Ramanujan School of Mathematics

PRMO 2018 mock test

The following questions carry 2 marks each

1. In the arithmetic progressions x, a1 , a2 , a3 , y and b1 , x, b2 , b3 , y, b4 , we have x 6= y. What

b4 −b2
is the value of a2 −a1
?
2. What is the number of pairs (x, y) of reals satisfying
|tanπy| + sin2 πx = 0 and x2 + y 2 ≤ 2 ?
3. For how many prime numbers p < 50 does there exist a positive integer n such that
√ √
p + n + n is an integer?
4. If A 6= B, then (A, B) 6= (B, A). What is the number of pairs (A, B) of sets such that
A ∪ B = {a1 , a2 , a3 }
5. How many triangles are there such that each side has integral length and the longest
side has length 11?
8
P
6. Find the number of non-negative integral solutions to the equation 2x1 + xi = 3.
i=2
7. What is the smallest positive integer n such that (x2 + y 2 + z 2 )2 ≤ n(x4 + y + z 4 ) for
4

any reals x, y, z ?
1 1
8. Let a, b be positive reals such that a+b = 2. What is the minimum value of 1+an
+ 1+b n

over all n ∈ N ?
1093
9. What are the last two digits of the greatest integer less than 1031 +3
?
10. How many of the triangles whose vertices are chosen from the vertices of a rectangular
block are acute?

1
 The following questions carry 3 marks each

11. Two lines in space are skew if they do not intersect AND they are not parallel.
Consider the 12 face diagonals of a rectangular block. How many pairs of them are skew
lines?
12. How many subsets {a1, a2, a3 } of {1, 2, ..., 12} satisfy a2 − a1 ≥ 3 and a3 − a2 ≥ 3 ?
13. For any two real numbers x and y, define x ∗ y = ax + by + cxy, where a, b, c are
constants. It is known that 1 ∗ 2 = 3, 2 ∗ 3 = 4, and there is a non-zero real number d such
that x ∗ d = x for any real number x. What is the value of d?
14. A is said to be no weaker than B if A is either taller or heavier than B. Among 75
people, if someone is no weaker than any of the others, then this person is said to be strong.
Of the 75 people, at most how many can be strong?
15. What is the maximum number of real roots of the equation x|x| + px + q = 0 ? (p, q
are real numbers)
16. In a triangle ABC, sinA = 3/5, cosB = 5/13. If cosC = k, find 65k.
17. In the sequence 1, 4, 8, 10, 16, 52, 21, 25, 30 and 43, how many blocks of consecutive
terms have sums divisible by 11?
18. The length of the altitude on the side AC of triangle ABC is equal to AB − BC.
What is the value of sin C−A
2
+ cos C+A
2
?
√
19. Let 0 < θ < π. What is the maximum value of 3 3sin 2θ (1 + cosθ)?
20. Let a, b, c be real numbers such that a2 − bc − 8a + 7 = 0 and
b2 + c2 + bc − 6a + 6 = 0. What is the maximum possible value of a ?

2
 The following questions carry 5 marks each

21. Let x and y be real numbers such that (x − 1)3 + 2018(x − 1) = −1 and
(y − 1)3 + 2018(y − 1) = 1. Find x + y.
22. In triangle ABC ∠A = α,∠B = β, ∠C = γ. If b2 − a2 = ac and β 2 = αγ, what is the
21
value of π
β ?
23. The sequence an is defined by a1 = 9 and 3an+1 + an = 4 for n ≥ 1. Let Sn
denote the sum of the first n terms. What is the smallest positive integer n such that
1
|Sn − n − 6| < 125
?
24. Let x1 , x2 be real roots of the equation x2 − (k − 2)x + (k 2 + 3k + 5) = 0. What is
the maximum possible value of x21 + x22 ?
25. In a rhombus of side length 5, the length of one of the diagonals is at least 6, and the
length of the other is at most 6. What is the maximum value of the sum of the lengths of
the diagonals?
√
26. CD and BE are altitudes of triangle ABC with circumradius 10 3. If ∠BAC = π/3,
what is the value of DE ?
27. For any non-empty set X of numbers, denote by aX the sum of the largest and smallest
elements in X. Let A(X) be the average value of aX when X runs over all non-empty subsets
of {1, 2, ..., 1000}. Find the sum of all the prime divisors of A(X).
28. For any positive integer n let f (n) denote the number of lattice points on the segment
100
P
joining (0, 0) and (n, n + 3), not counting the endpoints. What is the value of f (n) ?
n=1
29. Each of the numbers a1 , a2 , ...a95 is +1 or -1. What is the smallest positive value of
the sum of ai aj , 1 ≤ i < j ≤ 95?
30.A frog starts at vertex A of a regular hexagon ABCDEF and hops from vertex to
adjacent vertex. It stops either when it reaches vertex D or when it has made five hops,
whichever is sooner. What is the number of different sequences of hops?