50th AHSME 1999 2

1. 1 − 2 + 3 − 4 + · · · − 98 + 99 =

(A) −50 (B) −49 (C) 0 (D) 49 (E) 50

2. Which one of the following statements is false?

(A) All equilateral triangles are congruent to each other.

(B) All equilateral triangles are convex.
(C) All equilateral triangles are equiangular.
(D) All equilateral triangles are regular polygons.
(E) All equilateral triangles are similar to each other.

3. The number halfway between 1/8 and 1/10 is

1 1 1 1 9
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)
80 40 18 9 80

4. Find the sum of all prime numbers between 1 and 100 that are simultaneously
1 greater than a multiple of 4 and 1 less than a multiple of 5.

(A) 118 (B) 137 (C) 158 (D) 187 (E) 245

5. The marked price of a book was 30% less than the suggested retail price. Alice
purchased the book for half the marked price at a Fiftieth Anniversary sale.
What percent of the suggested retail price did Alice pay?

(A) 25% (B) 30% (C) 35% (D) 60% (E) 65%

6. What is the sum of the digits of the decimal form of the product 21999 · 52001 ?

(A) 2 (B) 4 (C) 5 (D) 7 (E) 10

7. What is the largest number of acute angles that a convex hexagon can have?

(A) 2 (B) 3 (C) 4 (D) 5 (E) 6

 50th AHSME 1999 3

8. At the end of 1994 Walter was half as old as his grandmother. The sum of the
years in which they were born is 3838. How old will Walter be at the end of
1999?

(A) 48 (B) 49 (C) 53 (D) 55 (E) 101

9. Before Ashley started a three-hour drive, her car’s odometer reading was
29792, a palindrome. (A palindrome is a number that reads the same way
from left to right as it does from right to left.) At her destination, the odome-
ter reading was another palindrome. If Ashley never exceeded the speed limit
of 75 miles per hour, which of the following was her greatest possible average
speed?
1 1 2 1 1
(A) 33 (B) 53 (C) 66 (D) 70 (E) 74
3 3 3 3 3
10. A sealed envelope contains a card with a single digit on it. Three of the
following statements are true, and the other is false.
I. The digit is 1.
II. The digit is not 2.
III. The digit is 3.
IV. The digit is not 4.
Which one of the following must necessarily be correct?

(A) I is true. (B) I is false. (C) II is true. (D) III is true.

(E) IV is false.

11. The student lockers at Olympic High are numbered consecutively beginning
with locker number 1. The plastic digits used to number the lockers cost two
cents apiece. Thus, it costs two cents to label locker number 9 and four cents
to label locker number 10. If it costs $137.94 to label all the lockers, how many
lockers are there at the school?

(A) 2001 (B) 2010 (C) 2100 (D) 2726 (E) 6897

12. What is the maximum number of points of intersection of the graphs of two
different fourth degree polynomial functions y = p(x) and y = q(x), each with
leading coefficient 1?

(A) 1 (B) 2 (C) 3 (D) 4 (E) 8

 50th AHSME 1999 4

13. Define a sequence of real numbers a1 , a2 , a3 , . . . by a1 = 1 and a3n+1 = 99a3n for

all n ≥ 1. Then a100 equals

(A) 3333 (B) 3399 (C) 9933 (D) 9999 (E) none of these

14. Four girls — Mary, Alina, Tina, and Hanna — sang songs in a concert as trios,
with one girl sitting out each time. Hanna sang 7 songs, which was more than
any other girl, and Mary sang 4 songs, which was fewer than any other girl.
How many songs did these trios sing?

(A) 7 (B) 8 (C) 9 (D) 10 (E) 11

15. Let x be a real number such that sec x − tan x = 2. Then sec x + tan x =

(A) 0.1 (B) 0.2 (C) 0.3 (D) 0.4 (E) 0.5

16. What is the radius of a circle inscribed in a rhombus with diagonals of length
10 and 24?

(A) 4 (B) 58/13 (C) 60/13 (D) 5 (E) 6

17. Let P (x) be a polynomial such that when P (x) is divided by x − 19, the
remainder is 99, and when P (x) is divided by x − 99, the remainder is 19.
What is the remainder when P (x) is divided by (x − 19)(x − 99)?

(A) −x + 80 (B) x + 80 (C) −x + 118 (D) x + 118 (E) 0

18. How many zeros does f (x) = cos(log(x)) have on the interval 0 < x < 1?

(A) 0 (B) 1 (C) 2 (D) 10 (E) infinitely many

19. Consider all triangles ABC satisfying the following A

• ....
.. ..
.. ..
.. ....
conditions: AB = AC, D is a point on AC for which .
..
. ..
..
.. ..
..
BD ⊥ AC, AD and CD are integers, and BD2 = 57. .
.
..
..
..
..
..
..
.. ..
.. ..
Among all such triangles, the smallest possible value .
.
..
.
.
..
.. . •D
..
....
........ ...
. ............. . ..
of AC is .
. ..
..........
• •
..
..

B C
(A) 9 (B) 10 (C) 11 (D) 12 (E) 13
 50th AHSME 1999 5

20. The sequence a1 , a2 , a3 , . . . satisfies a1 = 19, a9 = 99, and, for all n ≥ 3, an is

the arithmetic mean of the first n − 1 terms. Find a2 .

(A) 29 (B) 59 (C) 79 (D) 99 (E) 179

21. A circle is circumscribed about a triangle with sides 20, 21, and 29, thus divid-
ing the interior of the circle into four regions. Let A, B, and C be the areas
of the non-triangular regions, with C being the largest. Then

(A) A + B = C (B) A + B + 210 = C (C) A2 + B 2 = C 2

1 1 1
(D) 20A + 21B = 29C (E) 2
+ 2 = 2
A B C

22. The graphs of y = −|x − a| + b and y = |x − c| + d intersect at points (2, 5)

and (8, 3). Find a + c.

(A) 7 (B) 8 (C) 10 (D) 13 (E) 18

23. The equiangular convex hexagon ABCDEF has AB = 1, BC = 4, CD = 2,

and DE = 4. The area of the hexagon is
15 √ √ 39 √ 43 √
(A) 3 (B) 9 3 (C) 16 (D) 3 (E) 3
2 4 4

24. Six points on a circle are given. Four of the chords joining pairs of the six
points are selected at random. What is the probability that the four chords
are the sides of a convex quadrilateral?
1 1 1 1 1
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)
15 91 273 455 1365

25. There are unique integers a2 , a3 , a4 , a5 , a6 , a7 such that

5 a2 a3 a4 a5 a6 a7
= + + + + + ,
7 2! 3! 4! 5! 6! 7!
where 0 ≤ ai < i for i = 2, 3, . . . , 7. Find a2 + a3 + a4 + a5 + a6 + a7 .

(A) 8 (B) 9 (C) 10 (D) 11 (E) 12

 50th AHSME 1999 6

26. Three non-overlapping regular plane polygons, at least two of which are con-
gruent, all have sides of length 1. The polygons meet at a point A in such
a way that the sum of the three interior angles at A is 360◦ . Thus the three
polygons form a new polygon with A as an interior point. What is the largest
possible perimeter that this polygon can have?

(A) 12 (B) 14 (C) 18 (D) 21 (E) 24

27. In triangle ABC, 3 sin A + 4 cos B = 6 and 4 sin B + 3 cos A = 1. Then 6 C

in degrees is

(A) 30 (B) 60 (C) 90 (D) 120 (E) 150

28. Let x1 , x2 , . . . , xn be a sequence of integers such that

(i) −1 ≤ xi ≤ 2, for i = 1, 2, 3, . . . , n;
(ii) x1 + x2 + · · · + xn = 19; and
(iii) x21 + x22 + · · · + x2n = 99.
Let m and M be the minimal and maximal possible values of x31 +x32 +· · ·+x3n ,
respectively. Then M/m =

(A) 3 (B) 4 (C) 5 (D) 6 (E) 7

29. A tetrahedron with four equilateral triangular faces has a sphere inscribed
within it and a sphere circumscribed about it. For each of the four faces, there
is a sphere tangent externally to the face at its center and to the circumscribed
sphere. A point P is selected at random inside the circumscribed sphere. The
probability that P lies inside one of the five small spheres is closest to

(A) 0 (B) 0.1 (C) 0.2 (D) 0.3 (E) 0.4

30. The number of ordered pairs of integers (m, n) for which mn ≥ 0 and

m3 + n3 + 99mn = 333

is equal to

(A) 2 (B) 3 (C) 33 (D) 35 (E) 99