AHSMC Newsletter Vol. 18, No.

1 , October 1, 2008

Alberta High School Mathematics Competition Newsletter

Volume 18, Number 1 October 1, 2008 We are grateful to ConocoPhillips Canada who increased their sponsorship from $1500 to $2000. Thus after paying out $1500 for the ConocoPhillips Fellowship, the A.H.S.M.C. Board will have an additional $500 to defray our operating cost. This is a welcome and much needed infusion of funds as everything is going up everywhere. The Board also welcomes two new members, Prof. Wieslaw Krawcewicz of the Department of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences at the University of Alberta, and Mr. Adrian Tang, a graduate student of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Calgary. The 2008 International Mathematical Olympiad was held in Madrid, Spain. Jarno Sun of Western Canada High School, Calgary, then in Grade 11, made the team for the second year in a row, and improved his result from an Honorable Mention to a Bronze Medal. He was joined on the team by fellow Calgarian, Danny Shi of Sir Winston Churchill High School, also then in Grade 11. He won a Bronze Medal on his rst try. The overall team standing (unocial) was twenty-second place, up ve places from 2007. The other four National Team members won two Silver Medals and two Bronze Medals among them. The 2008 World Youth Mathematics Intercity Competition moved from Chang Chun, China to Chiang Mai, Thailand. Unfortunately, the organizers also moved the dates from July to October. Thus only Mariya Sardarli of McKernan Junior High School, now in Grade 9, will be going. She will rst spend a few days of training and sightseeing in Taipei. Then she will become part of a Canada-Taiwan All Girls Team. The actual competition will take place on October 27, with an Individual Competition and a Team Competition. Mariya is returning home on October 30. From August 1 to August 9, 2008, ve Canadian students attended the International Mathematics Tournament of the Towns Summer Seminar in Mendeleevo, Russia. Mariya worked with three students from Windsor in a team while a fth Canadian student, Jonathan Zung, teamed up with three Serbian students. Mariya also went to the Canadian Mathematical Society National Camp in Montreal in early July. With her were Hunter Spink of the Calgary Science School and Kaiven Zhou of Vernon Barford Junior High School. In late August, Mariya and Kevin participated in the Canadian Mathematical Society Alberta Regional Camp in Edmonton, organized by A.H.S.M.C. Board Chair, Prof. Andy Liu. Students aspiring to get on the Canadian National Team for the IMO should go to the website http://cms.math.ca and click on Mathematics Competitions. There are many useful pieces of information. In particular, go to the Mathematical Olympiad Correspondence Program. This is the rst step in the selection process, and it provides valuable training too. A contest open to all Canadian students is the Sun Life Canadian Open Mathematics Challenge. This is usually written in November, and students register through their own schools. Top performers are invited to participate in the Canadian Mathematical Olympiad, usually written the following March. Further information may be obtained from the website of the Canadian Mathematical Society, cited earlier. ... .................................................................................................. ... On the following pages, we reproduce the paper of last years AHSMC, First Round. The answers are daac cdda cbcd cdcc.

AHSMC Newsletter Vol. 18, No. 1 , October 1, 2008 Alberta High School Mathematics Competition Part I November 20, 2007.

1. A positive integer has 1001 digits all of which are 1s. When this number is divided by 1001, the remainder is (a) 1 (b) 10 (c) 11 (d) 100 (e) none of these

2. Some cats have got into the pigeon loft because the total head count is 34 but the total leg count is 80. The number of cats among the pigeons is (a) 6 (b) 12 (c) 17 (d) 22 (e) 28

3. In triangle ABC , AB 1 BC 2 CA 3. The maximum area of triangle ABC is (a) 1 (b)

3 2

(c) 2

(d)

5 2

(e) none of these

4. The number of ways in which ve As and six Bs can be arranged in a row which reads the same backwards and forwards is (a) 1 (b) 5 (c) 10 (d) 15 (e) none of these

5. Among twenty consecutive integers each at least 9, the maximum number of them that can be prime is (a) 4 (b) 5 (c) 6 (d) 7 (e) 8

6. The non-negative numbers x and y are such that 2x + y = 5. The sum of the maximum value of x + y and the minimum value of x + y is (a) 0 (b)
5 2

(c) 5

(d)

15 2

(e) none of these

7. We wish to choose some of the positive integers from 1 to 1000 inclusive, such that no two dier by 3 or 5. The maximum number of positive integers we can choose is (a) 200 (b) 300 (c) 333 (d) 500 (e) none of these

8. The number of polynomials p with integral coecients such that p(9) = 13 and p(13) = 20 is (a) 0 (b) 1 (c) 2 (d) 3 (e) innitely many

9. In the quadrilateral ABCD, AB = CD, AD = 2 and BC = 6. AD and BC are parallel lines at a distance 8 apart. The radius of the smallest circle which can cover ABCD is (a) 18 (b) 20 (c)
85 2

(d) 5

(e) none of these

AHSMC Newsletter Vol. 18, No. 1 , October 1, 2008

10. The number of pairs (a, b) of positive integers such that all three roots of the cubic equation x3 10x2 + ax b = 0 are positive integers is (a) 3 (b) 8 (c) 10
2 y

(d) 66 =
8 3

(e) none of these

2 x

11. The real numbers x and y are such that x + (a)

3 2

and y + (d) 4

= 3. The value of xy is

(b)

4 3

(c) 2

(e) not uniquely determined 12. Let be an acute angle such that sec2+tan2 = 2. The value of csc2+cot2 is (a) 2 (b) 3 (c) 4 (d) 5 (e) none of these

13. The diameter AC divides a circle into two semicircular arcs. B is the midpoint of one these arcs, and D is any point on the other arc. If the area of ABCD is 16 square centimetres, the distance, in centimetres, from B to AD is (a) 2 (b) 2 2 (c) 4 (d) 4 2

(e) dependent on the radius of the circle 14. Five students took part in a contest consisting of six true-or-false questions. Student #i gave the answer T to question #j if and only if i < j . The total number of incorrect answers is 8 or 9, and there are more incorrect answers of T than incorrect answers of F. The student who has both an incorrect answer of T and an incorrect answer of F is (a) #1 (b) #2 (c) #3 (d) #4 (e) #5

15. An integer n is randomly chosen from 1099 to 10100 1 inclusive. The real number m is dened by n . Of the following ve numbers, the one closest to the probability that 1099 m 10100 1 m = 95 is (a)
1 3

(b)

4 9

(c)

1 2

(d)

5 9

(e)

2 3

16. The smallest value of the real number k such that (x2 + y 2 + z 2 )2 k (x4 + y 4 + z 4 ) holds for all real numbers x, y and z is (a) 1 (b) 2 (c) 3 (d) 6 (e) 9