In other words, we need two products of consecutive integers, one of

Answer Key 4. 15 which is five times the other. Experimenting with various small values
1. 8 5. 10 of n reveals that 5(6 · 7) = 14 · 15, so we take n = 7 and m = 15. (There
is a slightly involved procedure for finding all solutions to equations of
2. −5 6. 14 13 this sort known as the theory of Pell equations.)
◦ 2950
3. 74 7. 1539 5. A quadratic equation has repeated roots exactly when its discriminant
is zero. Writing the given equation as x2 + (z 5 + 2)x + (z 5 − 5) we see
that it has the form ax2 + bx + c with a = 1, b = z 5 + 2, and c = z 5 − 5.
1. We may put A and B either in the group with C or in the group The discriminant is
with D. In the former case, there is only one person out of E, F , G,
b2 − 4ac = (z 5 + 2)2 − 4(z 5 − 5)
and H remaining to include in the group with C, leading to four ways
= z 10 + 4z 5 + 4 − 4z 5 + 20
to split up the people. Placing A and B with D instead again leads to
four possibilities, for a total of 8 ways to form the groups. = z 10 + 24.
4
2. We can immediately deduce that 5 + 3+x must equal 3, because Thus we need values of z for which z 10 = −24. There are precisely 10
4 √
6 divided by this quantity gives 2. Therefore 3+x = −2, which gives such values. (One can even list them all using roots of unity and 10 24.)
3 + x = −2. Finally, we discover that x = −5.
6. The key to solving problems such as this is to take advantage of
3. It will be helpful to label m6 BAC = x, as shown in the diagram at the equal angles by performing a reflection. In this
left. Since 4BAD is isosceles, this means that case we reflect point A(5, −7) across the x-axis to
m6 BDA = x also, so m6 BDC = 180 − x. obtain A0 (5, 7), which must lie along the tangent
Therefore the remaining two angles of 4BDC line, as shown. Let Q be the center of the circle.
must add up to x, which means that each an- Note that A0 Q = 5, while QT = 3, hence A0 T = 4
1
gle is 2 x, since 4BDC is isosceles as well. In by the Pythagorean Theorem.
summary, the angles of 4ABC measure 69◦ , x, and 21 x, so It now follows that the slope of line T A0 is − 34 , using a pair of
3x similar triangles. Since this line passes through A0 (5, 7), its equation is
69◦ + x + 12 x = 180◦ =⇒ = 111◦ =⇒ x = 74◦ .
2 y −7 = − 34 (x−5). We find the x-intercept by plugging in y = 0, yielding
3 28
4 (x − 5) = 7, or x = 3 + 5 = 14 13 .
4. Let m be the number of marbles in the jar, and say that n of them
are orange. If we draw a marble at random from the jar, the probability 7. Although not immediately evident, the graph of f (x) is fractal-like in
n nature. We can capitalize on this fact to compute the desired area with-
that it is orange is m. There are now n − 1 orange marbles left among
m − 1 marbles, so the probability that the second draw is also orange is out actually summing complicated geometric sequences. At the heart of
n−1 this approach is the observation that the graph for 0 ≤ x ≤ 1 is precisely
m−1 . Thus we need
1
a replica of the graph for 0 ≤ x ≤ 10, just scaled down by a factor of 10 .
n n−1 1
· = =⇒ 5n(n − 1) = m(m − 1). In other words, for 0 ≤ x ≤ 10 we have 1
f ( 10 x) = 1
m m−1 5 10 f (x). This occurs
because the digits of 1
10 x are essentially the same as those of x; only the March 2012
decimal point moves. The upshot is that if we call the desired area A,
1
then the area under the graph for 0 ≤ x ≤ 1 is 100 A.
Note that the graph of f (x) for 1 ≤ x ≤ 2 is relatively tame: since
8
.888 = 9 and 2.000 are the nearest even-digit decimal numbers, the
graph is piecewise-linear from ( 98 , 0) up to (1 94 , 59 ), then back to (2, 0).
49
Hence the region for 1 ≤ x ≤ 2 has area 162 . Combined with the above
1 49
observation, we now know that the area for 0 ≤ x ≤ 2 is 100 A + 162 .
But the graph of f (x) for 2 ≤ x ≤ 4 is an identical copy of the graph
for 0 ≤ x ≤ 2. In other words, f (x + 2) = f (x) in this range. Once ? National Level ?
again, this is a direct implication of the definition of f (x) and the fact
that 2 is an even digit. (The reader should supply the details.) The
same holds true for 4 ≤ x ≤ 6 and 6 ≤ x ≤ 8. It almost works for
Round Five Solutions
8 ≤ x ≤ 10, except that 10 has an odd digit, so the graph from (8 98 , 0)
to (10, 1 19 ) is a single line segment with slope one. Hence the area for
99 49
9 ≤ x ≤ 10 is 162 instead of 162 .
Putting everything together we find that
     
A 49 99
A=5 +4 + .
100 162 162
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It is routine to solve this equation, giving the final answer of 1539
.
c Greater Testing Concepts 2011

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