not allowed to use calculators, books or other aids during this round.
If you are wearing a calculator wrist watch, please give it to your proctor now. Calculations
may be done on scratch paper. All answers must be complete, legible and simplified to lowest
terms. Record only final answers in the blanks in the left-hand column of the competition
booklet. If you complete the problems before time is called, use the remaining time to check
your answers.

In each written round of the competition, the required unit for the answer is included in the
answer blank. The plural form of the unit is always used, even if the answer appears to require
the singular form of the unit. The unit provided in the answer blank is the only form of the
answer that will be accepted.

Total Correct Scorer’s Initials

National Sponsors
Raytheon Company
Northrop Grumman Foundation
U.S. Department of Defense
National Society of Professional Engineers
Phillips 66
Texas Instruments Incorporated
3Mgives
CNA Foundation
Art of Problem Solving
NextThought

Founding Sponsors: National Society of Professional Engineers, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and CNA Foundation

Copyright MATHCOUNTS, Inc. 2014. All rights reserved.

02-C15SPR
 a 3
1. _____________ If = and b = 10, what is the value of a?
b 5

2. _____________
triangles Square ABCD, shown here, has diagonals AC and BD that intersect at E. How
many triangles of any size are in the figure? A D

B C

3. _____________ When the integers 1 to 100 inclusive are written, what digit is written the fewest
number of times?

4. _____________ Danica wrote the digits from 1 to 8 across a sheet of paper, as shown, and then
circled one digit. If the digits to the left of the circled digit had the same sum as
those to the right of the circled digit, which digit did Danica circle?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

$
5. _____________ Sally received a sum of money for her birthday. She spent
one-third of that money on bus fare to travel downtown. She
spent half of the money that remained to treat her best friend
to a movie, after which Sally had $12.00 remaining. How
much money did Sally receive for her birthday?

6. _____________ When six is added to a number, the result is three times the original number.
What is the original number?

Copyright MATHCOUNTS, Inc. 2014. All rights reserved. 2015 Chapter Sprint Round
7. _____________
$ Each time one of Yuan's paintings sells, the gallery sends Yuan a payment equal
to 60% of the purchase amount, and the gallery keeps the remainder. If
three of Yuan’s paintings sold recently for $200, $300 and $500, he
should expect to receive three payments totaling how many dollars
from his gallery?

8. _____________ If x is 15% of 500 and y is 200% of x, what is the value of the sum x + y ?

9. _____________ The square in Figure 1 is cut along its diagonals creating four congruent
triangles that then are arranged to create Figure 2. What is the probability that a
randomly chosen point within the boundary of Figure 2 is in any of the shaded
triangles? Express your answer as a common fraction.

Figure 1 Figure 2

10. _____________ If 3
b = 5, what is the value of 2b?

11. _____________
$ This table shows every category of Martin's monthly expenses. Once completed,
it will depict how 100% of Martin’s monthly income is budgeted. Based on the
information provided, what is Martin’s monthly income?

Car Loan
Rent Utilities Food Gasoline Savings
Payment
Percent of
35% 15% 20% 15% 10%
Income
Dollars of
$80
Income

12. _____________
units2 The points A(−1, 2) and B(3, 2) are graphed on a
coordinate plane. Point C is the reflection of point A
x
over the x-axis. What is the area of triangle ABC?

Copyright MATHCOUNTS, Inc. 2014. All rights reserved. 2015 Chapter Sprint Round
13. _____________ What is the greatest prime factor of the product 6 × 14 × 22?

14. _____________ If + = 5 and − = 3, what is the value of +  ?

15. _____________ Ms. Spice tells her class that she is thinking of a positive common
fraction. The product of the numerator and denominator is 60. When she
adds 1 to the numerator and divides the denominator by 2, the resulting
fraction is equal to 1. What common fraction is Ms. Spice thinking of ?

16. _____________
papers Working alone, a professor grades a paper every 10 minutes. The professor
spends 20 minutes training an assistant. Then, working together, they grade
2 papers every 15 minutes. For how many graded papers is the amount of time
it would take the professor working alone the same as the amount
of time it would take the professor and her assistant working
together, including the time required for training?

17. _____________ If b = a2 and c = 3b − 2, what is the product of all values of a for which b = c?

18. _____________ A set of six distinct positive integers has a mean of 8, a median of 8 and no term
greater than 13. What is the least possible value of any term in the set?

Copyright MATHCOUNTS, Inc. 2014. All rights reserved. 2015 Chapter Sprint Round
19. _____________ If x   y = (x + y)2 for positive integers x and y, what is the value of (1   2)   3?

20. _____________ Segment XY is drawn parallel to the base of triangle ABC. If the A
area of trapezoid BCYX is 10 units2 and the area of triangle AXY
is 8 units2, what is the ratio of XY to BC? Express your answer X Y
as a common fraction. B C

21. _____________ What is the greatest possible absolute difference between the mean and the
median of five single-digit positive integers? Express your answer as a common
fraction.

22. _____________ If f is a function such that f(f(x)) = x2 – 1, what is f(f(f(f(3))))?

23. _____________ If the sum of an arithmetic progression of six positive integer terms is 78, what is
the greatest possible difference between consecutive terms?

24. _____________
units2 Points A, B and C have coordinates (−4, 2), (1, 2) and
(−1, 5), respectively. If triangle ABC is reflected across
the y-axis, what is the area of the region that is the
x
intersection of triangle ABC and its reflection? Express
your answer as a decimal to the nearest tenth.

Copyright MATHCOUNTS, Inc. 2014. All rights reserved. 2015 Chapter Sprint Round
25. _____________ On a standard die with six faces, each face contains a different number from 1
through 6. Jake has a non-standard die with six faces, and each face on Jake’s
die contains an expression with a different value from 1 through 6. In no
particular order, the six expressions are a + 1, 2a – 5, 3a – 10, b + 8, 2b + 5 and
3b + 10. If a and b are integers, what is the value of the product a × b?

26. _____________ For a particular sequence a1 = 3, a2 = 5 and an = an – 1 – an – 2, for n ≥ 3. What is

the 2015th term in this sequence?

27. _____________ If Desi flips a fair coin eight times, what is the probability that he
will get the same number of heads and tails? Express your answer
as a common fraction.

28. _____________
ordered How many ordered pairs of integers (x, y) satisfy the equation x + | y| = y + | x|
pairs if −10 ≤ x ≤ 10 and −10 ≤ y ≤ 10?

1
29. _____________ When is expressed as a decimal, what is the 10th digit to the right of the
98
decimal point?

30. _____________ For positive integers n and m, each exterior angle of a regular n-sided polygon
is 45 degrees larger than each exterior angle of a regular m-sided polygon. One
example is n = 4 and m = 8 because the measures of each exterior angle of a
square and a regular octagon are 90 degrees and 45 degrees, respectively. What
is the greatest of all possible values of m?

Copyright MATHCOUNTS, Inc. 2014. All rights reserved. 2015 Chapter Sprint Round
 Forms of Answers
The following list explains acceptable forms for answers. Coaches should ensure that Mathletes are familiar
with these rules prior to participating at any level of competition. Judges will score competition answers in
compliance with these rules for forms of answers.

All answers
a
must be expressed in simplest form. A “common fraction” is to be considered a fraction in the
form ± b , where a and b are natural numbers and GCF(a, b) = 1. In some cases the term “common fraction”
is to be considered a fraction in the form BA , where A and B are algebraic expressions and A and B do not
share a common factor. A asimplified “mixed number” (“mixed numeral,” “mixed fraction”) is to be considered
a fraction in the form ± N b , where N, a and b are natural numbers, a < b and GCF(a, b) = 1. Examples:
2 4
Problem: Express 8 divided by 12 as a common fraction. Answer: 3 Unacceptable: 6
3 12 1
Problem: Express 12 divided by 8 as a common fraction. Answer: 2 Unacceptable: 8 ,1 2
Problem: Express the sum of the lengths of the radius and the circumference of a circle with a diameter
1 1+ 2 π
of 4 as a common fraction in terms of π. Answer: 8

Problem: Express 20 divided by 12 as a mixed number. Answer: 1 2

3
8
Unacceptable: 1 12 , 5
3

Ratios should be expressed as simplified common fractions unless otherwise specified. Examples:
Simplified, Acceptable Forms: 2 , π , 6
1
7 3 4 −π
Unacceptable: 3 12 , 34 , 3.5, 2:1

Radicals must be simplified. A simplified radical must satisfy: 1) no radicands have a factor which possesses
the root indicated by the index; 2) no radicands contain fractions; and 3) no radicals appear in the denominator
of a fraction. Numbers with fractional exponents are not in radical form. Examples:
Problem: Evaluate 15 × 5 . Answer: 5 3 Unacceptable: 75

Answers to problems asking for a response in the form of a dollar amount or an unspecified monetary
unit (e.g., “How many dollars...,” “How much will it cost...,” “What is the amount of interest...”) should
be expressed in the form ($) a.bc, where a is an integer and b and c are digits. The only exceptions to this
rule are when a is zero, in which case it may be omitted, or when b and c are both zero, in which case they
may both be omitted. Answers in the form ($)a.bc should be rounded to the nearest cent unless otherwise
specified. Examples:
Acceptable: 2.35, 0.38, .38, 5.00, 5 Unacceptable: 4.9, 8.0
2
Do not make approximations for numbers (e.g., π, 3
, 5 3 ) in the data given or in solutions unless the
problem says to do so.
Do not perform any intermediate rounding (other than the “rounding” a calculator does) when calculating
solutions. All rounding should be done at the end of the computation process.

Scientific notation should be expressed in the form a × 10n where a is a decimal, 1 < |a| < 10, and n is an
integer. Examples:
Problem: Write 6895 in scientific notation. Answer: 6.895 × 103
Problem: Write 40,000 in scientific notation. Answer: 4 × 104 or 4.0 × 104
An answer expressed to a greater or lesser degree of accuracy than called for in the problem will not be
accepted. Whole number answers should be expressed in their whole number form.
Thus, 25.0 will not be accepted for 25, and 25 will not be accepted for 25.0.
Units of measurement are not required in answers, but they must be correct if given. When a problem
asks for an answer expressed in a specific unit of measure or when a unit of measure is provided in the answer
blank, equivalent answers expressed in other units are not acceptable. For example, if a problem asks for the
number of ounces and 36 oz is the correct answer, 2 lbs 4 oz will not be accepted. If a problem asks for the
number of cents and 25 cents is the correct answer, $0.25 will not be accepted.
The plural form of the units will always be provided in the answer blank, even if the answer appears to
require the singular form of the units.