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Mathematics Trust

Mentoring Scheme
Supported by

Pythagoras
Sheet 5

Questions

This programme of the Mentoring Scheme is named after Pythagoras of Samos (c. 569–475 BCE).
See http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Pythagoras.html for more information.

If you are unfamiliar with a topic, you may find it useful to refer to the ‘notes for mentees’, which are
designed to provide helpful information for the earlier levels of the mentoring scheme. They are available
from the UKMT Mentoring Scheme page: https://www.ukmt.org.uk/enrichment/mentoring-scheme

These questions may be used freely within your school or college. You may, without further permission,
post them on a website that is accessible only to staff and students of the school or college, print out
and distribute copies within the school or college, and use them in the classroom. If you wish to use
them in any other way, please consult us. © UK Mathematics Trust

Enquiries about the Mentoring Scheme should be sent to:

Mentoring Scheme, UK Mathematics Trust, School of Mathematics,
University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT
T 0113 343 2339 mentoring@ukmt.org.uk www.ukmt.org.uk

Version 1.1, Feb 2020

UKMT Mentoring Scheme Questions Pythagoras, Sheet 5

1. Near the beginning of the century we reached a time that could be represented as 01/01/01/01/01/01, in
the form year/month/day/hour/minute/second. (We have assumed that the two-digit year number ‘01’
means 2001 and that the hours use the 24 hour clock.) More recently, we passed a time represented in
the same way as 12/12/12/12/12/12. How many seconds were there between these two times?
2. How many positive divisors does 6! have, including 1 and 6! ?
Recall from sheet 4, question 1 that 6! = 1 × 2 × 3 × 4 × 5 × 6.

3. In this question, you should assume:

(a) the flesh of a fresh peach has a water content of 75% by weight;
(b) when left in the sun to dry, the flesh loses 80% of its water content;
(c) the stone, removed before the drying process, accounts for 10% of the weight of a fresh peach.
How many grams of fresh peaches are needed to make up a 180 g pack of dried peaches with their
stones removed?
4. Can you draw 8 straight lines (taken to extend infinitely in both directions) so that no two of the lines
have the same number of intersection points with the other lines?
For example, if one line intersects with 6 other lines, then no other line may intersect with 6 lines.

5. You are given a sequence of thirteen terms, each an integer, such that the fourth term is 17 and the
eighth term is 20. You are also given that the sum of every three consecutive terms in the sequence is
the same and that the sum of all thirteen terms is 217. What is the sequence?
6. My calculator is broken so that the ‘0’ key does not work and the display cannot display ‘0’. For
example, I could not enter the calculation 10 × 3. Furthermore, the result of adding 37 and 13 is
displayed as 5 (instead of 50), and 3 multiplied by 67 shows 21 (instead of 201). I multiply a one-digit
number by a two-digit number on this calculator and the answer shown is 15. Which pairs of numbers
could I have chosen which would give this result?
7. Zebedee is training on his bicycle. He returns by the same route that he used when cycling on the
outward leg of his journey. He averages 𝑢 kph on the outward leg and 𝑣 kph on the return leg of his
journey. Find Zebedee’s average speed for his whole journey in terms of just 𝑢 and 𝑣.

© UK Mathematics Trust www.ukmt.org.uk

 www.ukmt.org.uk © UK Mathematics Trust
2. Find the prime factorisation of 6! .
3. Remember that, for example, taking 80% of a number can be done by multiplying by 0.8.
4. What must the numbers of intersections be? What happens to a line with no intersections?
5. Give letters to the terms. You can then write suitable equations.
6. Consider what answers the calculator could have given for such a multiplication.
7. You might find it helpful to try the method with some numbers. The calculations are reasonably straightforward
in the case 𝑢 = 20, 𝑣 = 15 over a distance 6 km each way.
8. You should draw out various versions of the triangle. In which situation(s) does the configuration change
significantly?
Prove that for some such triangles △𝐴𝐵𝐶, we instead have ∠ 𝐴𝐷𝐶 + 2 × ∠ 𝐴𝐵𝐶 = 180°.
𝐵 𝐷 𝐴
𝐶
Prove that in the figure shown ∠ 𝐴𝐷𝐶 = 2 × ∠ 𝐴𝐵𝐶.
if necessary).
acute. The perpendicular bisector of 𝐵𝐶 meets 𝐵𝐴 at the point 𝐷 (where 𝐵𝐴 may be extended past 𝐴
8. Triangle 𝐴𝐵𝐶 is scalene, that is, all three sides have different lengths. In addition, all three angles are
Pythagoras, Sheet 5 Questions UKMT Mentoring Scheme
UKMT Mentoring Scheme Questions Pythagoras, Sheet 5

This page is for mentors, and gives suggestions for supporting their students. If your mentee has found the
Pythagoras level sheets quite easy, you may consider moving him/her up to the Hypatia level. If so, please
contact the UKMT office.
1. These are the first and last times we can do this until a new century starts, because there are only 12
months in the year. If any knowledgeable student asks about leap seconds, feel free to let them add
them to the answer. There were 3 leap seconds in this period.
2. It is possible that students might need a prompt to realise the significance of the power of each prime
factor determining the number of choices that can be made.
3. The primary difficulty in this question is understanding what is happening and describing it mathemati-
cally. A common error is to take the water content to be 75% of the weight of the entire fruit rather
than 75% of the flesh.
4. This question is primarily about reasoning; it does not matter whether the lines are constrained to a
plane or not, though there is a very simple argument if they are so contrained.
5. Algebra is not necessary, but it can help to crystallise the working.
6. Students who like this problem might be interested in The Devil’s Calculator app, which has numerous
challenges along these lines.
7. The hint is a general piece of advice on how to handle algebraic formulation: work with explicit
numbers and watch what happens to them without doing too much simplifying on the way.
8. This geometry problem requires a careful argument. This will be taxing for many students, even though
it only uses rules about angles in triangles and on a straight line. The two different configurations are
interesting and significant.
It should also be noted that some angles can be denoted in various ways. For example, if 𝑀 is taken to
be the midpoint of 𝐵𝐶, then ∠ 𝐴𝐵𝐶 can also be denoted as ∠𝐶𝐵𝐴, ∠𝐶𝐵𝐷, ∠𝐷𝐵𝐶, ∠ 𝐴𝐵𝑀, ∠𝑀 𝐵𝐴,
∠𝐷𝐵𝑀 and ∠𝑀 𝐵𝐷. Thus checking students’ work requires care.

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