SOLUTIONS TO PRISM PROBLEMS

Junior Level 2011

1. (E)
1  1  1  1  1  5, which is not 4.

2. (D)
The number of days in February is not 24, but rather 28, and 29 in leap years.

3. (E)
One was is to convert each fraction into a decimal (from which one will see that
9  0. 81818. . . is the largest of the given fractions. some students might get
11
the lowest common multiple (LCM) of all of the denominators of all of he
fractions. This however tedious because 7  4  9  5  11  13,860 is the
smallest number into which all of the denominators of the fractions will go.

4. (B)
Any selection of three beads will contain either all red beads, all blue beads, 2
red beads and 1 blue bead, or else 2 blue beads and 1 red bead.There are thus

4 ways in all.
Note on distinguishable beads: If the beads were distinguishable (e.g. if each
bead had a unique number written on it), we’d need to know the total number of
beads of each colour, and we’d then preform the enumeration by partitioning as
above and using the product of binomial coefficients to evaluate each term.
Aside:The binomial coefficient nr , sometimes denoted nCr , is given by the
n! nn − 1. . . n − r  1
formula nr  or equivalently as . It has a
r!n − r! 1  2 . . . . r
number of representations, including being the number of ways of choosing a
committee of r people from n people when order of individuals within each
selected committee is not important. Of course, m!  mm − 1m − 2. . . 321
represents the number of ways of arranging m distinct objects in a row.
Now suppose the beads are distinguishable and that there are, for example, 5
red and 6 blue beads in all. Then the number of ways of getting all red beads
would be the number of ways of choosing 3 red beads from 5 red beads and no

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blue bead from the 6 blue beads. This would be
5 6  5 1  5!  5  4  3  2  1  10. One would
3 0 3 3!5 − 3! 32121
similarly evaluate the number of ways of getting all blue beads to be 20, 2 red
beads and 1 blue bead to equal 60, and 2 blue beads and 1 red bead as 75.
Thus if there were 5 red and 6 blue beads in all and if all beads were
distinguishable, the number of different selections of three beads would then be
10  20  60  75  165.

5. (B)
Let A denote Anne’s current age and let B be Bob’s current age. Since Anne is
five years older than Bob, we have A  B  5. Also, since two years ago, Ann’s
age was A − 2 and Bob’s age was B − 2, we have A − 2  2B − 2.
One way of proceeding is now to substituting A  B  5 into A − 2  2B − 2,
thus eliminating one of the unknowns A. This gives B  5 − 2  2B − 2. We
now solve this equation for B. We have B  3  2B − 4, so 3  4  2B − B, so
B  7. From A  B  5, we then get B  7  5  12.

6. (B)
Let x be the number of questions on the English test. Since Pat got 40% in the
maths test, he must have got 40% of 10 questions correct, i.e. he got 4
questions right on the Maths test. Hence he also got 4 questions correct on the
English test. . Since he scored 80% on the English test, we have that 60% of
the number of English test questions equals 4, so the number of English test
questions is 5.

7. (B)
Let l denote the length of a longer side and s is the length of a shorter side. We
are given that the perimeter is 36, so l  l  s  s  36, i.e. 2l  2s  36 or
l  s  18. We are also given that the sum of the lengths of the two longer sides
is equal to eight times the sum of the lengths of the two shorter sides, i.e. that
2l  8  2s, i.e. l  8s. Substituting l  8s into l  s  18, we get 8s  s  18, so
s  2.

8. (C)
If c denotes the length of the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle and a and b
denote the lengths of the other two sides, we have by Pythagoras’ Theorem that
c 2  a 2  b 2 . It is easy to see that of the five given choices, only choice (C) 2,3,4

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fails this equation. In fact 4 2  16 while 2 2  3 2  4  9  13.

9. (B)
The two-digit multiples of 3 and 7 are 3  7  21, 2  3  7  42, 3  3  7  63
and 4  3  7  42  84, so the answer is 4. Note that the next multiple is
5  3  7  102 but this is not a two-digit number.

10. (C)
If a is the lengthwidthheight of the cube, we have a 3  24. If we halve each of
3 3
the three dimensions, the new volume will be 1 a  a  24  3.
2 8 8

11. (E)
We see that each of the three given points (0,10), (5,0) and (10,-10) fall on the
line y  −2x  10, because 0  −210  10, 0  −250  10 and
−10  −210  10. However, one can also check that not all of the the three
points falls on any of the other four given lines. For example, the point 0, 10
does not fall on the line y  x − 20 because 10 ≠ 0 − 20.

12. (D)
Let A and B denotes the amounts of money possessed by Ann and Breda,
respectively. We are given that A  B  21 and A − 2  2B  2, i.e. A − 2B  6.
Solving these two simultaneous equations gives A  16 and B  5.

13. (E)
There are an infinite number of circles. Start with any point O on L and draw a
circle of radius length ||UO||, the distance between U and O. Note that this circle
will go through the point V because V and U are equidistant from the line L and
hence from O.
Note: Students who think the answer to this question is 1 presumably believe
that the only possible circle is one whose centre is at the point of intersection of
the line L and the line joining U and V.

14. (E)
Since Bart and Charlie live 5 miles apart, Charlie’s home can be located
anywhere on the circle of radius 5 shown below.

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The points on the circle all lie somewhere between 2 and 8 kms from point A.
For the nearest and farthest distances of C from A, notice that if Charlie lives at
point C’, he would be only 2 kms from Andy, while if he lives at point C”, he
would be 8 kms from Andy.

15. (E)
−m −n −m −n
The equation 4  3 is the same as 4 3  3 2 or 4 −m  4 2  3 3  3 −n , so
27 16 3 4
4 2−m
 3 . Since the left side is a power of an even number and the right side
3−n

is a power of an odd number, the only way the identity can hold true is if each of
the two exponents 2 − m and 3 − n is 0. Thus m  2 and n  3.

16. (E) We drop a perpendicular AE from A to DC.

||AE||
Then sin(∠ADE)  and we now first calculate each of the lengths ||AE||
||AD||
and ||AD||.
Since ||AB|| 3||AD|| and the perimeter of ABCD is 80m,we have 2||AD|| 
2  3||AD|| 80, so ||AD|| 10 and ||AB|| 3  10  30.
Since also the area of ABCD is 200, we have ||AE||||AB|| 240, so
||AE|| 240  8.
30
||AE||
Hence finally sin(ADE)  8  4
||AD|| 10 5

17. (D) For every metre run by Ann, Betty will run 180  0. 9 of a metre. For
200
every metre run by Betty, Cathy runs 150  0. 75 of a metre. Hence for every
200
metre run by Ann, Cathy will run 0. 9  0. 75  0. 675 of a metre. Hence when

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Ann has reached the finishing line (i.e. covered 200m), Cathy will have covered
0.675200  135 metres. Thus Ann beat Cathy by 200 − 135  65 metres.

18. (A)
Since the sum of the angles in any triangle is 180 ∘ , we have from the triangle
ABC that the angle ABC must be 180 − 92 − 42  46. Then in the triangle EBD,
we have 111  46  angle EDB  180, we have angle EDB  23.
Hence x  180 − 23  157.

19. (E)
Let x be the speed of the cyclist in still air and let w be the speed of the wind.
x.
We want t evaluate the ratio w
The actual speed of the cyclist in the direction of the wind is then x  w and the
actual speed of the cyclist going against the wind is x − w. Recall that average
distance travelled
speed 
time taken

so
distance travelled  (average speed)(time taken) (*)
Since the distance the cyclist travels from A to B is the same as from B to A, we
have from (*)
(speed of cyclist from A to B)(time taken to travel from A to B) 
(speed of cyclist from B to A)(time taken to travel from B to A).
Thus,x  w30  x − w40.
Hence 10x  70w, and so w x  7.

20. (A)
One way of proceeding is to first constgruct the line AC shown below.

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Since the triangle ABC has a right-angle at B, we have by Pythagoras’
Theorem, ||AC|| 2  10 2  10 2  200. Now in the triangle ACD, note that the
sm of squares of th elengths of the sides CD and AD is
||CD|| 2  ||AD|| 2  2 2  14 2  4  196  200. Bus as just shown, 200 is the
squared lenght of AC. Thus the triangle ACD is also a right-angle triangle. We
recall that the area of a right-angle triangle is one-half the bas times the
perpendicular height.
The area of the quadrilateral is then the sum of the areas of the triangles ABC
and ACD, and this is
1  10  10  1  2  14  64 m 2 .
2 2