Topic1 基礎代數(Elementary Algebra)

2017-2021amc10
1

What is the value of ?

<2017 amc10A p.1>

Pablo buys popsicles for his friends. The store sells single popsicles
for each, -popsicle boxes for each, and -popsicle boxes for .
What is the greatest number of popsicles that Pablo can buy with ?<2017
amc10A p.2>

Tamara has three rows of two -feet by -feet flower beds in her garden.
The beds are separated and also surrounded by -foot-wide walkways, as
shown on the diagram. What is the total area of the walkways, in square feet?
<2017 amc10A p.3>

1
4

Mia is "helping" her mom pick up toys that are strewn on the floor.
Mia’s mom manages to put toys into the toy box every seconds, but
each time immediately after those seconds have elapsed, Mia
takes toys out of the box. How much time, in minutes, will it take Mia and
her mom to put all toys into the box for the first time? <2017 amc10A
p.4>

Solution

Every seconds, toys are put in the box and toys are taken out, so the
number of toys in the box increases by every seconds. Then

2
after seconds (or minutes), there are toys in the
box. Mia's mom will then put the remaining toys into the box af-
ter more seconds, so the total time taken is sec-

onds, or minutes.

The sum of two nonzero real numbers is times their product. What is the
sum of the reciprocals of the two numbers? <2017 amc10A p.5>

Solution

Let the two real numbers be . We are given that and di-

viding both sides by ,

Note: we can easily verify that this is the correct answer; for exam-

ple, works, and the sum of their reciprocals is .

Minnie rides on a flat road at kilometers per hour (kph), downhill

at kph, and uphill at kph. Penny rides on a flat road at kph, downhill
at kph, and uphill at kph. Minnie goes from town to town , a dis-
tance of km all uphill, then from town to town , a distance of km
all downhill, and then back to town , a distance of km on the flat. Penny
goes the other way around using the same route. How many more minutes

3
does it take Minnie to complete the -km ride than it takes Penny? <2017
amc10A p.9>

Solution

The distance from town to town is km uphill, and since Minnie rides
uphill at a speed of kph, it will take her hours. Next, she will ride from
town to town , a distance of km all downhill. Since Minnie rides
downhill at a speed of kph, it will take her half an hour. Finally, she rides
from town back to town , a flat distance of km. Minnie rides on a flat
road at kph, so this will take her hour. Her entire trip takes
her hours. Secondly, Penny will go from town to town , a flat dis-
tance of km. Since Penny rides on a flat road at kph, it will take

her of an hour. Next Penny will go from town to town , which is uphill
for Penny. Since Penny rides at a speed of kph uphill, and
town and are km apart, it will take her hours. Finally, Penny
goes from Town back to town , a distance of km downhill. Since

Penny rides downhill at kph, it will only take her of an hour. In total, it
takes her hours, which simplifies to hours and minutes. Finally,

Penny's hr min trip was minutes less than Minnie's hr min

trip.

Joy has thin rods, one each of every integer length from cm
through cm. She places the rods with lengths cm, cm, and cm on a
table. She then wants to choose a fourth rod that she can put with these

4
three to form a quadrilateral with positive area. How many of the remaining
rods can she choose as the fourth rod?

<2017 amc10A p.10>

Solution

The triangle inequality generalizes to all polygons,

so and yields . Now, we
know that there are numbers between and exclusive, but we must
subtract to account for the 2 lengths already used that are between those

numbers, which gives

Let be a set of points in the coordinate plane such that two of the
three quantities and are equal and the third of the three
quantities is no greater than this common value. Which of the following is a
correct description for

Solution

If the two equal values are and , then . Also, be-

cause is the common value. Solving for , we get . Therefore the
portion of the line where is part of . This is a ray with an
endpoint of .

Similar to the process above, we assume that the two equal values
are and . Solving the equation then .

5
Also, because 3 is the common value. Solving for , we
get . Therefore the portion of the line where is also part
of . This is another ray with the same endpoint as the above ray: .

If and are the two equal values, then . Solving

the equation for , we get . Also because is
one way to express the common value. Solving for , we get . We also
know , so .Therefore the portion of the
line where is part of like the other two rays. The low-
est possible value that can be achieved is also .

Since is made up of three rays with common endpoint , the answer

is

Every week Roger pays for a movie ticket and a soda out of his allowance.
Last week, Roger's allowance was dollars. The cost of his movie ticket
was of the difference between and the cost of his soda, while the
cost of his soda was of the difference between and the cost of his
movie ticket. To the nearest whole percent, what fraction of did Roger pay
for his movie ticket and soda? <2017 amc10A p.14>

Solution

Let = cost of movie ticket

Let = cost of soda

We can create two equations:

6
Substituting we get:

which yields:

Now we can find s and we get:

Since we want to find what fraction of did Roger pay for his movie ticket
and soda, we add and to get:

10

Distinct points , , , lie on the circle and have integer

coordinates. The distances and are irrational numbers. What is the

greatest possible value of the ratio ?<2017 amc10A p.17>

7
Solution 1

Because , , , and are lattice points, there are only a few coordinates
that actually satisfy the equation. The coordinates
are and We want to maxim-
ize and minimize They also have to be non perfect squares, be-
cause they are both irrational. The greatest value of happens
when and are almost directly across from each other and are in differ-
ent quadrants. For example, the endpoints of the segment could
be and because the two points are almost across from
each other. Another possible pair could be and . To find out
which segment is longer, we have to compare the distances from their end-
points to a diameter (which must be the longest possible segment). The clos-
est diameter would be from to . The distance be-
tween and is greater than the distance be-
tween and . Therefore, the segment
from to is the longest attainable (the other possible coor-
dinates

for and are and , and , and

. The least value of is when the two endpoints are in the same
quadrant and are very close to each other. This can occur when, for exam-
ple, is and is They are in the same quadrant and no other
point on the circle with integer coordinates is closer to the
point than and vice versa. Using the distance formula, we get

that is and that is

11

Mary thought of a positive two-digit number. She multiplied it by and

added . Then she switched the digits of the result, obtaining a number

8
between and , inclusive. What was Mary's number?<2017 amc10B
p.1>

Solution 1

Let her -digit number be . Multiplying by makes it a multiple of ,

meaning that the sum of its digits is divisible by . Adding on increases
the sum of the digits by (we can ignore numbers such
as ) and reversing the digits keeps the sum of the digits the
same; this means that the resulting number must be more than a multiple
of . There are two such numbers between and : and Now that
we have narrowed down the choices, we can simply test the answers to see
which one will provide a two-digit number when the steps are reversed:
For we reverse the digits, resulting in Subtracting , we get We
can already see that dividing this by will not be a two-digit number,
so does not meet our requirements. Therefore, the answer must be the
reversed steps applied to We have the following:

Therefore, our answer is .

12

Sofia ran laps around the -meter track at her school. For each lap, she
ran the first meters at an average speed of meters per second and the
remaining meters at an average speed of meters per second. How
much time did Sofia take running the laps? <2017 amc10B p.2>

9
Solution

If Sofia ran the first meters of each lap at meters per second and the
remaining meters of each lap at meters per second, then she

took seconds for each lap. Because she

ran laps, she took a total of seconds, or minutes

and seconds. The answer is .

13

Real numbers , , and satisfy the inequali-

ties , , and . Which of the following
numbers is necessarily positive?

<2017 amc10B p.3>

14

Supposed that and are nonzero real numbers such that .

What is the value of ?<2017 amc10B p.4>

10
15

Camilla had twice as many blueberry jelly beans as cherry jelly beans. After
eating 10 pieces of each kind, she now has three times as many blueberry
jelly beans as cherry jelly beans. How many blueberry jelly beans did she
originally have?

<2017 amc10B p.5>

16

Samia set off on her bicycle to visit her friend, traveling at an average speed
of kilometers per hour. When she had gone half the distance to her
friend's house, a tire went flat, and she walked the rest of the way at kilo-
meters per hour. In all it took her minutes to reach her friend's house. In
kilometers rounded to the nearest tenth, how far did Samia walk? <2017
amc10B p.7>

Solution 1

Let's call the distance that Samia had to travel in total as , so that we can
avoid fractions. We know that the length of the bike ride and how far she

walked are equal, so they are both , or . She bikes at a rate of kph, so

she travels the distance she bikes in hours. She walks at a rate of kph,

so she travels the distance she walks in hours. The total time

is . This is equal to of an hour. Solving for , we

11
have: Since is the dis-
tance of how far Samia traveled by both walking and biking, and we want to
know how far Samia walked to the nearest tenth, we have that Samia walked

about .

17

The lines with equations and are perpendic-

ular and intersect at . What is ?<2017 amc10B p.10>

Solution

Writing each equation in slope-intercept form, we

get and . We observe the slope of each

equation is and , respectively. Because the slope of a line perpendicu-

lar to a line with slope is , we see that because it is

given that the two lines are perpendicular. This equation simplifies to .

Because is a solution of both equations, we de-

duce and . Because we
know that , the equations reduce
to and . Solving this system of equations, we

get

18

At Typico High School, of the students like dancing, and the rest dislike
it. Of those who like dancing, say that they like it, and the rest say that

12
they dislike it. Of those who dislike dancing, say that they dislike it, and
the rest say that they like it. What fraction of students who say they dislike
dancing actually like it?

<2017 amc10B p.11>

Solution

of the people that claim that they like dancing say

they dislike it, and of the people that claim that they
dislike dancing actually dislike it. Therefore, the answer

is .

19

Elmer's new car gives percent better fuel efficiency, measured in kilo-
meters per liter, than his old car. However, his new car uses diesel fuel, which
is more expensive per liter than the gasoline his old car used. By what
percent will Elmer save money if he uses his new car instead of his old car for
a long trip?

<2017 amc10B p.12>

Solution 1

Suppose that his old car runs at km per liter. Then his new car runs

at km per liter, or km per of a liter. Let the cost of the old car's fuel

13
be , so the trip in the old car takes dollars, while the trip in the new car

takes . He saves .

20

What is the value of <2018 amc10A

p.1>

21

Liliane has more soda than Jacqueline, and Alice has more soda
than Jacqueline. What is the relationship between the amounts of soda that
Liliane and Alice have? <2018 amc10A p.2>

Liliane has more soda than Alice.

Liliane has more soda than Alice.

Liliane has more soda than Alice.

Liliane has more soda than Alice.

Liliane has more soda than Alice.

22

Sangho uploaded a video to a website where viewers can vote that they like
or dislike a video. Each video begins with a score of , and the score in-
creases by for each like vote and decreases by for each dislike vote. At
one point Sangho saw that his video had a score of , and that of the
votes cast on his video were like votes. How many votes had been cast on
Sangho's video at that point?

14
<2018 amc10A p.6>

Solution 1

If of the votes were likes, then of the votes were dis-

likes. , so votes is of the total number of

votes. Doing quick arithmetic shows that the answer is .

23

Joe has a collection of coins, consisting of -cent coins, -cent coins,

and -cent coins. He has more -cent coins than -cent coins, and the
total value of his collection is cents. How many more -cent coins does
Joe have than -cent coins? <2018 amc10A p.8>

Solution 1 (One Variable)

Let be the number of -cent coins that Joe has. Therefore, he must

have -cent coins and -cent coins.

Since the total value of his collection is cents, we can

write Joe has six -

cent coins, nine -cent coins, and eight -cent coins. Thus, our answer

is

15
24

Suppose that real number satisfies What is

the value of ?<2018 amc10A p.10>

Solutions

Solution 1

In order to eliminate the square roots, we multiply by the conjugate. Its value
is the solution. The terms cancel
nicely.

Given
that

. - cookiemonster2004

25

What is the greatest integer less than or equal to <2018

amc10A p.14>

16
Solution 1

We
write

Hence we see that our number is a weighted average of 81 and 16, extremely
heavily weighted toward 81. Hence the number is ever so slightly less than

81, so the answer is .

26

What is the value of <2018 amc10A

p.1>

27

Liliane has more soda than Jacqueline, and Alice has more soda
than Jacqueline. What is the relationship between the amounts of soda that
Liliane and Alice have? <2018 amc10A p.2>

Liliane has more soda than Alice.

Liliane has more soda than Alice.

Liliane has more soda than Alice.

Liliane has more soda than Alice.

Liliane has more soda than Alice.

17
28

Sangho uploaded a video to a website where viewers can vote that they like
or dislike a video. Each video begins with a score of , and the score in-
creases by for each like vote and decreases by for each dislike vote. At
one point Sangho saw that his video had a score of , and that of the
votes cast on his video were like votes. How many votes had been cast on
Sangho's video at that point?

<2018 amc10A p.6>

Solution 1

If of the votes were likes, then of the votes were dis-

likes. , so votes is of the total number of

votes. Doing quick arithmetic shows that the answer is .

29

Joe has a collection of coins, consisting of -cent coins, -cent coins,

and -cent coins. He has more -cent coins than -cent coins, and the
total value of his collection is cents. How many more -cent coins does
Joe have than -cent coins? <2018 amc10A p.8>

Solution 1 (One Variable)

Let be the number of -cent coins that Joe has. Therefore, he must

have -cent coins and -cent coins.

Since the total value of his collection is cents, we can

18
write Joe has six -
cent coins, nine -cent coins, and eight -cent coins. Thus, our answer

is

30

Suppose that real number satisfies What is

the value of ?<2018 amc10A p.10>

Solutions

Solution 1

In order to eliminate the square roots, we multiply by the conjugate. Its value
is the solution. The terms cancel
nicely.

Given
that

. - cookiemonster2004

19
31

What is the greatest integer less than or equal to <2018

amc10A p.14>

Solution 1

We
write

Hence we see that our number is a weighted average of 81 and 16, extremely
heavily weighted toward 81. Hence the number is ever so slightly less than

81, so the answer is .

32

What is the value of <2019 amc10A p.1>

33

What is the hundreds digit of <2019 amc10A p.2>

20
34

Ana and Bonita were born on the same date in different years, years apart.
Last year Ana was times as old as Bonita. This year Ana's age is the square
of Bonita's age. What is <2019 amc10A p.3>

35

A box contains red balls, green balls, yellow balls, blue

balls, white balls, and black balls. What is the minimum number of balls
that must be drawn from the box without replacement to guarantee that at
least balls of a single color will be drawn? <2019 amc10A p.4>

Solution

We try to find the worst case scenario where we can find the maximum
number of balls that can be drawn while getting of each color by
applying the pigeonhole principle and through this we get a perfect
guarantee. Namely, we can draw up to red balls, green
balls, yellow balls, blue balls, white balls, and black balls, for a
total of balls, without drawing balls of any one color. Drawing one
more ball guarantees that we will get balls of one color — either red,

green, or yellow. Thus, the answer is .

36

What is the greatest number of consecutive integers whose sum is

<2019 amc10A p.5>

21
Solution 1

We might at first think that the answer would be , be-

cause when . But note that the problem
says that they can be integers, not necessarily positive. Observe also that
every term in the sequence cancels out except .

Thus, the answer is, intuitively, integers.

37

Two lines with slopes and intersect at . What is the area of the tri-
angle enclosed by these two lines and the line <2019 amc10A
p.7>

Solution 1

Let's first work out the slope-intercept form of all three

lines: and im-

plies so , while im-

plies so . Also, im-
plies . Thus the lines

are and . Now we find the inter-

section points between each of the lines with , which
are and . Using the distance formula and then the Pythagorean
Theorem, we see that we have an isosceles triangle with base and

height , whose area is .

22
38

A sequence of numbers is defined recursively by , ,

and for all Then can be written as ,

where and are relatively prime positive integers. What is <2019
amc10A p.15>

Solution 1 (Induction)

Using the recursive formula, we find , , and so on. It ap-

pears that , for all . Setting , we

find , so the answer is .

To prove this formula, we use induction. We are given

that and , which satisfy our formula. Now assume the for-
mula holds true for all for some positive integer . By our assump-

tion, and . Using the recursive for-

mula,

so our induction is complete.

23
39

What is the least possible value

of where is a real number?
<2019 amc10A p.19>

Solution 1

Grouping the first and last terms and two middle terms
gives , which can be simplified
to . Noting that squares are nonnegative,
and verifying that for some real , the answer

is .

40

Alicia had two containers. The first was full of water and the second was
empty. She poured all the water from the first container into the second

container, at which point the second container was full of water. What is
the ratio of the volume of the first container to the volume of the second
container?<2019 amc10B p.1>

41

In a high school with students, of the seniors play a musical instru-

ment, while of the non-seniors do not play a musical instrument. In

24
all, of the students do not play a musical instrument. How many non-
seniors play a musical instrument? <2019 amc10B p.3>

42

All lines with equation such that form an arithmetic

progression pass through a common point. What are the coordinates of that
point?

<2019 amc10B p.4>

Solution 1

If all lines satisfy the condition, then we can just plug in values for , ,
and that form an arithmetic progression. Let's use , , ,
and , , . Then the two lines we get are:
Use elimination to deduce and plug this into one of the
previous line equations. We get Thus the common

point is .

43

There is a positive integer such that .

What is the sum of the digits of ?<2019 amc10B p.6>

25
Solution

Solution 1

Solving by the quadratic for-

mula, (since

clearly ). The answer is therefore .

44

The function is defined by for all real numbers ,

where denotes the greatest integer less than or equal to the real num-
ber . What is the range of ?<2019 amc10B p.9>

Solution 1

There are four cases we need to consider here.

Case 1: is a positive integer. Without loss of generality, assume .

Then .

26
Case 2: is a positive fraction. Without loss of generality, assume .

Then .

Case 3: is a negative integer. Without loss of generality, assume .

Then .

Case 4: is a negative fraction. Without loss of generality, assume .

Then .

Thus the range of the function is .

45

Two jars each contain the same number of marbles, and every marble is ei-
ther blue or green. In Jar the ratio of blue to green marbles is , and
the ratio of blue to green marbles in Jar is . There are green mar-
bles in all. How many more blue marbles are in Jar than in Jar ?<2019
amc10B p.11>

Solution 1

Call the number of marbles in each jar (because the problem specifies that

they each contain the same number). Thus, is the number of green mar-

bles in Jar , and is the number of green marbles in Jar .

Since , we have , so there are mar-

bles in each jar.

27
Because is the number of blue marbles in Jar , and is the number of

blue marbles in Jar , there are more marbles in

Jar than Jar . This means the answer is .

46

Henry decides one morning to do a workout, and he walks of the way from
his home to his gym. The gym is kilometers away from Henry's home. At

that point, he changes his mind and walks of the way from where he is
back toward home. When he reaches that point, he changes his mind again

and walks of the distance from there back toward the gym. If Henry keeps

changing his mind when he has walked of the distance toward either the
gym or home from the point where he last changed his mind, he will get very
close to walking back and forth between a point kilometers from home
and a point kilometers from home. What is ?<2019 amc10B
p.18>

Solution 1

Let the two points that Henry walks in between be and , with being
closer to home. As given in the problem statement, the distances of the
points and from his home are and respectively. By symmetry, the
distance of point from the gym is the same as the distance from home to
point .

Thus, .

28
In addition, when he walks from point to home, he walks of the dis-

tance, ending at point . Therefore, we know that .

By substituting, we get and we solve to

get , so .

47

What value of satisfies <2020 amc10A p.1>

48

Assuming , , and , what is the value in simplest form of the

following expression? <2020 amc10A p.3>

49

A driver travels for hours at miles per hour, during which her car

gets miles per gallon of gasoline. She is paid per mile, and her only
expense is gasoline at per gallon. What is her net rate of pay, in dollars
per hour, after this expense?<2020 amc10A p.4>

29
Solution 1

Since the driver travels miles per hour and each hour she uses gallons of
gasoline, she spends per hour on gas. If she gets per mile, then she
gets per hour of driving. Subtracting the gas cost, her net rate of money

earned per hour is .

50

What is the sum of all real numbers for which <2020

amc10A p.5>

51

The integers from to inclusive, can be arranged to form a -by-

square in which the sum of the numbers in each row, the sum of the
numbers in each column, and the sum of the numbers along each of the
main diagonals are all the same. What is the value of this common

sum?<2020 amc10A p.7>

Solution 1

Without loss of generality, consider the five rows in the square. Each row
must have the same sum of numbers, meaning that the sum of all the

numbers in the square divided by is the total value per row. The sum of

30
the integers is , and the common sum

is .

52

What is the value of

<2020 amc10A p.8>

53

Seven cubes, whose volumes are , , , , , , and cubic units, are

stacked vertically to form a tower in which the volumes of the cubes

decrease from bottom to top. Except for the bottom cube, the bottom face
of each cube lies completely on top of the cube below it. What is the total
surface area of the tower (including the bottom) in square units?<2020

amc10A p.10>

Solution 1

The volume of each cube follows the pattern of , for is between and .

We see that the total surface area can be comprised of three parts: the sides

of the cubes, the tops of the cubes, and the bottom of the cube

(which is just ). The sides areas can be measured as the sum ,

giving us . Structurally, if we examine the tower from the top, we see that
it really just forms a square of area . Therefore, we can say that the

31
total surface area is . Alternatively, for the area of the

tops, we could have found the sum , giving us as well.

54

Real numbers and satisfy and . What is the value of

<2020 amc10A p.14>

Solutions

Solution 1

Continuing to combine

From the givens, it

can be concluded that . Also, This means

that . Substituting this information into , we

have

55

Define How many integers are there such

that ?<2020 amc10A p.17>

32
Solution 2 (Casework)

Notice that is nonpositive when is

between and and , and (inclusive), because there are an

odd number of negatives, which means that the number of values equals
This reduces to

56

What is the value of <2020 amc10B p.1>

57

The ratio of to is , the ratio of to is , and the ratio of to is .

What is the ratio of to <2020 amc10B p.3>

58

How many ordered pairs of integers satisfy the equation

<2020 amc10B p.9>

33
Solutions

Solution 1

Rearranging the terms and and completing the square for yields the

result . Then, notice that can only be , and because any

value of that is greater than 1 will cause the term to be less than ,
which is impossible as must be real. Therefore, plugging in the above

values for gives the ordered pairs , , , and gives a total

of ordered pairs.

59

Let be a right rectangular prism (box) with edges lengths and ,

together with its interior. For real , let be the set of points in -

dimensional space that lie within a distance of some point in . The volume

of can be expressed as , where and are positive real

numbers. What is <2020 amc10B p.20>

Solution

Split into 4 regions:

1. The rectangular prism itself

2. The extensions of the faces of

3. The quarter cylinders at each edge of

4. The one-eighth spheres at each corner of

34
Region 1: The volume of is , so .

Region 2: This volume is equal to the surface area of times (these

"extensions" are just more boxes). The volume is

then to get .

Region 3: We see that there are 12 quarter-cylinders, 4 of each type. We have

4 quarter-cylinders of height 1, 4 quarter-cylinders of height 3, 4 quarter-
cylinders of height 4. Since 4 quarter-cylinders make a full cylinder, the total

volume is . Therefore, .

Region 4: There is an eighth-sphere of radius at each corner of . Since

there are 8 corners, these eighth-spheres add up to 1 full sphere of radius .

The volume of this sphere is then , so .

Using these values, .

60

What is the value of <2021 Spring amc10A p.1>

61

Portia's high school has times as many students as Lara's high school. The
two high schools have a total of students. How many students does
Portia's high school have?

<2021 Spring amc10A p.2>

35
62

The sum of two natural numbers is . One of the two numbers is divisible

by . If the units digit of that number is erased, the other number is

obtained. What is the difference of these two numbers?<2021 Spring
amc10A p.3>

Solution 1 (Algebra)

The units digit of a multiple of will always be . We add a whenever we

multiply by . So, removing the units digit is equal to dividing by .

Let the smaller number (the one we get after removing the units digit) be .
This means the bigger number would be .

We know the sum is so . So . The difference

is . So, the answer is .

63

A cart rolls down a hill, travelling inches the first second and accelerating so
that during each successive -second time interval, it travels inches more

than during the previous -second interval. The cart takes seconds to reach
the bottom of the hill. How far, in inches, does it travel?<2021 Spring
amc10A p.4>

36
Solution 1 (Arithmetic Series)

Since we seek the sum

in which there are terms.

The last term is Therefore, the requested sum is

64

The quiz scores of a class with students have a mean of . The mean of a

collection of of these quiz scores is . What is the mean of the remaining

quiz scores in terms of ?

<2021 Spring amc10A p.5>

65

Chantal and Jean start hiking from a trailhead toward a fire tower. Jean is

wearing a heavy backpack and walks slower. Chantal starts walking at miles
per hour. Halfway to the tower, the trail becomes really steep, and Chantal
slows down to miles per hour. After reaching the tower, she immediately

turns around and descends the steep part of the trail at miles per hour. She
meets Jean at the halfway point. What was Jean's average speed, in miles per
hour, until they meet?<2021 Spring amc10A p.6>

37
Solution 1 (Generalized Distance)

Let miles be the distance from the trailhead to the fire tower,

where When Chantal meets Jean, the two have traveled for

hours. At that point, Jean has

traveled for miles, so his average speed is miles per hour.

66

What is the least possible value of for real numbers and ?

<2021 Spring amc10A p.9>

Solution 1 (Expand)

Expanding, we get that the expression

is or . By the Trivial Inequality (all

squares are nonnegative) the minimum value for this is , which can be

achieved at .

67

Which of the following is equivalent to

<2021 Spring amc10A p.10>

38
68

All the roots of the polynomial are positive

integers, possibly repeated. What is the value of ?<2021 Spring amc10A

p.14>

Solution 1

By Vieta's formulas, the sum of the six roots is and the product of the six

roots is . By inspection, we see the roots are and , so the function

is . Therefore, calculating just

the terms, we get .

69

Let be a function defined on the set of positive rational numbers with the

property that for all positive rational numbers and .

Suppose that also has the property that for every prime number .

For which of the following numbers is ?

<2021 Spring amc10A p.18>

39
Solution 1 (Intuitive)

From the answer choices, note that On the other hand, we

have Equating the expressions for produces

from which Therefore, the answer is

70

The area of the region bounded by the graph of

is , where and are integers. What is ?<2021 Spring amc10A

p.19>

Solution 1

In order to attack this problem, we need to consider casework:

Case 1:

Substituting and simplifying, we have , i.e. , which

gives us a circle of radius centered at .

Case 2:

Substituting and simplifying again, we have , i.e. .

This gives us a circle of radius centered at .

Case 3:

40
Doing the same process as before, we have , i.e. .

This gives us a circle of radius centered at .

Case 4:

One last time: we have , i.e. . This gives us a circle

of radius centered at .

After combining all the cases and drawing them on the Cartesian Plane, this

is what the diagram looks like:

Now, the area of the shaded

region is just a square with side length with four semicircles of radius . The

area is . The answer is which is

Solution by Bryguy

71

How many integer values of satisfy ?<2021 Spring amc10B p.1>

41
72

What is the value of ?<2021 Spring amc10B p.2>

73

In an after-school program for juniors and seniors, there is a debate team

with an equal number of students from each class on the team. Among

the students in the program, of the juniors and of the seniors are
on the debate team. How many juniors are in the program?

<2021 Spring amc10B p.3>

74

The point in the -plane is first rotated counterclockwise by around

the point and then reflected about the line . The image of after

these two transformations is at . What is <2021 Spring amc10B

p.9>

Solution

The final image of is . We know the reflection rule for reflecting

over is . So before the reflection and after rotation the

point is .

42
By definition of rotation, the slope between and must be

perpendicular to the slope between and . The first slope

is . This means the slope of and is .

Rotations also preserve distance to the center of rotation, and since we only

"travelled" up and down by the slope once to get from to it follows

we shall only use the slope once to travel from to .

Therefore point is located at . The answer is .

75

The real number satisfies the equation . What is the value

of <2021 Spring amc10B p.15>

Solution 1

We square to get . We subtract 2 on both sides

for and square again, and see that so . We

can divide our original expression of by to get that it is equal

to . Therefore because is 7, it is equal to .

76

What is the value of ?<2021 fall amc10A p.1>

43
77

Menkara has a index card. If she shortens the length of one side of
this card by inch, the card would have area square inches. What would
the area of the card be in square inches if instead she shortens the length of
the other side by inch? <2021 fall amc10A p.2>

Solution

We construct the following ta-

ble: There-

fore, the answer is

78

Mr. Lopez has a choice of two routes to get to work. Route A is miles long,
and his average speed along this route is miles per hour. Route B
is miles long, and his average speed along this route is miles per hour,

except for a -mile stretch in a school zone where his average speed
is miles per hour. By how many minutes is Route B quicker than Route A?
<2021 fall amc10A p.4>

44
Solution 1

If Mr. Lopez chooses Route A, then he will spend hour,

or minutes.

If Mr. Lopez chooses Route B, then he will spend hour,

or minutes.

Therefore, Route B is quicker than Route A

by minutes.

79

Elmer the emu takes equal strides to walk between consecutive tele-
phone poles on a rural road. Oscar the ostrich can cover the same distance
in equal leaps. The telephone poles are evenly spaced, and the st pole
along this road is exactly one mile ( feet) from the first pole. How much
longer, in feet, is Oscar's leap than Elmer's stride? <2021 fall amc10A p.6>

Solution

There are gaps between the telephone poles, so the dis-

tance of each gap is feet.

Each of Oscar's leaps covers feet, and each of Elmer's

strides covers feet.

45
Therefore, Oscar's leap is feet longer than Elmer's
stride.

80

Emily sees a ship traveling at a constant speed along a straight section of a

river. She walks parallel to the riverbank at a uniform rate faster than the
ship. She counts equal steps walking from the back of the ship to the
front. Walking in the opposite direction, she counts steps of the same
size from the front of the ship to the back. In terms of Emily's equal steps,
what is the length of the ship? <2021 fall amc10A p.11>

Solution 1 (One Variable)

Let be the length of the ship. Then, in the time that Emily walks steps,
the ship moves steps. Also, in the time that Emily walks steps,
the ship moves steps. Since the ship and Emily both travel at some

constant rate, . Dividing both sides by and cross

multiplying, we get , so ,

and .

81

How many ordered pairs of real numbers satisfy the following system

of equations?

<2021 fall amc10A p.14>

46
Solution 1 (Graphing)

The second equation is . We know that the graph

of is a very simple diamond shape, so let's see if we can reduce this
equation to that
form:

We now have two separate graphs for this equation and one graph for the
first equation, so let's put it on the coordinate
plane:

47
We see from the graph that there are 5 intersections, so the answer

is .

82

The graph of is symmetric about which of the

following? (Here is the greatest integer not exceeding .)<2021 fall
amc10A p.16>

48
Solution 1 (Graphing)

Let and Note that the

graph of is a reflection of the graph of about the -axis, followed by a
translation unit to the right.

The graph of is shown be-

low: The

49
graph of is shown be-

low: The

50
graph of is shown be-

low:

Therefore, the graph of is symmetric

about

83

How many ordered pairs of positive integers exist where

both and do not have distinct, real
solutions? <2021 fall amc10A p.20>

51
Solution 1 (Casework)

A quadratic equation does not have real solutions if and only if the
discriminant is nonpositive. We conclude that:

1. Since does not have real solutions, we

have
2. Since does not have real solutions, we
have

Squaring the first inequality, we get Multiplying the second

inequality by we get Combining these results, we
get We apply casework to the value of

§ If then from which

§ If then from which

§ If then from which

§ If then from which

Together, there are ordered

pairs namely and

84

What is the value of <2021 Fall amc10B

p.1>

52
85

At noon on a certain day, Minneapolis is degrees warmer than St. Louis.

At the temperature in Minneapolis has fallen by degrees while the
temperature in St. Louis has risen by degrees, at which time the tempera-
tures in the two cities differ by degrees. What is the product of all possible
values of

<2021 Fall amc10B p.4>

Solution 1 (Two Variables)

At noon on a certain day, let and be the temperatures (in degrees) in

Minneapolis and St. Louis, respectively. It follows that

At we get We have two cases:

1. If then

2. If then

Together, the product of all possible values of is

86

53
Let . Which of the following is equal to <2021 Fall amc10B
p.5>

87

The knights in a certain kingdom come in two colors. of them are red, and

the rest are blue. Furthermore, of the knights are magical, and the fraction
of red knights who are magical is times the fraction of blue knights who
are magical. What fraction of red knights are magical? <2021 Fall amc10B
p.9>

Solution 1

Let be the number of knights: then the number of red knights is and

the number of blue knights is .

Let be the fraction of blue knights that are magical - then is the fraction
of red knights that are magical. Thus we can write the equa-

tion

54
We want to find the fraction of red knights that are magical, which

is

88

Which of the following conditions is sufficient to guarantee that inte-

gers , , and satisfy the equa-
tion

<2021 Fall amc10B p.12>

and

and

and

and

Solution 1 (Completing the Square)

It is obvious , , and are symmetrical. We are going to solve the problem

by Completing the Square.

Because are integers, , , and can only

equal . So one variable must equal another, and the third variable

is different from those equal variables. So the answer is .

55
89

Distinct lines and lie in the -plane. They intersect at the origin.

Point is reflected about line to point , and then is re-

flected about line to point . The equation of line is ,
and the coordinates of are . What is the equation of line <2021
Fall amc10B p.17>

Solution 3

We know that the equation of line is . This means

that is reflected over the line . This means that the line

with and is perpendicular to , so it has slope . Then the equation

of this perpendicular line is , and plugging

in for and yields .

The midpoint of and lies at the intersection

of and . Solving, we get the x-value of the inter-

section is and the y-value is . Let the x-value of be - then by

the midpoint formula, . We can find the y-

value of the same way, so .

56
Now we have to reflect over to get to . The midpoint
of and will lie on , and this midpoint is, by the midpoint for-

mula, . must satisfy this point,

so .

Now the equation of line is

90

Kate bakes a -inch by -inch pan of cornbread. The cornbread is cut into pieces
that measure inches by inches. How many pieces of cornbread does the pan
contain?<2018 amc10B p.1>

91

Sam drove miles in minutes. His average speed during the first minutes
was mph (miles per hour), and his average speed during the second minutes
was mph. What was his average speed, in mph, during the last minutes?
<2018 amc10B p.2>

92
Sara makes a staircase out of toothpicks as shown:

57
This is a 3-step staircase and uses 18 toothpicks. How many steps would be in a
staircase that used 180 toothpicks? <2018 amc10B p.8>

Solutions
Solution 1

A staircase with steps contains toothpicks. This

can be rewritten as .

So,

So,
Inspection could tell us that , so the answer

is

93

A function is defined recursively

by and for all inte-
gers . What is ?<2018 amc10B p.20>

58
Solution 1 (Algebra)

For all integers note

that

It follows that

59