Clock, Variation, Progression and Miscellaneous Problems

Problem 1: CE Board May 1995 Problem 7: GE Board February 1994

In how many minutes after 2 o’clock will the Form the time 6:15 PM to the time 7:45 PM of
hands of the clock extend in opposite directions the same day, the minute hand of a standard
for the first time? clock describes an arc of?
A. 42.4 minutes A. 60°
B. 42.8 minutes B. 90°
C. 43.2 minutes C. 180°
D. 43.6 minutes D. 540°

Problem 2: CE Board November 1995 Problem 8: EE Board April 1990

In how many minutes after 7 o’clock will the A storage battery discharges at a rate which is
hands be directly opposite each other for the first proportional to the charge. If the charge is
time? reduced by 50% of its original value at the end of
A. 5.22 minutes 2 days, how long will
B. 5.33 minutes it take to reduce the
C. 5.46 minutes charge to 25% of its
D. 5.54 minutes original charge?
A. 3
Problem 3: CE Board May 1997 B. 4
What time after 3 o’clock will the hands of the C. 5
clock are together for the first time? D. 6
A. 3:02.30
B. 3:17.37 Problem 9: ECE Board April 1990
C. 3:14.32 The resistance of a wire varies directly with its
D. 3:16.36 length and inversely with its area. If a certain
piece of wire 10 m long and 0.10 cm in diameter
has a resistance of 100 ohms, what will its
Problem 4: GE Board February 1997 resistance be if its is
At what time after 12:00 noon will the hour hand uniformly stretched so
and minute hand of the clock first form an angle that its length
of 120o? becomes 12 m?
A. 12:18.818 A. 80
B. 12:21.818 B. 90
C. 12:22.818 C. 144
D. 12:24.818 D. 120

Problem 5: Problem 10: CE Board May 1993

At what time between 8 and 9 o’clock will the Given that “w” varies directly as the product of “x”
minute hand coincide with the hour hand? and “y” and inversely as the square of “z” and that
A. 8:42.5 w = 4 when x = 2, y = 6 and z = 3. Find the value
B. 8:43.2 of “w” when x = 1, y = 4
C. 8:43.6 and z = 2.
D. 8:43.9 A. 3
B. 4
Problem 6: EE Board October 1990 C. 5
A man left his home at past 3:00 o’clock PM as D. 6
indicated in his wall clock, between 2 to 3 hours
after, he returns home Problem 11: ECE Board November 1993
and noticed the hands of If x varies directly as y and inversely as z, and x
the clock interchanged. = 14 when y =7 and z = 2, find the value of x when
At what time did the man y = 16 and z = 4.
leave his home? A. 14
A. 3:31.47 B. 4
B. 3:21.45 C. 16
C. 3:46.10 D. 8
D. 3:36.50
Clock, Variation, Progression and Miscellaneous Problems

Problem 12: EE Board March 1998 Problem 16: EE Board March 1998
The electric power which a transmission line can A bookstore purchased a best selling price book
transmit is proportional to the product of its design at P200.00 per copy. At what price should this
voltage and current capacity, and inversely to the book be sold so that, giving a 20% discount, the
transmission distance. A 115-kilovolt line rated at profit is 30%?
100 amperes can transmit 150 megawatts over A. P 450
150 km. How much power, in megawatts can a B. P 500
230 kilovolt line rated at 150 amperes transmit C. P 357
over 100 km? D. P 400
A. 785
B. 485 Problem 17: ECE Board November 1993
C. 675 Jojo bought a second hand Betamax VCR and
D. 595 then sold it to Rudy at a profit of 40%. Rudy then
sold the VCR to Noel at a profit of 20%. If Noel
Problem 13: ME Board October 1992 paid P2, 856 more than it cost to Jojo, how much
The time required for an elevator to lift a weight did Jojo paid for the
varies directly with the weight and the distance unit?
through which it is to be lifted and inversely as the A. P 4,000
power of the motor. If it takes 30s seconds for a B. P 4,100
10hp motor to lift 100 lbs through 50 feet, what C. P 4,200
size of motor is required to lift 800 lbs in 40s D. P 4,300
seconds through
40 feet? Problem 18: EE Board March 1998
A. 42 In a certain community of 1,200 people, 60% are
B. 44 literate. Of the males, 50% are literate and of the
C. 46 females 70% are literate. What is the female
D. 48 population?
A. 850
Problem 14: B. 500
The selling price of TV set is double that of its C. 550
cost. If the TV set was sold to a customer at a D. 600
profit of 25% of the net cost, how much discount
was given to the
customer? Problem 19: ECE Board March 1996
A. 33.7% A merchant has three items on sale, namely a
B. 35.7% radio for P50, a clock for P30 and a flashlight for
C. 37.7% P1. At the end of the day, he sold a total of 100 of
D. 34.7% the three items and has taken exactly P1000 on
the total sales. How
Problem 15: many radios did he
A group of EE examinees decided to hire a sale?
mathematics tutor from Excel Review Center and A. 16
planned to contribute equal amount for the tutor’s B. 20
fee. If there were 10 more examinees, each would C. 18
have paid P2 less. However, if there were 5 less D. 24
examinees, each would have paid P2 more. How
many examinees
are there in the
group?
A. 14 Problem 20: ME Board October 1996
B. 16 The arithmetic mean of a and b is?
C. 18
D. 20 A.

B.
Clock, Variation, Progression and Miscellaneous Problems

A. 11
C. B. 12
C. 13
D. D. 14

Problem 21: Problem 27: CE Board May 1995

The sum of three arithmetic means between 34 What is the sum of the progression 4, 9, 14, 19 …
and 42 is? up to the 20th term?
A. 114 A. 1030
B. 124 B. 1035
C. 134 C. 1040
D. 144 D. 1045

Problem 22: EE Board March 1998 Problem 28: EE Board April 1997
Gravity causes a body to fall 16.1 ft in the first A stack of bricks has 61 bricks in the bottom layer,
second, 48.3 in the 2nd second, 80.5 in the 3rd 58 bricks in the second layer, 55 bricks in the third
second. How far did the body fall during the 10th layer, and so on until there are 10 bricks in the
second? last layer. How many bricks are there all
A. 248.7 ft together?
B. 308.1 ft A. 638
C. 241.5 ft B. 637
D. 305.9 ft C. 639
D. 640
Problem 23:
If the first term of arithmetic progression is 25 and Problem 29: CE Board May 1998
the fourth term is 13, what is the third term? Determine the sum of the progression if there are
A. 17 7 arithmetic mean between 3 and 35.
B. 18 A. 171
C. 19 B. 182
D. 20 C. 232
D. 216
Problem 24: ECE Board November 1998
Find the 30th term of the arithmetic progression Problem 30: ECE Board April 1995
4, 7, 10, …. A besiege fortress is held by 5700 men who have
A. 75 provisions for 66 days. If the garrison losses 20
B. 88 men each day, for how many days can the
C. 90 provision hold
D. 91 out?
A. 72
Problem 25: CE Board May 1993, CE Board B. 74
May 1994, CE Board November 1994 C. 76
How many terms of the progression 3, 5, 7, … D. 78
must be taken in order that their sum will be
2600? Problem 31: CE Board May 1991
A. 48 In the recent “Gulf War” in the Middle East, the
B. 49 allied forces captured 6400 of Saddam’s soldiers
C. 50 and with provisions on hand it will last for 216
D. 51 meals while feeding 3 meals a day. The provision
lasted 9 more days because of daily deaths. At an
Problem 26: ME Board April 1995 average, how many
In pile of logs, each layer contains one more log died per day?
than the layer above and A. 15
the top contains just one B. 16
log. If there are 105 logs C. 17
in the pile, how many D. 18
layers are there?
Clock, Variation, Progression and Miscellaneous Problems

Problem 32: GE Board July 1993 Problem 37:

A Geodetic Engineering student got a score How many times will a grandfather’s clock strikes
of 30% on Test 1 of the five number test in in one day if it strikes only at the hours and strike
Surveying. On the last number he got 90% in once at 1 o’clock, twice at 2 o’clock, thrice at 3
which a constant difference more on each o’clock and so on?
number that he had on the immediately preceding A. 210
one. What was his B. 24
average score in C. 156
Surveying? D. 300
A. 50
B. 55 Problem 38: CE Board May 1992
C. 60 To conserve energy due to the present energy
D. 65 crisis, the Meralco tried to re-adjust their charges
to electrical energy users who consume more
Problem 33: ME Board April 1999 than 2000 kw-hrs. For the first 100 kw-hr, they
If the sum of 220 and the first term is 10, find the charged 40 centavos and increasing at a constant
common difference if rate more than the preceding one until the fifth
the last term is 30. 100 kw-hr, the charge is 76 centavos. How much
A. 2 is the average charge for the electrical energy per
B. 5 100 kw-hr?
C. 3 A. 58 centavos
D. 2/3 B. 60 centavos
C. 62 centavos
Problem 34: EE Board April 1997 D. 64 centavos
Once a month, a man puts some money into the
cookie jar. Each month he puts 50 centavos more Problem 39: CE Board November 1993
into the jar than the month before. After 12 years, The 3rd term of a harmonic
he counted his money, he had P5, 436. How progression is 15 and the
much money did he put in the jar in the last 9th term is 6. Find the 11th
month? term.
A. P 73.50 A. 4
B. P 75.50 B. 5
C. P 74.50 C. 6
D. P 72. 50 D. 7

Problem 35: EE Board April 1997 Problem 40: ECE Board November 1995
A girl on a bicycle coasts downhill is covering 4 Find the fourth term of the progression ½, 0.2,
feet the first second, 12 feet the second second, 0.125, . . .
and in general, 8 feet more each second than the A. 1/10
previous second. If she reaches the bottom at the B. 1/11
end of 14 seconds, how far did she coasts? C. 0.102
A. 782 feet D. 0.099
B. 780 feet
C. 784 feet Problem 41: Find the 9th term of the harmonic
D. 786 feet progression 3, 2, 3/2….
A. 3/5
Problem 36: B. 3/8
When all odd numbers from 1 to 101 are added, C. 4/5
the result is? D. 4/9
A. 2500
B. 2601 Problem 42:
C. 2501 Find the sum of 4 geometric
D. 3500 means between 160 and 5.
A. 130
B. 140
C. 150
Clock, Variation, Progression and Miscellaneous Problems

D. 160 Problem 49:

If the first term of G.P. is 9 and the common ration
Problem 43: EE Board October 1991 is -2/3, find the fifth term.
The fourth term of a A. 8/5
G.P. is 216 and the B. 16/9
6th term is 1944. Find C. 15/7
the 8th term. D. 13/4
A. 17649
B. 17496 Problem 50: EE Board April 1997
C. 16749 The seventh term is 56 and the twelfth term is -
D. 17964 1792 of a geometric progression. Find the
common ratio and the first term. Assume the
Problem 44: ECE Board April 1999 rations are equal.
Determine x so that: x, 2x + 7, 10x – 7 will be a A. -2, 5/8
geometric progression. B. -1, 5/8
A. 7, -7/12 C. -1, 7/8
B. 7, -5/6 D. -2, 7/8
C. 7, -14/5
D. 7, -7/6 Problem 51:
A person has 2 parents, 4 grandparents, 8 great
Problem 45: ECE Board April 1999 grandparents and so on. How many ancestors
If one third of the air in a tank is removed by each during the 15 generations preceding his own,
stroke of an air pump, what fractional part of the assuming no duplication?
total air is removed in 6 A. 131070
strokes? B. 65534
A. 0.7122 C. 32766
B. 0.9122 D. 16383
C. 0.6122
D. 0.8122 Problem 52:
If the PBA three-point shootout-contest, the
Problem 46: ME Board October 1996 committee decided to give a prize in the following
A product has a current selling of P325.00. If it’s manner. A price of P1 for the first basket made,
selling price is expected to decline at the rate of P2 for the second, P4 for the third, P8 for the
10% per annum because of obsolescence, what fourth and so on. If the contestant wants to win a
will be its selling price four years hence? prize of no less
A. P 213.33 than a million
B. P 202.75 pesos, what is the
C. P 302.75 minimum number
D. P156.00 of baskets to be
converted?
Problem 47: CE Board May 1995 A. 20
The numbers 28, x + 2, B. 19
112 form a G.P. What is C. 18
the 10th term? D. 21
A. 14336
B. 13463 Problem 53: CE Board November 1994
C. 16433 In a benefit show, a number of wealthy men
D. 16344 agreed that the first one to arrive would pay 10
centavos to enter and each later arrive would pay
Problem 48: ECE Board April 1998 twice as much as the
The sum of the first 10 terms of geometric preceding man. The
progression 2, 4, 8, … total amount collected
A. 1023 from all of them was
B. 2046 P104,857.50. How
C. 225 many wealthy men
D. 1596 paid?
Clock, Variation, Progression and Miscellaneous Problems

A. 18
B. 19 C.
C. 20
D. 21
D.
Problem 54:
A man mailed 10 chain letters to ten of his friends
Problem 59: ECE Board April 1998
with a request to continue by sending similar letter
Find the sum of the infinite geometric progression
to each of their ten friends. If this continue for 6
6, -2, 2/3, . . .
sets of letters and if all responded, how much will
A. 9/2
the Phil. Postal Office earn if minimum postage
B. 5/2
costs P4 per letter?
C. 7/2
A. P 6,000,000
D. 11/2
B. P 60,000
C. P 2,222,220
Problem 60: CE Board May 1998
D. P 4,444,440
Find the sum of 1, – , ,...
Problem 55: EE Board March 1998
A. 5/6
Determine the sum of the infinite series: S
B. 2/3
C. 0.84
= + + + …. + n
D. 0.72
A. 4/5
B. 3/4
Problem 61: ECE Board November 1998
C. 2/3
Find the ratio of an infinite
D. 1/2
geometric progression if
the sum is 2 and the first
Problem 56:
term is ½.
Under the favourable condition, single cell
A. 1/3
bacteria divided into two about every 20
B. 1/2
minutes. If the same rate of division is
C. 3/4
maintained for 10 hours, how many organisms is
D. 1/4
produced from a single cell?
A. 1,073,741
Problem 62: EE Board April 1997
B. 1,730.74
If equal spheres are piled in the form of a
C. 1,073,741,823
complete pyramid with an equilateral; triangle as
D. 1,037,417
base, find the total number of spheres in the pile
if each side of the base contains 4 spheres.
Problem 57: EE Board October 1994
A. 15
A rubber ball is made to fall from a height of 50
B. 20
feet and is observed to rebound 2/3 of the
C. 18
distance it falls. How far will the ball travel before
D. 21
coming to rest if the ball continues to fall in this
manner?
Problem 63:
A. 200 feet
Find the 6th term of the sequence 55, 40, 28, 19,
B. 225 feet
13, . . .
C. 250 feet
A. 10
D. 275 feet
B. 9
C. 8
Problem 58: EE Board April 1990
D. 11
What is the fraction in lowest term equivalent to
0.133133133?
Problem 64: EE Board October 1997
A. In the series 1, 1, ½, 1/6, 1/24, . . .determine
the 6th term.
B. A. 1/80
Clock, Variation, Progression and Miscellaneous Problems

B. 1/74 Problem 71 (CE May 1997)

C. 1/100 Which of the following numbers should be
D. 1/120 changed to make all the numbers form an
arithmetic progression when properly arranged?
A. 27/14
Problem 65: ECE Board April 1998 B. 33/28
Find the 1987th in the decimal equivalent
C. 45/28
D. 20/14
to starting from the decimal point.
A. 8
B. 1 Problem 72
C. 7 The first term of an arithmetic progression (A.P.)
D. 5 is 6 and the 10th term is 3 times the second
number. What is the common difference?
Problem 66 (ECE November 1996) A. 1
How many terms of the sequence -9, -6, -3 … B. 2
must be taken so that the sum is 66? C. 3
A. 13 D. 4
B. 12
C. 4 Problem 73
D. 11 The sum of five arithmetic means between 34 and
42 is:
Problem 67 (CE November 1997) A. 150
The sum of the progression 5, 8, 11, 14 …. is B. 160
1025. How many terms are there? C. 190
A. 22 D. 210
B. 23
C. 24 Problem 74
D. 25 The positive values of a so that 4x, 5x + 4, 3x 2 –
1will be in arithmetic progression is:
Problem 68 (CE May 1998) A. 2
There are seven arithmetic means between 3 and B. 3
35. Find the sum of all terms. C. 4
A. 169 D. 5
B. 171
C. 167 Problem 75
D. 173 Solve for x if x + 3x + 5x + 7x + … + 49x = 625
A. ¼
Problem 69 (CE May 1999) B. ½
There are line (9) arithmetic means between 11 C. 1
and 51. The sum of the progression is: D. 1 ¼
A. 279
B. 341 Problem 76
C. 376 The 10th term of the series a, a – b, a – 2b, … is:
D. 254 A. a – 6b
B. a – 9b
Problem 70 C. 2a – b
The sum of all even numbers from 0 to 420 is: D. a + 9b
A. 43410
B. 44300 Problem 77
C. 44310 If the sum of the first 13 terms of two arithmetic
D. 44130 progressions are in the ratio 7:3, find the ratio of
their corresponding 7th term.
Clock, Variation, Progression and Miscellaneous Problems

A. 3:7 Problem 84 (ECE November 1995)

B. 1:3 Find the fourth term of the progression ½, 0.2,
C. 7:3 0.125, …
D. 6:7 A. 0.102
B. 1/10
Problem 78 C. 1/11
If 1/x, 1/y, 1/z are in arithmetic progression, then D. 0.099
y is equal to:
A. x – z Problem 85
B. ½(x + 2z) The 10th term of the progression 6/4, 4/3, 3/2, …
C. (x + z)/2xz is:
D. 2xz/(x + z) A. 12
B. 10/3
Problem 79 (ECE November 1997) C. 12/3
Find the 30th term of the A.P. 4, 7, 10 … D. 13/3
A. 88
B. 91 Problemv 86 (ME October 1997)
C. 75 The geometric mean of 4 and 64 is:
D. 90 A. 48
B. 16
Problem 80 (ECE November 1997) C. 34
Find the 100th term of the sequence 1.01, 1.00, D. 24
0.99….
A. 0.05 Problem 87 (ME October 1997)
B. 0.04 The geometric mean of a and b is:
C. 0.03 A. √ab
D. 0.02 B. (a+b)/2
C. 1/b
Problem 81 D. ab/2
The sum of all numbers between 0 and 10000
which is exactly divisible by 77 is: Problem 88 (CE May 1998)
A. 546546 Determine the sum of the infinite geometric series
B. 645568 of 1, -1/5,+1/25, …?
C. 645645 A. 4/5
D. 645722 B. 5/7
C. 4/6
Problem 82 (ME April 1998) D. 5/6
What is the sum of the following finite sequence
of terms? 18, 25, 32, 39, .., 67. Problem 80
A. 234 There are 6 geometric means between 4 and
B. 181 8748. Find the sum of all terms.
C. 213 A. 13120
D. 340 B. 15480
C. 10250
Problem 83 D. 9840
Find x in the series: 1, 1/3, 0.2, x.
A. 1/6 Problem 90 (ECE April 1998)
B. 1/8 Find the sum of the infinite progression 6, -2, -2/3
C. 1/7 …
D. 1/9 A. 5/2
B. 9/2
C. 7/2
Clock, Variation, Progression and Miscellaneous Problems

D. 11/2 C. 36 & 8
D. 72 & 4
Problem 91 (ECE April 1998)
Find the sum of the first 10 terms of the Geometric Problem 97
Progression 2, 4, 8, 16 … If x, 4x + 8, 30x + 24 are in geometrical
A. 1023 progression, find the common ratio.
B. 2046 A. 2
C. 1596 B. 4
D. 225 C. 6
D. 8
Problem 92
The 1st, 4th, 8th terms of an A.P. are themselves Problem 98 (ECE April 1995)
geometric progression (G.P.). What is the A besiege fortress is held by 5700 men who have
common ratio of the G.P.? provision for 66 days. If the garrison loses 20 men
A. 4/3 each day, for how many days can the provision
B. 5/3 hold out?
C. 2 A. 60
D. 7/3 B. 72
C. 76
Problem 93 D. 82
Determine x so that x, 2x + 7, 10x – 7 will form a
geometric progression. Problem 99 (ECE April 1999)
A. -7 If one third of the air in the tank is removed by
B. 6 each stroke of an air pump, what fractional part of
C. 7 the total air is removed in 6 strokes?
D. -6 A. 0.9122
B. 0.0877
Problem 94 C. 0.8211
The fourth term of a geometric progression is 189 D. 0.7145
and the sixth term is 1701, the 8th term is:
A. 5103 Problem 100
B. 1240029 A rubber ball is dropped from a height of 15 m.
C. 45927 On each rebound, it rises 2/3 of the height from
D. 15309 which it last fell. Find the distance traveled by the
ball before it becomes to rest.
Problem 95 A. 75 m
The sum of the numbers in arithmetical B. 96 m
progression is 45. If 2 is added to the first number, C. 100 m
3 to the second and 7 to the third, the new D. 85 m
numbers will be in geometrical progression. Find
the common difference in A.P. Problem 101 (CE May 1991)
A. -5 In the recent Bosnia conflict, The NATO forces
B. 10 captured 6400 soldiers. The provisions on hand
C. 6 will last for 216 meals while feeding 3 meals a
D. 5 day. The provisions lasted 9 more days because
of daily deaths. At an average, how many died per
Problem 96 day?
The geometric mean and the harmonic mean of A. 15.2
two numbers are 12 and 36/5 respectively. What B. 17.8
are the numbers? C. 18.3
A. 36 & 4 D. 19.4
B. 72 & 8
Clock, Variation, Progression and Miscellaneous Problems

Problem 102
To build a dam, 60 men must work 72 days. If all
60 men are employed at the start but the number
is decreased by 5 men at the end of each 12-day
period, how long will it take to complete the dam?
A. 108 days
B. 9 days
C. 94 days
D. 60 days
Problem 103 (CE November 1994)
In a benefit show, a number of wealthy men
agreed that the first one to arrive would pay 10
centavos to enter and each later arrival would pay
twice as much as the preceding man. The total
amount collected from all of them was
P104857.50. How may wealthy men had paid?
A. 18
B. 19
C. 20
D. 21
C. 26
D. 32
Problem 107 (EE March 1998)
In a commercial survey involving 1000 persons
on brand preferences, 120 were found to prefer
brand x only, 200 persons prefer brand y only,
150 persons prefer brand z only, 370 prefer either
brand x or y not z, 450 prefer brand y or z but not
x, and 370 prefer wither brand z or x but not y,
and none prefer all the three brands at a time.
How many persons have no brand preference
with any of the three brands?
A. 120
B. 280
C. 70
D. 320

Problem 104 (EE October 1993)

In a class of 40 students, 27 students like
Calculus and 25 like Geometry. How many
students liked both Calculus and Geometry?
A. 10
B. 14
C. 11
D. 12

Problem 105
A class of 40 took examination in Algebra and
Trigonometry. If 30 passed Algebra, 36 passed
Trigonometry, and 2 failed in both subjects, the
number of students who passed the two subjects
is:
A. 2
B. 8
C. 28
D. 25

Problem 106 (ECE November 1992)

The probability for the ECE board examinees
from a certain school to pass the Mathematics
subject is 3/7 and that for the Communications
subject is 5/7. If none of the examinees failed in
both subjects and there are 4 examinees who
pass both subjects, how many examinees from
the school took the examination?
A. 28
B. 27