™

F O R K I D S W H O L I K E T O S O LV E P R O B L E M S

MPower! MAGA ZINE #2

 Our

STAFF
Editor-in-Chief

CONTENTS Laura Gallus

Contributing Editor
Nina Dubinsky

Contributing Author
Andrey Polin

The Three Princesses 1 Art Direction by

Factors & Faulty Lights 3 KEY

Grades 2 & up
Grades 4 & up
Amusements 5
Grades 6 & up
Master Solver
The Secret Hideout 8
Note from the
EDITOR
MChallenge 10 There is no such thing as a “math
person.” However, a child’s early
learning experiences directly

Pythagorean Means 12
impact their perception of their
mathematics ability. When children
are taught mathematics through fun
and engaging problems, they not
only build fluency in and an intuitive
understanding of mathematics, but
they also develop critical problem-
solving skills.

MPower! was created as a resource

for children who want to flex their
mathematical muscles and show
off their problem-solving ingenuity.
We hope you enjoy the stories and
problems inside.

The RSM Foundation is committed to the promotion of STEM

activities for K-­12 students. With the belief that Mathematics
is the queen of the sciences, the Foundation advocates for ANSWERS
the adoption of world­-class standards and supports the
Want to know if your
implementation of innovative mathematical programs in a
diverse context across the United States and abroad. The RSM answers are correct?
Foundation strives to develop world leading intellectuals in
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Connect with us at:
©2016 RSM Foundation. All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be mpower@rsmfoundation.org
reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means.
The Three Princesses
The Three Princesses
King Albert and King Edward wanted to unite
their kingdoms through the marriage of King
Albert’s son, Prince John, and one of King
Edward’s three daughters. King Edward invited
King Albert and Prince John to his castle
so that Prince John could choose one of the
princesses to marry.
It was common knowledge that the eldest
princess always tells the truth, the youngest
princess never tells the truth, and the middle
princess, who is quite mischievous, tells the
truth only some of the time. King Edward
presented his daughters Princess Catherine,
Princess Regina, and Princess Elizabeth
© 2015 RSM Foundation
1
to Prince John. However, he did not tell the
prince who is the eldest, middle, and youngest.
Now, the prince intended to marry a princess he
could trust. Therefore, he decided that it must
be either the eldest princess or the youngest
princess (he figures he can simply negate all of
her responses). The prince was very clever, and
he knew he could make his choice by simply
asking one of the princesses a single yes or no
question. With the three princesses standing
before him, he asked his question. He then
made his choice.
What question did he ask?
 2 Faulty Lights
Faulty Lights
Andrey Polin
The holiday season was fast approaching, and
Miss Snow, who loved the season more than
anyone, decorated the beautiful tree in her
yard with a string of 300 lights. She turned
the lights on and marveled at the sight. At
midnight, however, she noticed something
strange happen—bulbs started blinking on
or off every second. In the 1st second, every
bulb was on; in the 2nd second every second
bulb, starting with bulb #2, blinked off; in
the 3rd second, every third bulb, starting from
bulb #3, blinked off or on (some bulbs that
were off blinked on again—for example, bulb
#6 blinked on again); in the 4th second, every
fourth bulb, starting with bulb #4 blinked
off or on; and so on. This continued for a
while, and then stopped. At what time did the
blinking stop? How many bulbs on the string
of lights were still on?
A little math on the side
How many factors does a natural number
have? Every natural number, except 1, has at
least two factors: 1 and the number itself. For
example, 2 has two factors (1 and 2), 6 has
four factors (1, 2, 3, 6), 9 has 3 factors (1, 3, 9),
24 has 8 factors (1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12, 24). Note
that the numbers 2, 6, and 24 each have an
even number of factors and the number 9 has
an odd number of factors. Without factoring,
how can we determine if a given number has
an even or an odd number of factors?
We see that, for the numbers 2, 6, and 24,
each factor of these numbers pairs with
© 2015 RSM Foundation
another factor. However, the factor 3 of the
number 9 does not pair with another factor.
A natural number n has an odd number of
factors if and only if n is a square number
(i.e. n = a2, where a is a natural number).
Proof
Let p be a factor of n. Then r = n/p is also factor
of n. For this and each next factor we have the
pair (p, r).
1. If the number of the factors is an odd number,
it means the factor a does not pair with another
factor. However, that happens if n = a2.
2. Otherwise, if n = a2, then for the factor a, the
pair is (a, n/a = a). So the two factors in this pair
are the same and counted as one factor. Other
pairs have two different factors. It means the
number of factors is an odd number.
Back to the faulty lights
In the pattern, each second corresponds to a
bulb number. Since there are 300 bulbs, the
pattern continues for 300 seconds, or 5 minutes.
So, the lights stop blinking at 12:05 A.M.
We choose, for example, bulb #52. When does
this bulb blink on or off? It happens in the 1st
second (bulb is on), in the 2nd second (bulb is
off), in the 4th second (bulb is on), in the 13th
second (bulb is off), in the 26th second (bulb is
on), and, finally, in the 52nd second (bulb is off).
So we get 1, 2, 4, 13, 26, and 52—all the factors
of 52. For each bulb number we get the same
result in terms of factors. That is, the bulb will
only blink on or off when the number of seconds
corresponds to a factor of the bulb number.
So, how many bulbs on the string of lights are
still on? If the bulb number has an even number
of factors, the bulb is off. If the bulb number has
an odd number of factors, the bulb is on. We
know that only square numbers have an odd
number of factors. Therefore, since 1 = 12, 4 = 22,
9 = 32,…, 225 = 152, 256 = 162, 289 = 172, we have
our answer: 17 bulbs are still on.
 3

What if the string of lights has 290 bulbs? 320

bulbs? How many of the bulbs will still be on at
the end of the pattern? According to our solution,
a bulb will be on if the bulb number is a square
number. Since both numbers are greater than or
equal to 289, but less than 324 (the next square
number), we know that only 17 bulbs will still be
on for both of these strings of lights.

Alternate blinking patterns

In each second of the original pattern some bulbs
blinked on or off. We can think of each second as
a step of the pattern. That is, in each step of the
pattern some bulbs blink on or off. What happens if
we restrict when the bulbs blink on or off? The bulbs
will still blink on or off when the number of seconds
corresponds to a factor of the bulb number.

Pattern 1
In pattern 1, bulbs blink on or off only in even
seconds. So, Step 1 is the 2nd second, Step 2 is the
4th second, and so on. How many of the 300 bulbs
will be on at the end of pattern 1?

Solution Note that when the number of

seconds is an odd number, nothing happens.
So the odd-numbered bulbs will never blink on.
Now we look closely at the numbers of seconds at
which the steps happen:

Step 1 2nd second

Step 2 4th second
Step 3 6th second

Step 150 300th second

We can see that a step number is a factor of the

corresponding number of seconds. It means that,
for each step, the bulb will blink on or off if the
step number corresponds to a factor of the bulb
number. That’s because a factor of a factor of a
number is also a factor of the number.

© 2015 RSM Foundation

4 Faulty Lights
From our solution of the original problem, a bulb
will be on at the end of the new pattern if and only
if the step number is a square number. We have
150 steps and only 12 square numbers within the
step numbers. So, only 12 bulbs are still on at the
end of the new pattern. Can you find which bulbs
are still on?
Pattern 2
In pattern 2, bulbs blink on or off only in odd
seconds. So, Step 1 is the 1st second, Step 2 is the
3rd second, and so on. How many of the 300 bulbs
will be on at the end of pattern 2?
(Note that in pattern 2, a step number is not a
factor of the corresponding number of seconds,
except in the first step. So we cannot apply a
solution similar to the solution of pattern 1.)
Solution Factor any bulb number. For example,
let’s choose the bulb #30. The factors of 30 are:
1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 10, 15, and 30. According to the new
pattern, the bulb blinks on or off at 1, 3, 5, and 15
seconds only. Note that 30 = 2 × 15 and we can
check that 1, 3, 5 and 15 are all the possible factors
of 15. Let’s factor another bulb number—for
example, the bulb #112. The factors of 112 are: 1,
2, 4, 7, 16, 28, 56, and 112. This bulb blinks on or
off at 1 second and 7 seconds only. We have 112 =
24 × 7 and 1 and 7 are all the factors of 7.
In the examples above, we wrote each bulb
number as the product of a power of 2 and an odd
number. For each bulb, we see that it blinks on
or off in the number of seconds that corresponds
to a factor of the odd number factor. This means
that for every natural number n, we can factor n
as n = 2k × d (where k ≥ 0 and d is an odd number)
and take the factors of d to find the step numbers
for the bulb number n. Examples: 4 = 22 × 1, 111 =
20 × 111, 234 = 2 × 117 and so on. Note that d can
be either prime or composite odd number. All the
factors of this odd number d are all the steps at
which this bulb blinks on or off.
From the solution of the original problem and the
factorization above we can see that the answer is
obtained by finding all n = 2k × d, where k ≥ 0 and
d is the square of an odd number (1 = 12, 9 = 32,
25 = 52, …, 169 = 132, 225 = 152, 289 = 172). So for
300 bulbs we have:
1: 20×1=1, 2×1=2, 22×1=4, …, 28×1=256
9: 20×9=9, 21×9=18, 22×9=36, …, 25×9 = 288
25: 20×25=25, 21×25=50, … , 23×25=200
169: 20×169=169
225: 20×225=225
289: 20×289=289
So, the answer is 29 bulbs.
PROBLEM 1
Suppose the faulty string of lights Miss Snow put
on her tree had 1000 bulbs. At what time would
the blinking have stopped? How many bulbs
would have still been on?
PROBLEM 2
Suppose 15 bulbs are still on at the end of the
pattern in our original problem. How many
bulbs are on the string of lights? Find all possible
answers.
PROBLEM 3
Suppose we have a new pattern in which a step
corresponds to a number of seconds that is a
power of 2. That is, Step 1 is at the 20 = 1st second,
Step 2 is at the 21 = 2nd second, Step 3 is at the 22
= 4th second, and so on. How many of the 300
bulbs will be on at the end of this pattern?
(Hint: How many steps does the new pattern have?
If the number of steps is a relatively small number—
for example, less than 10—we can find the answer
just by applying this pattern step by step.)
© 2015 RSM Foundation
Amusements 5

Amusements

1) My birthday is 2) Find the digits A, B, C,

45 days from today. and D in the multiplication
My sister’s birthday problem.
was the day before A B C D
yesterday. If my x 4
sister’s birthday was on D C B A
Monday, then on what
day of the week will
my birthday be?

3) How many
three-digit multiples of
3 can you make using
only the
digits 0, 1, 2, 3,
and 4, if no
© 2015 RSM Foundation

digits are repeated

in a number?
 6 Amusements

3) If A:B=2:3 and A:C = 4) How many

3:2, then what is B:C? squares are on
a checkerboard?

5) A snail is climbing up a
wall. Each day it climbs 3 feet
up, but each night it slides 1
foot down. If the wall is 12
feet high, then how many days
does it take the snail to climb
to the top of the wall?
© 2015 RSM Foundation
Amusements 7

7) On a coordinate
plane, how many
points with integer
coordinates are
exactly 5 units from
6) At 9:00 AM Julia told her the origin?
friend Beth a secret. By 9:05
AM, Beth had told two other
students Julia’s secret. By 9:10
AM, each of those students
had told two more students the
secret. This continued so that
every five minutes each student
who was told the secret had
told it to two other people. All
the students in the school knew
the secret by 9:35 am. Assuming
that each student told exactly
two other students the secret
and each student was told only
once, then how many students
attend this school?
© 2015 RSM Foundation
8 The Secret Hideout
The Secret Hideout
A well-known secret math society had a special hideout.
Only those who knew the password could enter the hideout.
Oliver was a curious boy.
He wondered what the secret
math society did and why they
needed a hideout. So, one day,
he decided he would find out for
himself.
He knocked on the door to the
secret hideout. A voice on the
other side said, “Eight.”
“Eight?” he replied.
“That’s not the password! You
can’t get in unless you know the
password,” said the voice on the
other side.
Oliver scratched his head. He was
confused and didn’t know what
to do. So he went home to think
about it.
The next day, he returned to the
hideout. However, this time he
waited, watched, and listened.
© 2015 RSM Foundation
Soon a girl came along and
knocked on the door. The voice
said, “Six.” The girl replied,
“Three.” The door opened and
the girl went inside. Then a boy
came along and knocked on the
door. The voice on the other side
said, “Twelve.” The boy answered,
“Six.” The door opened and the
boy went inside.
“Oh! Now I know the password!”
exclaimed Oliver. He quickly
walked to the door and knocked.
The voice inside said, “Eight.”
Oliver confidently replied, “Four.”
The voice said, “I’m sorry, that is
not the password.”
What password should Oliver
have given to the voice behind
the door?
 9

© 2015 RSM Foundation

 10

QUESTION 1 QUESTION 2
Anna, Joe, and Ezra have some pencils. If Ezra How many blocks were used to make the
gives 7 pencils to Anna, then Anna and Ezra tower below?
will have the same number of pencils. If Anna
gives 9 of her pencils to Joe, then Joe and
Anna will have the same number of pencils.
How many more pencils than Joe does Ezra
have?

QUESTION 3 QUESTION 4
x+y
What is the difference between the largest and If x ∆ y = xy , then what is the value of
the smallest three-digit numbers that leave a 1 ∆ (3 ∆ 6)?
remainder of 1 when divided by 2, 3, or 4?
© 2015 RSM Foundation
MChallenge 11

QUESTION 5
Two congruent equilateral triangles are
overlapped to form a regular hexagon as shown
in the figure. If the area of the hexagon is 24
square centimeters, then what is the area of one
of the overlapping triangles?
QUESTION 6
If 4 is the first number in a pattern and 24 is
the fifth number in the pattern, then what is
the 100th number in this pattern?

QUESTION 7 QUESTION 8
Determine the area of the region enclosed by Find all real values of x such that
2
the graphs of y = a|x| – b and y =–a|x| + b, (x 2 + x - 1) x -2x-3 = 1
where a and b are real numbers (a ≠ 0).

© 2015 RSM Foundation

12 Pythagorean Means

Pythagorean Means Definition For two numbers a and b*:

Andrey Polin and Laura Gallus Arithmetic mean A is a − A = A − b

a G
The word “average” is widely known. When we use Geometric mean G is =
G b
it, we usually have in mind the arithmetic mean. a−H H−b
Harmonic mean H is =
But, did you know that the arithmetic mean is only a b
one of three classical Pythagorean means? The
These formulas are more commonly written as
other two are the mean proportional, or geometric
a+b 2ab
mean, and the harmonic mean. A= ; G= ab ; and H = .
2 a+b

Pythagoras, Harmony, and Means For example, the Pythagorean means

For ancient Greeks, the notions of beauty, proportion, and for a = 4 and b = 9 are:
4+9 13 1
harmony were closely related. An object’s beauty resulted A= = =6
2 2 2
from a harmony (or wholeness) created from its parts being
G = 4 ⋅ 9 = 36 = 6
joined together in proper proportion. Pythagoras of Samos
2⋅4⋅9 72 7
(569-475 BC), a Greek philosopher and mathematician H= = =5
4+9 13 13
most known for the theorem named for him, described
musical harmony through proportions. In fact, Pythagoras Comparing the means
discovered the music intervals of the fourth, the fifth, and the In the example above, we see that the arithmetic mean

octave. According to legend, while passing by a blacksmith’s A has the greatest value and the harmonic mean H has

shop, Pythagoras stopped to listen to the workmen pound the least value.

metal against an anvil with hammers of different weights.

He noticed that the pounding of the hammers produced In fact, for any two numbers, H ≤ G ≤ A.

harmonious sounds. He entered the shop and examined the

hammers, noting that the weights were in the ratio of 6, 8, 9, We will prove this statement after we prove the

and 12 pounds. He experimented further, investigating the following theorem about right triangles:

relationship between the ratio of the length of a vibrating

string and the musical tone it produced. When a string of Right Triangle Altitude Theorem

length 12 was shortened to length 9, a fourth was heard (9:12 In a right triangle, the measure of the altitude to the

= 3:4); if it was shortened to length 8, a fifth was heard (8:12 = hypotenuse is the geometric mean between the

2:3); and if it was shortened to length 6, an octave was heard measures of the two segments into which the altitude

(6:12 = 1:2). divides the hypotenuse. That is, CD = AD ⋅ DB .

In addition to the musical relationship, the numbers 6, 8,

9, and 12 have an arithmetic relationship. The number 9 is
the arithmetic mean of 12 and 6, and the number 8 is the
harmonic mean of 12 and 6. (See Problem 2.)

Later, Archytas (428–347 BC), a follower of Pythagoras’

teachings, defined the Pythagorean means.

*The Pythagorean means can be found for more than two numbers.
 13

Proof: 2) Geometric mean: From the right triangle altitude

In ∆ABC, m∠C = 90° and CD ⊥ AB . theorem, we see that for the right ∆ABC:
Let’s take right triangles ∆ACD and ∆CBD. AD CD
= or CD = AC ⋅ CB = a ⋅ b .
CD DB
1) m∠ADC = m∠CDB = 90° ; 3) Harmonic mean: Finally, from the similar right
2) m∠CAD = m∠BAC = 90° − m∠ABC ; and CE CD
triangles, ∆CDO and ∆CED, = , or
m∠BCD = 90° − m∠CBD = 90° − m∠ABC . So CD OC
2
m∠CAD = m∠BCD ;
CE =
CD 2
=
( a⋅b ) =
2ab
3) Similarly, we can show m∠ACD = m∠CBD . OC a+b a+b
. 2
From 1-3 we get that ∆ACD is similar to ∆CBD. Since We now complete our proof. In a right triangle,
corresponding sides are proportional, we have the length of a leg is less than the length of the

AD CD hypotenuse. Therefore, CE < CD (for ∆DEC) and CD <

DB , or CD = AD ⋅ DB .
=
CD
Now, we will give a geometric proof of our previous
statement:
For any two numbers, H ≤ G ≤ A.
Proof: Let’s take two numbers a and b. Draw a semi-
circle with center O and diameter AB = AD + DB,
where AD = a and DB = b. Next, draw line segment CD
perpendicular to diameter AB. Finally, draw radius OC
and line segment DE perpendicular to OC.
OC (for ∆OCD). Combining both inequalities, we have
DE < DC < OD, or H < G < A.* (See Problem 1.)
Problem 1
We promised to prove that H ≤ G ≤ A. However, we
proved that H < G < A. Finish the proof by stating the
condition for which H = G = A.
Problem 2
(a) Show that 9 is the arithmetic mean of 12 and 6.
(b) Show that 8 is the harmonic mean of 12 and 6.

Before we continue, see if you can find the lengths that Problem 3
are the arithmetic mean, the geometric mean, and the Can you find a triangle where the length of one side is
harmonic mean of a and b in the figure below. the arithmetic mean, geometric mean and harmonic
mean of the other two side of the triangle?

Problem 4
Prove H ≤ G ≤ A algebraically. (Hint: First show
a+b 2ab
≥ ab , and then show ab ÷ ≥ 1 .)
2 a+b

1) Arithmetic mean: Since the line segment OC is the

AB a+b
radius, OC = =
2 2
At the RSM Foundation, we believe that
there is no such thing as a “math person.”
When introduced logically, slowly, and with excitement,
all children can learn math and appreciate its beauty and
importance in the world around them.
But what is math? It’s more than numbers and calculation. From identifying the fastest
line in the supermarket to helping a knight slay a dragon with instantly regenerating
heads, math is a pathway to higher-level thinking and reasoning. It provides the
tools you need to analyze, understand, and solve complex problems. It plays a
critical role in the development of logical thinking in young minds.

Have suggestions or questions about MPower! ?

Please email mpower@rsmfoundation.org

Answers can be found at: www.rsmfoundation.org/mpower