Question

Mary divides a circle into $12$ sectors. The central angles of these sectors, measured in degrees, are all integers and they form an arithmetic sequence. What is the degree measure of the smallest possible sector angle?

$5$

$6$

$8$

$10$

$12$

Answer: C

Concepts:arithmetic sequence Diophantine Equation optimization

Difficulty rating: 1420

Solution:

Let $a$ be the smallest possible sector angle and $d$ be the difference in the arithmetic sequence.

Then we have that $\dfrac{12}{2}(a + a + 11d) = 12a + 66d$ is the sum of the arithmetic sequence.

We have that this sums to $360,$ so $12a + 66d = 360$ $2a + 11d = 60.$

We want to minimize $a,$ so we maximize $d.$ If $d = 5,$ then $a$ is not an integer, so $d = 4$ and $a = 8.$

Thus, C is the correct answer.

2012 AMC 10A Problem 10

Answer: C

Difficulty rating: 1420

Solution:

Problem 10 in Other Years