2015 AMC 10B Exam Problems
Scroll down and press Start to try the exam! Or, go to the printable PDF, answer key, or professional solutions curated by LIVE by Po-Shen Loh.
All of the real AMC 8 and AMC 10 problems in our complete solution collection are used with official permission of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA).
Want to learn professionally through interactive video classes?
Time Left:
1:15:00
1:15:00
1.
What is the value of
Answer: C
Solution:
Since , the expression is
Thus, the correct answer is C.
2.
Marie does three equally time-consuming tasks in a row without taking breaks. She begins the first task at PM and finishes the second task at PM. When does she finish the third task?
3:10 PM
3:30 PM
4:00 PM
4:10 PM
4:30 PM
Answer: B
Solution:
The time it takes to do tasks is minutes. Thus, it takes more minutes after which is
Thus, the correct answer is B .
3.
Isaac has written down one integer two times and another integer three times. The sum of the five numbers is and one of the numbers is What is the other number?
Answer: A
Solution:
Let the number written twice be , and let the number written three times be . Then .
If , then , impossible for an integer . Therefore , and , so .
Thus, the correct answer is A.
4.
Four siblings ordered an extra large pizza. Alex ate Beth and Cyril of the pizza. Dan got the leftovers. What is the sequence of the siblings in decreasing order of the part of the pizza they consumed?
Alex, Beth, Cyril, Dan
Beth, Cyril, Alex, Dan
Beth, Cyril, Dan, Alex
Beth, Dan, Cyril, Alex
Dan, Beth, Cyril, Alex
Answer: C
Solution:
Since we know Beth ate more than Cyril and Cyril ate more than Alex. Thus, those three are in order.
The amount Dan ate is This is greater than and less than so Dan is in between Cyril and Alex. This makes the order Beth, Cyril, Dan, Alex.
Thus, the correct answer is C .
5.
David, Hikmet, Jack, Marta, Rand, and Todd were in a -person race with other people. Rand finished places ahead of Hikmet. Marta finished place behind Jack. David finished places behind Hikmet. Jack finished places behind Todd. Todd finished place behind Rand. Marta finished in th place. Who finished in th place?
David
Hikmet
Jack
Rand
Todd
Answer: B
Solution:
Marta finished 6th, so Jack finished 5th. Since Jack finished 2 places behind Todd, Todd finished 3rd. Since Todd finished 1 place behind Rand, Rand finished 2nd.
Hikmet finished 6 places behind Rand, so Hikmet finished 8th.
Thus, the correct answer is B.
6.
Marley practices exactly one sport each day of the week. She runs three days a week but never on two consecutive days. On Monday she plays basketball and two days later golf. She swims and plays tennis, but she never plays tennis the day after running or swimming. Which day of the week does Marley swim?
Sunday
Tuesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Answer: E
Solution:
Marley plays basketball on Monday and golf on Wednesday. She cannot fit all three running days among Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday without having two consecutive running days, so Tuesday must be a running day.
From Thursday through Sunday, she must run twice, swim once, and play tennis once. Tennis cannot be the day after running or swimming, so tennis must be Thursday. Then the two remaining running days must be Friday and Sunday, leaving Saturday for swimming.
Thus, the correct answer is E.
7.
Consider the operation "minus the reciprocal of," defined by What is
Answer: A
Solution:
Thus, the correct answer is A .
8.
The letter F shown below is rotated clockwise around the origin, then reflected in the -axis, and then rotated a half turn around the origin. What is the final image? \t\t
Answer: E
Solution:
The rotation puts the F under the -axis with its lines going to the right.
Then, note that a half turn is the same as reflecting upon both axes in any order, so it undoes the reflection upon the -axis and reflects it upon the -axis. This means the last two turns just reflects it upon the -axis.
The reflection puts the F above the -axis with its lines going to the right.
Thus, the correct answer is E .
9.
The shaded region below is called a shark's fin falcata, a figure studied by Leonardo da Vinci. It is bounded by the portion of the circle of radius and center that lies in the first quadrant, the portion of the circle with radius and center that lies in the first quadrant, and the line segment from to What is the area of the shark's fin falcata? \t\t
Answer: B
Solution:
The larger boundary is a quarter circle of radius , so its area is .
The inner boundary is the right half of a circle of radius , so its area is .
The shaded area is the difference, .
Thus, the correct answer is B.
10.
What are the sign and units digit of the product of all the odd negative integers strictly greater than
It is a negative number ending with a 1.
It is a positive number ending with a 1.
It is a negative number ending with a 5.
It is a positive number ending with a 5.
It is a negative number ending with a 0.
Answer: C
Solution:
There are odd numbers greater than
Our product is of an odd number of negative numbers, so the result is negative.
Also, we multiply by in there, so the product is a multiple of making it end in or None of our factors are even, so the product can't be even.
Therefore, the product must end in
Thus, the correct answer is C .
11.
Among the positive integers less than each of whose digits is a prime number, one is selected at random. What is the probability that the selected number is prime?
Answer: B
Solution:
The available digits are . There are one-digit numbers and two-digit numbers, for total choices.
All one-digit choices are prime. A two-digit prime cannot end in or , so checking endings and gives the two-digit primes .
Thus of the choices are prime, and the probability is .
Thus, the correct answer is B.
12.
For how many integers is the point inside or on the circle of radius centered at
Answer: A
Solution:
The squared distance from to is
Being inside or on the circle means , so . Thus , giving integer values.
Thus, the correct answer is A.
13.
The line forms a triangle with the coordinate axes. What is the sum of the lengths of the altitudes of this triangle?
Answer: E
Solution:
The triangle is a right triangle with legs of and This makes the hypotenuse
Two of the altitudes are then and Also, for any side, where is the base and is the altitude.
The area is so the other altitude can be found with Thus, this altitude is
Therefore, the sum is
Thus, the correct answer is E .
14.
Let and be three distinct one-digit numbers. What is the maximum value of the sum of the roots of the equation
Answer: D
Solution:
The equation is equal to This makes the roots equal to: and the sum is
Therefore, we want to maximize while making the highest.
As such, we can have and get a sum:
Thus, the correct answer is D .
15.
The town of Hamlet has people for each horse, sheep for each cow, and ducks for each person. Which of the following could not possibly be the total number of people, horses, sheep, cows, and ducks in Hamlet?
Answer: B
Solution:
If there are horses and cows, then there are people, ducks, and sheep. The total is therefore .
The listed values except can be written in that form: For , subtracting leaves , none of which is divisible by .
Thus, the correct answer is B.
16.
Al, Bill, and Cal will each randomly be assigned a whole number from to inclusive, with no two of them getting the same number. What is the probability that Al's number will be a whole number multiple of Bill's and Bill's number will be a whole number multiple of Cal's?
Answer: C
Solution:
Let be the numbers assigned to Al, Bill, and Cal. We need to be a multiple of , and to be a multiple of , with all three numbers distinct.
The valid triples are There are favorable assignments.
The total number of assignments is , so the probability is .
Thus, the correct answer is C.
17.
The centers of the faces of the right rectangular prism shown below are joined to create an octahedron. What is the volume of this octahedron? \t\t
Answer: B
Solution:
The octahedron can be viewed as two congruent pyramids whose shared base is the rhombus through the centers of the four side faces. This rhombus has diagonals and , so its area is .
Each pyramid has height , half the prism's height. Thus the total volume is
Thus, the correct answer is B.
18.
Johann has fair coins. He flips all the coins. Any coin that lands on tails is tossed again. Coins that land on tails on the second toss are tossed a third time. What is the expected number of coins that are now heads?
Answer: D
Solution:
A coin ends as tails if and only if it has flips that are tails, which happens with probability Thus, the probability of any coin being heads is
As the probability that a given coin flip is and there are coin flips in total, the expected number of coins that are now heads is:
Thus, the correct answer is D .
19.
In and Squares and are constructed outside of the triangle. The points and lie on a circle. What is the perimeter of the triangle?
Answer: C
Solution:
The center of the circle through lies on the perpendicular bisectors of and . These are also the perpendicular bisectors of and , so the same point is the circumcenter of right triangle .
Therefore the center is the midpoint of hypotenuse , so . Let and . Then .
From the square on , . From the square on , the corresponding radius also gives . Hence Together with , this gives .
Thus , and the perimeter is .
Thus, the correct answer is C.
20.
Erin the ant starts at a given corner of a cube and crawls along exactly 7 edges in such a way that she visits every corner exactly once and then finds that she is unable to return along an edge to her starting point. How many paths are there meeting these conditions?
Answer: A
Solution:
The first two edges can be chosen in ways. These two edges determine an initial face of the cube. After those moves, there is one unvisited vertex on that initial face.
That remaining vertex must be visited next; otherwise Erin would later reach it after all of its neighbors had already been visited, and the path could not continue. The last four vertices are then on the opposite face and can be visited in two cyclic orders.
Of those two orders, exactly one ends at a vertex not adjacent to the starting point. Hence there are valid paths.
Thus, the correct answer is A.
21.
Cozy the Cat and Dash the Dog are going up a staircase with a certain number of steps. However, instead of walking up the steps one at a time, both Cozy and Dash jump.
Cozy goes two steps up with each jump (though if necessary, he will just jump the last step).
Dash goes five steps up with each jump (though if necessary, he will just jump the last steps if there are fewer than steps left).
Suppose Dash takes fewer jumps than Cozy to reach the top of the staircase. Let denote the sum of all possible numbers of steps this staircase can have. What is the sum of the digits of
Answer: D
Solution:
Suppose Dash takes jumps. Then the number of steps is one of Cozy takes more jumps, so Cozy takes jumps, which means is either or .
Matching these possibilities, the integer solutions are They give , respectively.
Thus , and the sum of its digits is .
Thus, the correct answer is D.
22.
In the figure shown below, is a regular pentagon and What is \t\t
Answer: D
Solution:
By symmetry, , and triangles and are congruent, so . Let , and let .
The similar triangles in the pentagon give and The first equation is , so . Then .
Therefore
Thus, the correct answer is D.
23.
Let be a positive integer greater than 4 such that the decimal representation of ends in zeros and the decimal representation of ends in zeros. Let denote the sum of the four least possible values of What is the sum of the digits of
Answer: B
Solution:
The number of trailing zeros is the number of factors of . For , has zero. We need to have zeros, which happens when . Thus .
For , has zeros. We need to have zeros, which happens when . Thus .
These are the four least possible values, so . The sum of the digits of is .
Thus, the correct answer is B.
24.
Aaron the ant walks on the coordinate plane according to the following rules.
He starts at the origin facing to the east and walks one unit, arriving at
For right after arriving at the point if Aaron can turn left and walk one unit to an unvisited point he does that. Otherwise, he walks one unit straight ahead to reach Thus the sequence of points continues and so on in a counterclockwise spiral pattern. What is
Answer: D
Solution:
When Aaron reaches , he has just completed the square spiral containing all grid points with coordinates between and . Therefore
With , this gives . Since , stepping backward along the bottom edge subtracts from the -coordinate, so
Thus, the correct answer is D.
25.
A rectangular box measures where and are integers and The volume and the surface area of the box are numerically equal. How many ordered triples are possible?
Answer: B
Solution:
The condition is Since , we have . Also and give no positive solutions, so test .
For , , giving . For , , giving .
For , , and the only solution with is . For , , and the only solution with is .
The total number of triples is .
Thus, the correct answer is B.