Thursday 7

September 2023

Australian Intermediate Mathematics Olympiad 2023

Questions
QUESTIONS

a b 25
1. Positive integers a and b satisfy (a + b)(a − b) = 2023 and b + a = 12 . Find the value of a.
[2 marks]

2. Three squares lie inside a right-angled triangle as shown. The side lengths of the smallest and
largest squares are 28 and 63 respectively. Find the side length of the middle square.

[2 marks]

3. The ten pairwise (two at a time) sums of five distinct integers are 0, 1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.
Find the sum of the five integers. [2 marks]

4. Given that there is only one pair of numbers {a, b} such that 16aa bb = 81ab ba , find a + b.
[2 marks]

5. There are several different ways of arranging the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 in a line. Each of these
arrangements can be the base of a pyramid in which each row is formed from the one below it
by writing the sum of each pair of adjacent numbers. For example, the following pyramid is
built on the arrangement 3, 6, 1, 5, 4, 2.

115
57 58
29 28 30
16 13 15 15
9 7 6 9 6
3 6 1 5 4 2

How many arrangements of the numbers 1 to 6 in a pyramid base produce a top number that
is a multiple of 5? [3 marks]

6. Two local sports teams, the Tigers and the Lions, are coming together for some practice. There
are 10 Tigers and 10 Lions. They are to be arranged into 10 Tiger–Lion pairs. To make the
game as competitive as possible, we want to avoid height mismatches. So, each Tiger is assigned
a number from 1 to 10 in ascending order of heights, and each Lion is assigned a number from
1 to 10 in ascending order of heights. A Tiger may be paired up with a Lion if and only if their
numbers differ by no more than 1. For example, Tiger 4 may pair up with Lions 3, 4 or 5, but
not 2 and not 6. How many ways can the Tigers and Lions be paired up? [4 marks]

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 Thursday 7
September 2023

7. The number 1/137, written as a decimal, is 0.00729927 00729927. . ., which repeats every 8 digits
after the decimal point (but no smaller number of digits repeats.) What is the smallest n such
that 1/n, when written as a decimal, repeats every 8 digits after the decimal point (but no
smaller number of digits repeats)? [5 marks]

8. Each of the digits 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 is coded by a letter selected from A to J with

no two digits having the same letter. Find the 3-digit number coded by DEG if the integers
corresponding to ABACDE, CAFDG and CHHBAED (with A, C ̸= 0) are known to be the
side lengths of a triangle. [5 marks]

9. Determine the number n of real solution pairs (x, y) of the simultaneous equations:

x3 − y 3 = 7(x − y)
x3 + y 3 = 5(x + y)

Find the sum of the corresponding (not necessarily distinct) n values of x2 + y 2 . [5 marks]

10. Two circles C1 , C2 are placed tangent to the real number line and externally tangent to each
other. Circle C1 is tangent to the line at 1/3 and has diameter 1/9. Circle C2 is tangent to the
line at 3/8. A third circle C3 is then placed tangent to C1 , C2 , and to the real number line at
x < 3/8. Find x and the radius of C3 .

1
C1 9

C2
1 3
3
x 8

[5 marks]

Investigation
Consider the sequence of circles C1 , C2 , C3 , C4 , . . ., beginning with circles C1 and C2 above and
their tangent points x1 = 13 and x2 = 38 on the real line, and continuing so that, for n ≥ 3, Cn
is the circle tangent to C1 , Cn−1 , and to the real number line at a point xn < xn−1 .
For n ≥ 4, find expressions for xn and the radius rn of Cn . [4 bonus marks]

The Olympiad program is supported by the Australian Government Department of Industry, Science and
Resources through the Science Competitions: Mathematics and Informatics Olympiads grant opportunity.

© 2023 Australian Mathematics Trust