JUNIOR SOLUTIONS 2002

1. Three teams collected peaches, each collecting a whole number of baskets full.
Team A’s baskets held 16 peaches, team B’s baskets held 12 and team C’s baskets
held 10. The team with the most peaches collected 480, the next collected 400
and the next 320. Which team collected the most?
Solution.
The size of a team’s basket must be a factor of the number of peaches it collected.
Note that 16 and 10 are factors of 480, as well as 400 and 320. But 12 is not a
factor of 400 or 320. So team B must have collected 480. That is, team B collected
the most.

2. Farmer Brown, farmer White and farmer Black had equal numbers of cows before
two years of drought. A quarter of farmer Brown’s cows died in the first year, and
a third of the remainder in the second. A third of Farmer White’s died in the first
year, and a quarter of the remainder in the second. A third of Farmer Black’s,
plus four more, died in the first year, and a quarter of the remainder died in the
second year. Farmer Black then bought four more. Who then had the most cows
(or were they equal)? Why?
Solution.
Let x be the number of cows that each farmer had at the beginning. In the first
year, a quarter of farmer Brown’s cows died: that is 41 x. The number left was
x − 41 x = 43 x. Notice that the number left now is 34 of the original. In the second
year, a third of these died, so 32 of them were left, or 23 × 43 x = 21 x. Farmer White
loses a third in the first year, leaving 32 x, and in the second year a quarter of these
died, leaving 43 × 32 x = 21 x. Farmer Black lost a third in the first year, leaving 32 x,
then lost four, making 23 x − 4, and then a quarter of these died in the second year,
leaving 34 ( 32 x − 4) = 12 x − 3. After buying four more, he had 21 x + 1. So Farmer
Black had more at the end.
[Note that solutions which start by assuming there was a given number of cows,
such as 60, do not answer the problem completely. The solution given here shows
that the answer does not depend on the number of cows.]

3. The telephone keypad has the digits 1 to 9 arranged as follows:

123
456
789
All I can remember of my Aunt’s 9-digit telephone number is that it consists of
three sets of three non-zero digits in a row (up or down, forwards, backwards or
diagonal, like 6,5,4 or 7,5,3) with the 3rd the same as the 4th and the 6th the same
as the 7th. I spend 40 cents and try 369-963-357, but it is the wrong number. I
have $45 left. Is that enough to try all the other possible numbers?
Solution.
How many combinations need to be tried? If we start a three-digit row from a
corner (1, 3, 7 or 9), there are three other corners to go to. For each of these,
the next row has three ways to go, making 3 × 3 = 9 6-digit combinations. The
 final row again has three ways to go, making 9 × 3 = 27 numbers starting from a
given corner. There are four corners, so 27 × 4 = 108 numbers start from corners.
Finally, starting at 2, 4, 6 or 8 there is only one way to go, making four more
numbers. Of the 112 numbers, I have already dialled one, so need to try another
111, costing $44.40. Yes, I do have enough money.

4. There is a pattern in the following list, but one number is missing. Find the value
of the question mark:
9 64 ? 1296 3125 4096 2187 256 1.
Solution.
It is easy to see that some of the numbers in this list are high powers of integers,
like 64 = 26 = 43 = 82 . Looking at the prime factors does not give the best clue,
but it helps to notice that all numbers are powers of integers less than 10: the best
clues are 3125 = 55 and 2187 = 37 . With a little luck one then sees the pattern:
the numbers are
91 82 ? 64 55 46 37 28 19
and the question mark stands for 73 = 343.

5. Four coins are flipped at random and then placed at the corners of a square. What
are the chances (probability) that each of the four sides of the square has both a
head and a tail? Next, repeat the question, with three coins at the corners of a
triangle. Generalize to n coins placed at the corners of an n-sided polygon.
Solution.
There are 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 = 24 = 16 combinations of flipped coins, and each has the
same chance of arising. Which ones satisfy the required condition? If H is at the
first (say, top left) corner then T must be at the next, H at the next and T at the
next: HTTH
. If T is first then H must be next, then T then H: TH
HT
These two are the
only possibilities, so the chance that one of them occurs is 2 out of 16, or one out
of 8. As a probability, we just express this as 81 .
For a triangle, there are no ways to satisfy the condition, since starting at a head
on one corner, we must have a tail on the next, then a head on the next, which
together with the first head produces a side with two heads. So for a triangle, the
probability is 0.
For an n-sided polygon, the same arguments work: when n is even, there are two
valid combinations out of 2n , so the probability is 2/2n or 1/2n−1 . When n is odd,
the probability is 0 because there are no valid configurations of heads and tails:
every second corner must have a head and every other a tail, so the total number
of corners must be even.

6. On Monday I walk up an upward-moving escalator at one step per second, and it

takes 60 seconds to reach the top. On Tuesday, it is moving at the same rate, and
I take two steps per second, reaching the top in 36 seconds. On Wednesday, the
escalator is stopped, so I run up at 3 steps per second. How long does it take?
Solution.
In walking up at 2 steps per second, I cover 48 steps, whilst at 1 per second I
 cover 60 steps (taking 24 seconds longer). So 12 steps disappear into the top of
the escalator every 24 seconds. Thus, in the 60 seconds required to cover it at one
step per second, 30 steps disappear into the top of the escalator. Added to the
60 steps covered, this means the escalator is 90 steps long. So on Wednesday, it
takes 30 seconds at the rate of 3 per second.

7. A quadrilateral ABCD has two parallel sides AB and CD. Joining the midpoints
of the four sides of ABCD, we can form another quadrilateral PQRS. Explain why
the area of PQRS is exactly half that of ABCD.
A P B

S Q

D R C

Solution.
First draw a perpendiculars YZ to DC through Q meeting the extension of BA at
Y and meeting CD at Z.

Y A P B X

S Q

D Z R W C

Then the triangles SZD and SYA are congruent, because the angles at S are equal,
they both have a right angle, and the length of SA equals the length of SD (since
S is the midpoint of AD). Thus the length of SZ equals the length of SY. For the
same reasons, Q is the midpoint of the perpendicular WX, and triangle BXQ is
congruent to CWQ. Thus the rectangle WXYZ has the same area as the original
quadrilateral ABCD.
We also know that YS has the same length as SQ (being half of YZ or XW) so
YSQX is a rectangle. The formula for the area of a rectangle is base×height, and
for a triangle it is 12 ×base×height. The triangle PSQ has the same base as YSQX
and the same height, so its area is half. Similarly, triangle SRQ has half the area
of SZWQ. Putting these two triangles together, we obtain that PQRS has half the
area of WXYZ (and hence also half of ABCD).
Note: It is not enough to say that one can fold the four triangles outside PQRS
in to cover PQRS. Folding them, they usually overlap each other, and leave some
places uncovered. This does not work even starting with a non-square rectangle
ABCD. Try it with a piece of paper!