2002 AMC 10B Problem 8

Attempt Problem 8 of the 2002 AMC 10B below, then check your answer against the professionally curated solution from LIVE by Po-Shen Loh. You can also try the full timed exam, view all 2002 AMC 10B solutions, or check the answer key.

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8.

Suppose July of year NN has five Mondays. Which of the following must occur five times in August of year N?N? (Note: both months have 3131 days.)

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Answer: D
Concepts:date and timemodular arithmeticcasework
Difficulty rating: 1240
Solution:

A 3131-day month is 44 weeks plus 33 extra days, so exactly the weekdays of the 11st, 22nd, and 33rd of the month occur five times.

For July to have five Mondays, Monday must be one of July 1,1, 2,2, or 3.3. In all three cases August 11 lands on a Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday, and the common weekday among the resulting five-time days is Thursday.

More directly, since July has 3131 days, August 11 is the same weekday as July 4.4. With Monday on July 1,1, 2,2, or 3,3, the three five-time weekdays of August always include Thursday.

Thus, the correct answer is D.

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