AUSTRALIAN

INFORMATICS
COMPETITION
Thursday 10 May 2012

Junior Paper
Years 7 & 8
Name:

INSTRUCTIONS
• Do not open the competition paper until told to do so.
• Maintain silence at all times.
• Do not bring mobile phones into the room.
• You may use calculators and printed language dictionaries.
• You may NOT borrow equipment without a supervisor’s permission.
• There are 15 questions. Questions 1 – 6 are multiple-choice with five possible answers given.
Questions 7 – 15 require a three-digit answer. Attempt all questions. Penalties do not apply.
• You are allowed working time of one hour (60 minutes). There is no extra reading time.
• This is a competition not a test; do not expect to answer all questions.
• Diagrams are NOT drawn to scale. They are intended only as aids.
• The questions have been thoroughly checked. Each question stands as written. No further
explanation of questions can be provided.
• You must not leave your seat. If you have any other questions or problems, please raise your hand
and wait for a supervisor.
• If you wish to leave the room a supervisor must accompany you.
• Record all your answers on the answer sheet provided.
• Use B or 2B lead pencils only. Ball point and ink pen markings may not activate the optical scanner.
• Do not make any other marks on the answer sheet as these may make the sheet unreadable.
• If you make an error, use a plastic eraser to completely remove all lead marks and smudges.
• Check that the number of the answer you are filling in is the same as the number of the question
you are answering. This is particularly important if you decide to leave a question blank.
• To ensure the integrity of the competition and to identify outstanding students, the AMT reserves
the right to re-examine students before deciding whether to grant official status to their score.

© 2012 AMT Publishing amtt limited acn 083 950 341

Australian Informatics Competition 2012 (Junior) 1

Part A: Questions 1–6

Each question should be answered by a single choice from A to E.
Questions are worth 3 points each.

1. Fireworks
Vera, Steve, Tim and Xiu are watching the new year fireworks from
their respective homes. At midnight, a sequence of starburst fireworks
is set off, one after the other. Each starburst is a single colour, red (R),
blue (B), yellow (Y) or green (G).
Due to trees and buildings in the way, no-one sees all of the fireworks.
However, they all record the colours of the fireworks they do see, in
the order that they see them. Later, they compare notes and try to work
out what would have been seen by someone at the event.
Vera saw B B Y G Y Y
Steve saw R G Y R Y
Tim saw R B B R G
Xiu saw B B G Y Y Y
Which of the following sequences is consistent with what they saw?
(A) R B B G Y R G Y Y
(B) R B B G Y R B Y Y
(C) B G B R Y R G Y Y
(D) B R B G Y R G Y Y
(E) R B G B Y R G Y Y
Australian Informatics Competition 2012 (Junior) 2

2. Stepping Stones
On your way home you have to cross a river using stepping stones. You can step 1 or 2
metres, and consider it a point of honour to step on as few stones as possible. But you
only step forward or sideways. Your elder brother has told you that you are likely to slip
if you step diagonally. You don’t believe him, of course, but you would rather not risk it.

What is the fewest number of stones you will have to step upon? (The dotted lines are 1
metre apart.)

(A) 6 (B) 7 (C) 8 (D) 9 (E) 10

Australian Informatics Competition 2012 (Junior) 3

3. Robot Guessers
Alan, Beth, Con, Dan and Eve have programmed their pet robots to play a guessing game.
The robots have to find a number between 10 and 99, by being told whether its guesses
were too high, too low or correct. Each of the robots found the number 17 in 8 guesses:
Alan’s robot 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
Beth’s robot 90 70 50 30 10 20 19 17
Con’s robot 10 99 50 30 20 15 16 17
Dan’s robot 50 20 10 25 15 19 18 17
Eve’s robot 90 10 50 20 11 13 16 17
Clearly their strategy was not always very good. But only one of the robots made a logic
error.
Whose robot was it?

(A) Alan’s (B) Beth’s (C) Con’s (D) Dan’s (E) Eve’s

4. Maths Test
Kim says to David, ‘My mark in the maths test is exactly halfway between yours and
Lee’s’. Intrigued, David decides to check out whether he could say the same.
His mark was 70 and his classmates’ marks were:
52 58 58 60 62 62 62 66 66 66 68 68 72 76 78 80 82 82 84 86

To how many pairs of his classmates could David say ‘My mark was halfway between
your two marks’?

(A) 6 (B) 7 (C) 8 (D) 9 (E) 10

Australian Informatics Competition 2012 (Junior) 4

5. Hexagon Paths
On your morning run you pass through a park where the paths are laid out in hexagons.

You always run left to right.

How many possible routes are there through the park?

(A) 8 (B) 12 (C) 16 (D) 20 (E) 24

6. Collapsing Bridges
A marshy area has several routes through it, with bridges over the wetter areas. However,
the bridges have not been maintained, and a convoy of trucks is about to cross. Engi-
neers have assessed each bridge to determine how many trucks can pass over it before it
becomes too unsafe.

3 1
≡ ≡
≡

5 4 2
≡ ≡
≡

≡ 5 3
≡
3

≡
≡ 4
6
≡
2

How many trucks can safely make their way through the marsh?

(A) 6 (B) 8 (C) 10 (D) 13 (E) 16

Australian Informatics Competition 2012 (Junior) 5

Part B: Questions 7–15

Each question should be answered by a number in the range 0–999.
Questions are worth 2 points each.

7–9. Polly Nomial

Miss Polly Nomial walks into a maze of hexagonal cells. Each cell has a unique number.
She starts from the leftmost cell. From any cell, she can move to either the adjacent
cell with the largest number, or the adjacent cell with the second largest number. (Two
adjacent cells must share an edge.) No other moves are permitted.
In the following mazes, how many cells can Polly reach?
(Include the one where she begins.)

6
1 5 11
4 5 12 2 10
6 2 9 4 5 9
8 3 1 3
7 8
7. 8.

1
3 11
13 12 7
2 14 9 16
6 4 8
10 5
15
9.
Australian Informatics Competition 2012 (Junior) 6

10–12. Recent URLs

Katy has been researching gemstones on the web. She notices that whenever she clicks
on a link, it moves up one place on the list of recent URLs.
For each of the following sessions, what is the fewest number of clicks required to change
the before list to the after list?

10. 11.
before after before after
Agate Garnet Agate Garnet
Beryl Fluorite Beryl Beryl
Carnelian Emerald Carnelian Carnelian
Diamond Diamond Diamond Diamond
Emerald Carnelian Emerald Emerald
Fluorite Beryl Fluorite Fluorite
Garnet Agate Garnet Agate

12.
before after
Agate Emerald
Beryl Diamond
Carnelian Beryl
Diamond Garnet
Emerald Agate
Fluorite Fluorite
Garnet Carnelian

13–15. Village Meeting

In the village of St Mary’s Mead, the cottages are strung out one furlong apart. A village
meeting is to be held at one of the cottages. They decide to meet at the cottage that
minimises the total distance walked by the villagers. For instance, if 3 villagers each had
to walk 2 furlongs, and 5 had to walk 1 furlong, the total distance walked would be 11
furlongs.
What is the smallest total number of furlongs the villagers will have to walk in each of
the following villages? The lists give the number of people living in each cottage, from
left to right.

13. 2 3 1 1 1 1 2

14. 4 2 1 3 3 4 1 3

15. 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 4 2
 2012 AIC Answers
Question Junior
1 A
2 B
3 D
4 E
5 D
6 A
7 7
8 8
9 7
10 21
11 11
12 12
13 21
14 42
15 56
THE AUSTRALIAN INFORMATICS COMPETITION
BOOK 1 2005-2010

Junior Paper
This book contains the questions, solutions and statistics from the 2005-2010 Australian
Informatics Competition papers. The questions are grouped by category, and the book
includes an explanation of each category and its relevance. Within a category, there may
be several problem types, each of which also has an introduction, including practical
applications and an outline of the method of solution.

Available from the Australian Mathematics Trust website www.amt.edu.au for $42.00 each.

A ustralian M athematics T rust