2013 AMC 10B Problem 17

Attempt Problem 17 of the 2013 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 2013 AMC 10B solutions, or check the answer key.

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17.

Alex has 7575 red tokens and 7575 blue tokens. There is a booth where Alex can give two red tokens and receive in return a silver token and a blue token, and another booth where Alex can give three blue tokens and receive in return a silver token and a red token. Alex continues to exchange tokens until no more exchanges are possible. How many silver tokens will Alex have at the end?

62 62

82 82

83 83

102 102

103 103

Answer: E
Concepts:Diophantine Equationinvariantprocess simulation
Difficulty rating: 1970
Solution:

Suppose Alex makes mm exchanges at the red-token booth and nn exchanges at the blue-token booth.

He then has 752m+n75-2m+n red tokens and 75+m3n75+m-3n blue tokens. At the end he must have fewer than 22 red tokens and fewer than 33 blue tokens.

Solving these terminal possibilities gives only two candidate final token counts: (1,2)(1,2), which comes from (m,n)=(59,44)(m,n)=(59,44), or (0,0)(0,0), which comes from (m,n)=(60,45)(m,n)=(60,45).

The final count (0,0)(0,0) is impossible, because the last exchange would always create either one blue token or one red token.

The final count (1,2)(1,2) is attainable. Starting from (75,75)(75,75) red and blue tokens, make 2525 blue-booth exchanges, then 5050 red-booth exchanges, then 1616 blue-booth exchanges, then 88 red-booth exchanges, then 33 blue-booth exchanges, and finally 11 red-booth exchange. The red-blue counts become (100,0),(0,50),(16,2),(0,10),(3,1),(1,2). \begin{aligned} &(100,0),(0,50),(16,2),\\ &(0,10),(3,1),(1,2). \end{aligned}

Therefore Alex ends with 59+44=10359+44=103 silver tokens, and the correct answer is E .

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