2008 AIME II Exam Solutions
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All of the real AMC 8, AMC 10, AMC 12, and AIME problems in our complete solution collection are used with official legal permission of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA).
1.
Let where the additions and subtractions alternate in pairs. Find the remainder when is divided by
Difficulty rating: 1890
Solution:
Group the terms four at a time. For the block ending at is using the difference of squares with twice.
Summing over to so the remainder when is divided by is
2.
Rudolph bikes at a constant rate and stops for a five-minute break at the end of every mile. Jennifer bikes at a constant rate which is three-quarters the rate that Rudolph bikes, but Jennifer takes a five-minute break at the end of every two miles. Jennifer and Rudolph begin biking at the same time and arrive at the -mile mark at exactly the same time. How many minutes has it taken them?
Difficulty rating: 2020
Solution:
Let Rudolph bike at miles per minute. He rests after each of miles through so his total time is minutes. Jennifer bikes at miles per minute and rests after each of miles so her total time is minutes.
Setting the times equal gives and The common time is minutes.
3.
A block of cheese in the shape of a rectangular solid measures cm by cm by cm. Ten slices are cut from the cheese. Each slice has a width of cm and is cut parallel to one face of the cheese. The individual slices are not necessarily parallel to each other. What is the maximum possible volume in cubic cm of the remaining block of cheese after ten slices have been cut off?
Difficulty rating: 1970
Solution:
Every slice is cm wide and parallel to a face, so after each cut the remaining cheese is still a rectangular block, with one dimension shortened by If the ten slices shorten the three dimensions by and with the remaining block measures and these dimensions sum to
By the AM-GM inequality, a product of positive numbers with fixed sum is greatest when all three are equal to which is achieved by taking slice from the cm dimension, from the cm dimension, and from the cm dimension. The maximum volume is cubic cm.
4.
There exist unique nonnegative integers and unique integers with each either or such that Find
Difficulty rating: 2350
Solution:
In base that is, To convert the digits into coefficients use The two adjacent digits collapse neatly: and
Therefore which has distinct exponents and coefficients as required. The sum of the exponents is
5.
In trapezoid with let and Let and and be the midpoints of and respectively. Find the length
Difficulty rating: 2480
Solution:
Extend legs and until they meet at a point Since triangle has a right angle at Because triangle is the image of triangle under a homothety centered at so the midpoint of maps to the midpoint of in particular and are collinear.
The median to the hypotenuse of a right triangle is half the hypotenuse, so and Therefore
6.
The sequence is defined by
The sequence is defined by
Find
Difficulty rating: 2460
Solution:
Dividing the recurrence by gives so the consecutive-term ratio increases by exactly each step. For the first ratio is so and The same computation applies to whose first ratio is so and
Therefore
7.
Let and be the three roots of the equation Find
Difficulty rating: 2410
Solution:
The cubic has no term, so by Vieta's formulas. Hence and and the desired sum is
Whenever the identity gives By Vieta's formulas, so and the answer is
8.
Let Find the smallest positive integer such that is an integer.
Difficulty rating: 2740
Solution:
By the product-to-sum identity, Summing over to the terms telescope, leaving
A sine is an integer only when it is or that is, when its argument is a multiple of So we need to be a multiple of i.e. where and is prime.
Since and are coprime, must divide one of them, so For the product is not divisible by For the product is divisible by The smallest such is
9.
A particle is located on the coordinate plane at Define a move for the particle as a counterclockwise rotation of radians about the origin followed by a translation of units in the positive -direction. Given that the particle's position after moves is find the greatest integer less than or equal to
Difficulty rating: 2840
Solution:
Identify the plane with the complex plane, so a move sends to with Starting from and iterating,
Since and we get In the geometric sum, every block of consecutive powers adds to so the terms reduce to Therefore
Thus and the greatest integer less than or equal to this is
10.
The diagram below shows a rectangular array of points, each of which is unit away from its nearest neighbors.
Define a growing path to be a sequence of distinct points of the array with the property that the distance between consecutive points of the sequence is strictly increasing. Let be the maximum possible number of points in a growing path, and let be the number of growing paths consisting of exactly points. Find
Difficulty rating: 3060
Solution:
The squared distance between two points of the array is where and are the coordinate differences, each in and not both zero. The possible values are — only values — so a growing path has at most points, and a path with points must use all nine distances in increasing order. Label its points so that and
Since is realized only by opposite corners, there are ordered choices of Next, leaves choices for the two neighbors of symmetric across the main diagonal. From there the distances force uniquely (for the alternative corner choice fails because the point needed next for would coincide with or ). Finally must be at distance from and of its neighbors are unused. One of the resulting paths is shown below.
Hence and so
11.
In triangle and Circle has radius and is tangent to and Circle is externally tangent to circle and is tangent to and No point of circle lies outside of The radius of circle can be expressed in the form where and are positive integers and is the product of distinct primes. Find
Difficulty rating: 2990
Solution:
Place and the altitude from has length so Then and A circle of radius tangent to and to a slanted side has its center on the bisector from that base vertex, at height and horizontal distance from the vertex. Thus and where is the radius of circle
External tangency means Since this becomes i.e. which simplifies to so
The root would make circle extend outside the triangle, so Here and giving
12.
There are two distinguishable flagpoles, and there are flags, of which are identical blue flags, and are identical green flags. Let be the number of distinguishable arrangements using all of the flags in which each flagpole has at least one flag and no two green flags on either pole are adjacent. Find the remainder when is divided by
Difficulty rating: 3060
Solution:
Suppose the first pole gets blue and green flags, the second the remaining blue and green. On a pole with blue flags, the green flags must occupy distinct gaps among the gaps around the blues, in ways. Temporarily ignoring the requirement that each pole be nonempty, the total is where the inner sum collapses by Vandermonde's identity, since
The arrangements that leave a pole empty put all flags on one pole, in ways for each choice of pole. Hence and the remainder when is divided by is
13.
A regular hexagon with center at the origin in the complex plane has opposite pairs of sides one unit apart. One pair of sides is parallel to the imaginary axis. Let be the region outside the hexagon, and let Then the area of has the form where and are positive integers. Find
Difficulty rating: 3370
Solution:
The hexagon's sides lie at distance from the origin, with one side on the line so is the union of the six half-planes obtained by rotating by multiples of If then is equivalent to i.e. So each half-plane maps onto an open unit disk, and is the union of six unit disks centered at the sixth roots of unity.
Cut the plane into six wedges by the rays at angles by symmetry, within each wedge coincides with the disk whose center lies in that wedge. The rays at meet the circle at so the piece of in that wedge consists of two triangles with vertices at the center and one of these points — each isosceles with two sides and apex angle area — together with the sector of the disk between them, area
Each wedge therefore contributes and the total area is Thus and
14.
Let and be positive real numbers with Let be the maximum possible value of for which the system of equations has a solution satisfying and Then can be expressed as a fraction where and are relatively prime positive integers. Find
Difficulty rating: 3270
Solution:
Draw the rectangle with vertices and let on and on Then and so the system says exactly that triangle is equilateral, with the constraints keeping and on those two sides.
Let so and Since and the corner angle at is we get so and Setting gives which is increasing in The requirement forces
The maximum is therefore at where attained with and Hence and
15.
Find the largest integer satisfying the following conditions: (i) can be expressed as the difference of two consecutive cubes; (ii) is a perfect square.
Difficulty rating: 3160
Solution:
Condition (i) says for some integer Multiplying by and rearranging, i.e. The factors on the left are consecutive odd numbers, hence coprime, so one of them is a perfect square and the other is times a square. If then would be a perfect square, which is impossible. Hence with odd.
Writing gives Condition (ii) says so The two factors have the same parity, so both are even: the pairs give of which the odd values yield (so ) and (so ).
For indeed (here as required), and So the largest such is