THE HARMONY SOUTH AFRICAN

MATHEMATICS OLYMPIAD

Organised by the SOUTH AFRICAN MATHEMATICS FOUNDATION

Sponsored by HARMONY GOLD MINING

FIRST ROUND 2007

SENIOR SECTION: GRADES 10, 11 AND 12
20 MARCH 2007
TIME: 60 MINUTES
NUMBER OF QUESTIONS: 20

ANSWERS
1. Answer D
2. Answer B
3. Answer E
4. Answer D
5. Answer E
6. Answer D
7. Answer E
8. Answer B
9. Answer E
10. Answer A
11. Answer D
12. Answer C
13. Answer D
14. Answer B
15. Answer D
16. Answer B
17. Answer B
18. Answer E
19. Answer D
20. Answer E
 SOLUTIONS

1. Answer D. R16 for 80 grams means R2 for 10 grams, therefore R200 for 1000 grams, which
is one kilogram.

2. Answer B. There are 80 × 3 = 240 sandwiches. The first people take five sandwiches each,
so the sandwiches are finished after 240 ÷ 5 = 48 people have helped themselves. That leaves
80 − 48 = 32 people who do not get any sandwiches.

3. Answer E. If the attendance doubles every school day, then each day’s attendance is half of
the next day’s attendance (until the class is full). Therefore the class was half full one day
earlier, on 17 January.

4. Answer D. For each 100 mℓ, the fat content is reduced from 3.4 g to 0.5 g, so 2.9 g is
removed. The proportion of fat that is removed is 2.9/3.4 ≈ 0.85 = 85%.

5. Answer E. First, a2 = 2a1 + a0 = 2 × 0 + 2 = 2, then a3 = 2a2 + a1 = 2 × 2 + 0 = 4, then

a4 = 2a3 + a2 = 2 × 4 + 2 = 10, and finally a5 = 2a4 + a3 = 2 × 10 + 4 = 24.

6. Answer D. The sum of all 25 numbers in the magic square is 1 + 2 + 3 + · · · + 24 + 25 =

1
2 × 25 × 26 = 325. The 25 numbers form five rows (or five columns), all of which have the
same sum, so the sum of the numbers in one row (or column) is 325 ÷ 5 = 65.
√ q √
7. Answer E. The radius r = OD = OE 2 + ED2 = OE 2 + ( 21 CD)2 = 22 + 42 =
√ √
20 = 2 5. (Note that ED = 21 CD since E is the midpoint of CD.) The circumference
√
= 2πr = 4π 5.

8. Answer B. Square both sides to get x4 + 16 = (x2 + 4)2 = x4 + 8x2 + 16, which simplifies
to 8x2 = 0, for which the only solution is x = 0.

9. Answer E. If 20 numbers have an average of 20, then their sum is 20 × 20 = 400. If 9 of

those numbers have an average of 9, then their sum is 9 × 9 = 81. Thus the sum of the
remaining 11 numbers is 400 − 81 = 319, so their average is 319 ÷ 11 = 29.

10. Answer A. If you subtract each term from the next term, then you obtain the sequence
6; −2; 6; −2; 6; −2; x−15; 19−x; 6; . . .. It therefore appears that x−15 = 6 and 19−x = −2,
both of which give the same value x = 21.

11. Answer D. This does not need to be solved exactly — an approximate solution is sufficient.
Suppose the raised bar forms two right-angled triangles. If the distance between the towns is
2d and the extra length is 2x, then the base of one triangle is d and the hypotenuse is d + x.
The height h is given by√h2 = (d + x)2 − d2 = 2dx + x2 ≈ 2dx, since x is much smaller
than√d. Therefore h ≈ √2dx. Working in metres, we have d = 10 000 and x = 0.5, so
h ≈ 2 × 10 000 × 0.5 = 10; 000 = 100.
1
12. Answer C. Each fraction is of the form n+1 n
= 1 − n+1 . The smallest fraction therefore
1
corresponds to the biggest value of n+1 , which corresponds to the smallest denominator,
which is 20042005.

13. Answer D. Let O be the centre of the circle, let P be the centre of the small circle, and
let Q be
√ the point where the two circles touch. If the radius of the small circle is r, then
0P = r 2 (diagonal of a square), and P Q = r. Since OP + P Q = OQ = 8, it follows that
√ √
r( 2 + 1) = 8, so r = √ 8 (which can be simplified to 8( 2 − 1)).
2+1
14. Answer B. Join the centres of the three extreme circles to√form an equilateral triangle whose
sides are of length 20, so by Pythagoras its height is 10 3. The figure
√ extends one radius
above and below this triangle, so the height of the figure is 10 + 10 3.
15. Answer D. It is easy to guess the mother’s age, so you can find the answer by trial and
error. Here is a more focused method. Suppose the mother’s age is m and the daughter’s
age is d. In forming the four-digit number, the mother’s age is moved two places to the left,
which is the same as multiplying it by 100, so the number is 100m + d. We then subtract
m − d to obtain 4202, so we have the equation (100m + d) − (m − d) = 4202. This simplifies
to 99m + 2d = 4202 or 99m = 4202 − 2d. It follows that 4202 − 2d must be divisible by 99,
and the only possibility is 4202 − 2d = 42 × 99 = 4158, so d = (4202 − 4158) ÷ 2 = 22.
16. Answer B. Let the unknown square on the top and right have sides of length x, the square
on the left have sides of length y, and the square on the bottom have sides of length z. Then
from the top and bottom we have 14 + x = 9 + z + 15, so x − z = 10. Similarly, from the
left and right we have 14 + y + 9 = x + 15, so x − y = 8. Then using the 4 × 4 square in the
middle we see that x − 4 = 14, so x = 18. We then have y = 10 and z = 8, so the rectangle
is 33 high by 32 wide, and its area is 33 × 32 = 1056. [You can check the answer by adding
up the areas of all the squares if you really want to.]
17. Answer
√ B. Triangle
√ ABC is right-angled (angle in a semicircle), so by Pythagoras AB =
412 − 402 = 81 = 9. The shaded region is obtained by removing the large semicircle from
the region formed by the triangle and the two smaller semicircles, so (using the formula Area
of semicircle = π8 d2 , we have
π 2
Area of shaded region = Area of triangle + (9 + 402 − 412 ) = Area of triangle,
8
using Pythagoras’ theorem again. Finally, the area of the triangle is 21 × 9 × 40 = 180. [The
two parts of the shaded region are called lunes, because they look like crescent moons. The
fact that the combined area of the two lunes is equal to the area of the triangle is a theorem
due to the ancient Greek mathematician Hippocrates.]
18. Answer E. Since the three numbers each leave the same remainder after division by D, it
follows that the difference between any two of them must be divisible by D. Thus D is a
common factor of 227 − 128 = 99 and of 128 − 73 = 55. The only possibility is D = 11 (since
we are given that D > 1), and 73 = 6 × 11 + 7 so R = 7. Thus D − R = 11 − 7 = 4. [Numbers
that leave the same remainder after division by D are said to be congruent modulo D, and
we write 227 ≡ 128 mod 11.]
19. Answer D. Suppose the large cube has n small cubes along each side, so it contains a total
of n3 small cubes. Since one layer of small cubes is visible on each face, it follows that
there are (n − 2)3 invisible small cubes. We therefore need the smallest value of n such that
(n − 2)3 > 21 n3 , or n3 < 2(n − 2)3 . One way is to draw up a table:
n 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
n3 1 8 27 64 125 216 343 512 729 1000 1331
The first time that a number in the second row is less than twice the number two places
before it is when n = 10, because 1000 < 2 × 512 but 729 > 2 × 343. Thus there are 1000
small cubes in the large cube.
20. Answer E. Triangle CDE is similar to triangle DGE, so DG/GE = CD/DE = 2, since
we are given that E is the midpoint of DA. The area of triangle DGE is 12 × DG × GE =
1 2
2 × 2GE × GE = GE √
. This area is equal to 1, so GE = 1, which gives DG = 2, and by
√
Pythagoras DE√= 5. Therefore each side of the square has length 2 5, and the area of
the square is (2 5)2 = 20.