THE HARMONY SOUTH AFRICAN

MATHEMATICS OLYMPIAD

Organised by the SOUTH AFRICAN MATHEMATICS FOUNDATION

Sponsored by HARMONY GOLD MINING

SECOND ROUND 2006

SENIOR SECTION: GRADES 10, 11 AND 12
17 MAY 2006
TIME: 120 MINUTES
NUMBER OF QUESTIONS: 20

ANSWERS
1. C
2. A
3. E
4. A
5. C
6. D
7. E
8. B
9. B
10. C
11. A
12. A
13. E
14. D
15. A
16. D
17. D
18. B
19. B
20. C

Private Bag X173, Pretoria, 0001 TEL: (012) 392-9323

FAX: (012) 320-7803 E-mail: ellie@samf.ac.za
Organisations involved: AMESA, SA Mathematical Society, SA Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns.
 SOLUTIONS

1. Answer C. The time in years is 7 km÷0.1 mm = 7×103 m÷0.1×10−3 m = 7×103 ÷10−4 =

7 × 107 = 70 million.
2. Answer A. 120% = 56 and 75% = 34 , so 56 E = 34 J (where E = Ellie’s weight and J = James’
weight). Thus E 3 6 3 5 5
J = 4 ÷ 5 = 4 × 6 = 8.
6 16
3. Answer E. If a denotes the unknown area, then a = 32 = 12 , so a = 6 × 2
1 = 12.
4. Answer A. If d is the diameter of each ball, then the length of the container is 3d and its
circumference is πd. The ratio is therefore 3 : π ≈ 3 : 3.14 ≈ 1 : 1.
5. Answer C. If the digits of the number are ABCD, then A × B × C × D = 75 = 3 × 5 × 5.
Since there is a fourth digit, there must be a fourth factor on the right hand side, which can
only be 1. Therefore A + B + C + D = 3 + 5 + 5 + 1 (in some order) = 14.
6. Answer D. Since b2 = b + 1, statement (D) can be simplified to b3 = 0, which is false. The
other statements can easily be verified.
7. Answer E. (a + b)2 = a2 + 2ab + b2 , and (a + b)3 = a3 + 3a2 b + 3ab2 + b3 . Thus a3 + +b3 =
(a + b)3 − (3a2 b + 3ab2 ) = (a + b)3 − 3ab(a + b) = (−3)3 − 3 × 4 × (−3) = −27 + 36 = 9.
8. Answer B. To move from view 1 to view 2, the cube must be rotated through 180◦ about
the axis through the middle of face C, since both face Q and face A have disappeared from
sight. Thus in view 2, face Q must be at the bottom, so the face opposite it is the one on
top, which is B.
√ √ √ √ √
9. Answer
√ B. Let a = √2 + √ 3 and b =√2 − 3. Then√ab =√ 22 − √ 3 = 1, and ( a − b)2 =
a − 2 √ab +√b = (2 + 3) − 2 √1 + (2√
− 3) = √2. Thus a − b = ± 2. Since a > b, it follows
that a − b is positive, so a − b = + 2.
10. Answer C. If the angles are arranged in increasing order, and the difference between
successive angles is say d◦ , then the angles (in degrees) are 75, 75 + d, 75 + 2d, 75 + 3d.
Since the sum of the angles in any quadrilateral is 360◦ , it follows that 300 + 6d = 360, so
d = 10, and the second largest angle is 95◦ .
11. Answer A. By trial and error (starting, for example, with 402 = 1600), it is easy to find
that the only square between 1800 and 1900 is 1849 = 432 . Thus de Morgan was 43 in 1849,
so he was born in 1806.
12. Answer A. Imagine the side of length 20 as the base of the triangle, and the other two sides,
whose total length is 52, as defining the height of the triangle. The maximum area comes
when the height is a maximum, which is when both sides are equal, of length 26. (It can be
shown that the apex of the triangle lies on an ellipse with the other two vertices as the foci.)
The triangle is then isosceles, and can be split into two right-angled triangles with base 10
and hypotenuse 26. By Pythagoras’ theorem, the height is 24, so the area is 10 × 24 = 240.
13. Answer E. Suppose n is any integer, and x is any number such that n ≤ x < n + 12 , so
⌊x⌋ = n. Then n < x + 21 < n + 1, so ⌊x + 12 ⌋ = n also. This gives infinitely many solutions
for x, even with a single value of n.
14. Answer D. To find the average (or arithmetic mean), we add the numbers together and
divide the sum by 9, but in this case it is easier to divide each number by 9 first and add
them afterwards. The average is equal to

1 + 11 + 111 + · · · + 111111111 = 123456789.

15. Answer A. The northerly component (or y-value) of the endpoint is 80 − 20 + 5 − 45 + · · ·,

in which each term is − 14 times the preceding one. This is a geometric series, and its sum to
infinity is 80 ÷ (1 − (− 41 )) = 80 × 54 = 64. Similarly, the easterly component, or x-value, of
the endpoint is 40 × 45 = 32.
16. Answer D. If you draw lines joining the point inside the pentagon to the five vertices, then
you divide the pentagon into five triangles. The five sides, which are all of length say s,
form the bases of the triangles, and the sum of the heights of the triangles is given to be 16.
Thus the sum of the areas of the triangles is 21 s × 16 = 8s. But this sum is the area of the
pentagon, which is 40, so 8s = 40 and s = 5.
17. Answer D. The number of ways of choosing three of the nine points is (9 × 8 × 7) ÷ 6 = 84.
(There are nine ways to choose the first point, eight ways to choose the second, and seven
ways to choose the third; however, since each choice of three points can be ordered in six
different ways that make no difference to the triangle, we must divide the number of ordered
choices by 6.) Each of the 84 choices of three points will give the vertices of a triangle unless
the three points lie in a line. There are three choices forming horizontal lines, three choices
forming vertical lines, and two choices forming diagonal lines. Thus a total of eight choices
out of the 84 possibilities do not give triangles, so there are 76 triangles that can be formed.
18. Answer B. Let F be the midpoint of BD and let G be the intersection of CF and DG.
Since DE and CG are medians of triangle BCD, it follows that G is the centroid of the
triangle, so CD : DF = 2 : 1, that is, GF = 13 CF . Therefore the area of triangle GF D is
one-third of the area of triangle CF D. The latter triangle is one-quarter of the rectangle, so
its area is 14 , which means that the area of triangle GF D is 31 × 41 = 12
1
.
19. Answer B. A six-digit number abcdef is divisible by 11 if f − e + d − c + b − a is divisible
by 11. (This is because the powers 1, 10, 100, . . . alternately have remainders +1 and −1
when divided by 11.) Thus abcdef will be divisible by 11 if (a + c + e) − (b + d + f ) is equal
to 0 or ±11. Now we know that (a + c + e) + (b + d + f ) = 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 7 = 22, which
is even, and

[(a + c + e) + (b + d + f )] − [(a + c + e) − (b + d + f )] = 2(b + d + f ),

so (a + c + e) − (b + d + f ) must also be even, which means it cannot be equal to ±11.

Therefore abcdef will be divisible by 11 if a + c + e = b + d + f , that is, each side equals 11
since the sum of the two sides is 22. By trial and error, we see that the only solutions of
a + c + e = 11 are when {a, c, e} = {1, 3, 7} or {a, c, e} = {2, 4, 5}. In each case, there are six
ways to arrange a, c, e in order and six ways to arrange b, d, f in order, giving 36 numbers
abcdef . Since there are two cases to consider, the total is 72 numbers divisible by 11. [Notice
that, unlike Question 17, the order of the objects chosen does matter in this question.]
20. Answer C. By looking at the angles we see that triangles AED and BF A are similar, as
are triangles CF B and DEC. Therefore
BF AE 3 BF CE 7 CF 3
= = and = = , so = .
AF DE 5 CF DE 5 AF 7
BF
But CF + AF = CE + AE = 10, so CF = 3 and AF = 7. Therefore BF = AF × AF =
3
5 × 7 = 4.2.