2020 AMC 10A Exam Problems
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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).
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1.
What value of satisfies
Answer: E
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Written solution:
The right side is . Thus . Thus, E is the correct answer.
2.
The numbers and have an average (arithmetic mean) of What is the average of and
Answer: C
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Written solution:
The five numbers have total sum . Since , we have , so the average of and is . Thus, C is the correct answer.
3.
Assuming and what is the value in simplest form of the following expression?
Answer: A
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Written solution:
Rewrite the denominator factors as , , and . The expression becomes . Thus, A is the correct answer.
4.
A driver travels for hours at miles per hour, during which her car gets miles per gallon of gasoline. She is paid per mile, and her only expense is gasoline at per gallon. What is her net rate of pay, in dollars per hour, after this expense?
Answer: E
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Written solution:
The driver travels miles, so she is paid . The trip uses gallons of gasoline, costing . Her net pay is dollars over hours, or dollars per hour. Thus, E is the correct answer.
5.
What is the sum of all real numbers for which
Answer: C
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Written solution:
The equation means or . The first gives , with roots and . The second gives , with root . The sum of all real solutions is . Thus, C is the correct answer.
6.
How many -digit positive integers (that is, integers between and inclusive) having only even digits are divisible by
Answer: B
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Written solution:
The last digit must be , because the number is divisible by and all digits are even. The thousands digit can be or , and each of the hundreds and tens digits has choices. Thus there are such integers. Thus, B is the correct answer.
7.
The integers from to inclusive, can be arranged to form a -by- square in which the sum of the numbers in each row, the sum of the numbers in each column, and the sum of the numbers along each of the main diagonals are all the same. What is the value of this common sum?
Answer: C
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Written solution:
The sum of the integers from to is . If every row has common sum , then the five row sums add to , so and . Thus, C is the correct answer.
8.
What is the value of
Answer: B
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Written solution:
Group the terms in blocks of four: . The th block is .
There are blocks, so the sum is . Thus, B is the correct answer.
9.
A single bench section at a school event can hold either adults or children. When bench sections are connected end to end, an equal number of adults and children seated together will occupy all the bench space. What is the least possible positive integer value of
Answer: B
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Written solution:
If the equal number of adults and children is , then the adults use bench sections and the children use bench sections. Thus .
The least positive integer occurs when , giving . Thus, B is the correct answer.
10.
Seven cubes, whose volumes are and cubic units, are stacked vertically to form a tower in which the volumes of the cubes decrease from bottom to top. Except for the bottom cube, the bottom face of each cube lies completely on top of the cube below it. What is the total surface area of the tower (including the bottom) in square units?
Answer: B
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Written solution:
The cube side lengths are , stacked from largest on bottom to smallest on top. The sum of the surface areas of the separate cubes is .
Each contact hides two square faces, with areas . Subtracting these hidden faces gives . Thus, B is the correct answer.
11.
What is the median of the following list of numbers
Answer: C
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Written solution:
For a number near the median, the sorted list includes all ordinary integers up to that number and all squares up to that number. Since and , there are squares not exceeding any number from through .
At , there are list entries at most . At , there are entries at most , so the th entry is , and the next is . The median is . Thus, C is the correct answer.
12.
Triangle is isosceles with Medians and are perpendicular to each other, and What is the area of
Answer: C
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Written solution:
Let the centroid be the origin. Since a centroid divides each median in a ratio, we may place median horizontally with and , and median vertically with and .
Because is the midpoint of , we get . The area of is . Thus, C is the correct answer.
13.
A frog sitting at the point begins a sequence of jumps, where each jump is parallel to one of the coordinate axes and has length and the direction of each jump (up, down, right, or left) is chosen independently at random. The sequence ends when the frog reaches a side of the square with vertices and What is the probability that the sequence of jumps ends on a vertical side of the square?
Answer: B
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Written solution:
Let be the probability of eventually hitting a vertical side first from point . By symmetry, set , , , and .
The averaging equations are , , , and . Solving gives , which is the desired probability from . Thus, B is the correct answer.
14.
Real numbers and satisfy and What is the value of
Answer: D
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Written solution:
Let . Since and , the numbers and satisfy , so .
Using and , we get , , , and . The expression is . Thus, D is the correct answer.
15.
A positive integer divisor of is chosen at random. The probability that the divisor chosen is a perfect square can be expressed as where and are relatively prime positive integers. What is
Answer: E
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Written solution:
The prime factorization of is . Therefore has positive divisors.
A square divisor must use only even exponents, giving square divisors. The probability is , so . Thus, E is the correct answer.
16.
A point is chosen at random within the square in the coordinate plane whose vertices are and The probability that the point is within units of a lattice point is (A point is a lattice point if and are both integers.) What is to the nearest tenth
Answer: B
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Written solution:
For , the points within of lattice points occupy, in each unit square, four quarter-circles whose total area is . The enormous square is tiled by unit squares, so the desired probability is .
Setting gives , which rounds to . Thus, B is the correct answer.
17.
Define How many integers are there such that
Answer: E
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Written solution:
The polynomial changes sign at each square , and its leading coefficient is positive. Thus for integers in the intervals , , , .
For odd , the interval contains integers. Summing over odd gives . Thus, E is the correct answer.
18.
Let be an ordered quadruple of not necessarily distinct integers, each one of them in the set For how many such quadruples is it true that is odd? (For example, is one such quadruple, because is odd.)
Answer: C
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Written solution:
Only parity matters. Modulo , the condition is that is , meaning the matrix is invertible over .
There are invertible matrices over . Each parity pattern lifts to choices from , so there are quadruples. Thus, C is the correct answer.
19.
As shown in the figure below, a regular dodecahedron (the polyhedron consisting of congruent regular pentagonal faces) floats in space with two horizontal faces. Note that there is a ring of five slanted faces adjacent to the top face, and a ring of five slanted faces adjacent to the bottom face. How many ways are there to move from the top face to the bottom face via a sequence of adjacent faces so that each face is visited at most once and moves are not permitted from the bottom ring to the top ring?
Answer: E
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Written solution:
After leaving the top face, choose one of the top-ring faces. Because moves from the bottom ring to the top ring are forbidden, every valid path has a top-ring phase, then one move down to the bottom ring, then a bottom-ring phase.
Fix the first top-ring face. On the top ring, the path can move around the 5-cycle without revisiting a face and then stop at any point: there are possible top-ring paths. From the stopping face, there are possible downward moves to the bottom ring, so the top part has choices.
Once in the bottom ring, the path can move around the bottom 5-cycle without revisiting a face and then enter the bottom face; this gives choices. The total is . Thus, E is the correct answer.
20.
Quadrilateral satisfies and Diagonals and intersect at point and What is the area of quadrilateral
Answer: D
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Written solution:
Place and . Since and , take . The point is , so line has equation .
Because , point lies on the circle with diameter : . Intersecting with gives or . The convex quadrilateral uses .
Then , and . The total area is . Thus, D is the correct answer.
21.
There exists a unique strictly increasing sequence of nonnegative integers such thatWhat is
Answer: C
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Written solution:
Let . Then .
Pair consecutive terms: , , , , and then the final . Each pair is , contributing ones in binary. There are such pairs plus the final , so . Thus, C is the correct answer.
22.
For how many positive integers isnot divisible by (Recall that is the greatest integer less than or equal to )
Answer: A
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Written solution:
Write , where . Then . The other two floors are usually also , except that subtracting or from crosses a multiple of when is small.
For , the sum is not divisible by exactly when or . The case gives divisors of , excluding , for values. The case gives divisors of , excluding , for values. The total is . Thus, A is the correct answer.
23.
Let be the triangle in the coordinate plane with vertices and Consider the following five isometries (rigid transformations) of the plane: rotations of and counterclockwise around the origin, reflection across the -axis, and reflection across the -axis. How many of the sequences of three of these transformations (not necessarily distinct) will return to its original position? (For example, a rotation, followed by a reflection across the -axis, followed by a reflection across the -axis will return to its original position, but a rotation, followed by a reflection across the -axis, followed by another reflection across the -axis will not return to its original position.)
Answer: A
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Written solution:
Let be a rotation, so the allowed rotations are . Let and be the reflections across the coordinate axes. Once the first two transformations are chosen, the third is forced to be the inverse of their product.
The ordered first-two choices whose forced third transformation is still in the allowed set are , and . There are such sequences. Thus, A is the correct answer.
24.
Let be the least positive integer greater than for which
and
What is the sum of the digits of
Answer: C
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Written solution:
The first gcd condition gives , so , but must not be divisible by . The second gives , so , but must not be divisible by .
Solving and gives . The candidates above are . The first fails the first gcd condition, the second fails the second gcd condition, and works. The digit sum is . Thus, C is the correct answer.
25.
Jason rolls three fair standard six-sided dice. Then he looks at the rolls and chooses a subset of the dice (possibly empty, possibly all three dice) to reroll. After rerolling, he wins if and only if the sum of the numbers face up on the three dice is exactly Jason always plays to optimize his chances of winning. What is the probability that he chooses to reroll exactly two of the dice?
Answer: A
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Written solution:
For any initial roll, Jason compares the best probabilities from rerolling or dice. Rerolling all three dice has probability . Rerolling one die has probability whenever some pair of kept dice has sum at most .
If he rerolls exactly two dice, he keeps one die. Keeping a die showing gives probabilities out of , respectively. This can be optimal only when the two smallest dice sum at least and the smallest die is or .
The sorted rolls satisfying this are , , and . Counting permutations gives rolls out of , so the probability is . Thus, A is the correct answer.