2021 AMC 10B Fall Solutions
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All problems are used with official legal permission of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA).
1.
What is the value of
Difficulty rating: 450
Solution:
We can add each individual digit, yielding
We can also get the sum by noticing that each digit has a sum of so the sum is equal to
Thus, the answer is E .
2.
What is the area of the shaded figure shown below?
Difficulty rating: 560
Solution:
The area is a triangle of area since we subtract the area of a smaller triangle from a larger triangle.
Thus, the answer is B .
3.
The expression is equal to the fraction in which and are positive integers whose greatest common divisor is What is
Difficulty rating: 770
Solution:
We can rewrite this as
This can be simplified to
Since is coprime with both and we know is the numerator.
Thus, the answer is E .
4.
At noon on a certain day, Minneapolis is degrees warmer than St. Louis. At the temperature in Minneapolis has fallen by degrees while the temperature in St. Louis has risen by degrees, at which time the temperatures in the two cities differ by degrees. What is the product of all possible values of
Difficulty rating: 870
Solution:
Let be the noon temperature difference. At , the new difference is .
The temperatures then differ by degrees, so . Hence or , and the product of all possible values is .
Thus, the answer is C .
5.
Let Which of the following is equal to
Difficulty rating: 560
Solution:
Since , we have
Therefore
Thus, the answer is E .
6.
The least positive integer with exactly distinct positive divisors can be written in the form where and are integers and is not a divisor of What is
Difficulty rating: 1420
Solution:
Before starting, note that if we can represent the prime factorization of an integer as then there are distinct positive factors.
If the number in question has factors, by the previous logic, and as the prime factorization of then our number must be or
The smallest number we can make in either of these is making in the first configuration, yielding
Therefore, so
Thus, the answer is B .
7.
Call a fraction not necessarily in the simplest form, ''special'' if and are positive integers whose sum is How many distinct integers can be written as the sum of two, not necessarily different, special fractions?
Difficulty rating: 1660
Solution:
A special fraction with denominator equals , where . We need integer values of .
Checking the possible denominators by fractional part gives the distinct integer sums
There are such integers.
Thus, the answer is C .
8.
The greatest prime number that is a divisor of is because What is the sum of the digits of the greatest prime number that is a divisor of
Difficulty rating: 1030
Solution:
We know Since we get Therefore, is the largest prime factor, and the sum of its digits is
Thus, the answer is C .
9.
The knights in a certain kingdom come in two colors. of them are red, and the rest are blue. Furthermore, of the knights are magical, and the fraction of red knights who are magical is times the fraction of blue knights who are magical. What fraction of red knights are magical?
Difficulty rating: 1280
Solution:
Let be the fraction of blue knights who are magical. Then the fraction of red knights who are magical is .
The total magical fraction is a weighted average over the red and blue groups:
Thus , so . The red magical fraction is .
Thus, the answer is C .
10.
Forty slips of paper numbered to are placed in a hat. Alice and Bob each draw one number from the hat without replacement, keeping their numbers hidden from each other. Alice says, "I can't tell who has the larger number." Then Bob says, "I know who has the larger number." Alice says, "You do? Is your number prime?" Bob replies, "Yes." Alice says, "In that case, if I multiply your number by and add my number, the result is a perfect square. " What is the sum of the two numbers drawn from the hat?
Difficulty rating: 1950
Solution:
If Alice had drawn or , she would know who had the larger number. Her first statement tells Bob that Alice has neither nor .
Bob can then know who has the larger number only if his number is or . Since Bob says his number is prime, his number must be .
Now plus Alice's number is a square between and . The only square in that interval is , so Alice's number is . The sum is .
Thus, the answer is A .
11.
A regular hexagon of side length is inscribed in a circle. Each minor arc of the circle determined by a side of the hexagon is reflected over that side. What is the area of the region bounded by these reflected arcs?
Difficulty rating: 1630
Solution:
The original circle is made from the regular hexagon plus equal circular segments. Reflecting each minor arc over its side puts those same segments inside the hexagon instead.
Therefore the average of the circle's area and the reflected-arc region's area is the area of the regular hexagon. The hexagon has area , and the circle has radius , so its area is .
If the desired area is , then , so .
Thus, the answer is B .
12.
Which of the following conditions is sufficient to guarantee that integers and satisfy the equation
x > y and
and
and
and
Difficulty rating: 1370
Solution:
Expand and rewrite:
For the value to be , the three nonnegative square terms must sum to . Since are integers, this means the squared differences are .
Thus two of the variables must be equal, and the third must differ from them by . The condition and guarantees exactly that.
Thus, the answer is D .
13.
A square with side length is inscribed in an isosceles triangle with one side of the square along the base of the triangle. A square with side length has two vertices on the other square and the other two on sides of the triangle, as shown. What is the area of the triangle?
Difficulty rating: 1660
Solution:
Let the isosceles triangle have height and base . By similarity, horizontal widths in the triangle are proportional to distance from the top vertex.
The top side of the larger square has width and is units from the top. The top side of the smaller square has width and is units from the top. Hence
Solving gives . Also , so . The area is .
Thus, the answer is B .
14.
Una rolls standard -sided dice simultaneously and calculates the product of the numbers obtained. What is the probability that the product is divisible by
Difficulty rating: 1140
Solution:
Count the complement, where the product is not divisible by . This happens if the product has no factor of , or exactly one factor of .
All dice odd has probability . Exactly one factor of means exactly one die is or , and the other five dice are odd. This has probability
The complement has probability , so the desired probability is .
Thus, the answer is C .
15.
In square points and lie on and respectively. Segments and intersect at right angles at with and What is the area of the square?
Difficulty rating: 1950
Solution:
Since and , we have . The right-angle and square-angle chasing gives , so .
Because , point is the foot of the altitude from to the hypotenuse of right triangle . Thus and
So and are and . From the diagram , and therefore
The area of the square is .
Thus, the answer is D .
16.
Five balls are arranged around a circle. Chris chooses two adjacent balls at random and interchanges them. Then Silva does the same, with her choice of adjacent balls to interchange being independent of Chris's. What is the expected number of balls that occupy their original positions after these two successive transpositions?
Difficulty rating: 1420
Solution:
After Chris chooses an adjacent pair, Silva has equally likely adjacent pairs to choose.
If Silva chooses the same pair, all balls return to their original positions. This has probability .
If Silva chooses a pair sharing exactly one ball with Chris's pair, then balls are in their original positions. There are such pairs, so this has probability .
If Silva chooses a disjoint adjacent pair, then ball is in its original position. This also has probability .
The expected number is
Thus, the answer is D .
17.
Distinct lines and lie in the -plane. They intersect at the origin. Point is reflected about line to point and then is reflected about line to point The equation of line is and the coordinates of are What is the equation of line
Difficulty rating: 2150
Solution:
Two reflections across lines through the origin are equivalent to a rotation by twice the angle from the first reflecting line to the second.
The point is sent to , which is a clockwise rotation. Therefore line is clockwise from line .
The slope of is . If , then
Thus line is , or .
Thus, the answer is D .
18.
Three identical square sheets of paper each with side length are stacked on top of each other. The middle sheet is rotated clockwise about its center and the top sheet is rotated clockwise about its center, resulting in the -sided polygon shown in the figure below.
The area of this polygon can be expressed in the form where and are positive integers, and is not divisible by the square of any prime. What is
Difficulty rating: 2090
Solution:
The boundary can be split into congruent triangles. Each has angles , , and .
For one such triangle, draw the altitude from the center-side direction. The altitude is , half the side length of a square. The adjacent right triangle has a angle, so the part cut off from a length base is .
Thus each small triangle has base and height , giving area .
The total area is Hence .
Thus, the answer is E .
19.
Let be the positive integer a -digit number where each digit is a Let be the leading digit of the root of with index What is
Difficulty rating: 1990
Solution:
The number satisfies Multiplying or dividing by a power of only shifts the decimal point, so we only need the leading factor left after taking out the largest convenient power of .
For , has leading factor between and , so .
For , the leading factor is between and , so . For , the leading factor is between and , so .
For , since , the leading factor is between and . Since , .
For , the leading factor is between and , so . The sum is .
Thus, the answer is A .
20.
In a particular game, each of players rolls a standard -sided die. The winner is the player who rolls the highest number. If there is a tie for the highest roll, those involved in the tie will roll again and this process will continue until one player wins. Hugo is one of the players in this game. What is the probability that Hugo's first roll was a given that he won the game?
Difficulty rating: 2150
Solution:
By symmetry, . So the desired probability is .
If Hugo rolls , then no other player can roll . Case on how many of the other three players also roll . If other players tie Hugo, then Hugo wins the eventual tiebreaker with probability .
Thus
Multiplying by gives .
Thus, the answer is C .
21.
Regular polygons with and sides are inscribed in the same circle. No two of the polygons share a vertex, and no three of their sides intersect at a common point. At how many points inside the circle do two of their sides intersect?
Difficulty rating: 2110
Solution:
For a regular -gon and a regular -gon inscribed in the same circle with and no shared vertices, their boundaries intersect in points. Each side of the smaller polygon is crossed twice by the boundary of the larger polygon.
Therefore, sum over all pairs of polygons. The -gon contributes intersections with each of the -, -, and -gons. The -gon contributes intersections with each of the - and -gons. The -gon contributes with the -gon.
The total is
Thus, the answer is E .
22.
For each integer let be the sum of all products where and are integers and What is the sum of the 10 least values of such that is divisible by
Difficulty rating: 1950
Solution:
When passing from to , the new terms are for . Their sum is
Modulo , this increment is when or , and is when .
Since , the sequence becomes divisible by after the third occurrence of a number congruent to , namely at . Then stays divisible by for , and the same pattern repeats every in .
The ten least values are . Their sum is .
Thus, the answer is B .
23.
Each of the sides and the diagonals of a regular pentagon are randomly and independently colored red or blue with equal probability. What is the probability that there will be a triangle whose vertices are among the vertices of the pentagon such that all of its sides have the same color?
Difficulty rating: 2300
Solution:
Count the complement: colorings of the edges of with no monochromatic triangle.
At any vertex, if incident edges had the same color, then the edges among their other endpoints would all have to be the other color, making a monochromatic triangle. Thus each vertex has exactly red and blue incident edges.
So the red edges form a -regular graph on vertices, which must be a -cycle. The number of labeled -cycles is .
There are total colorings, so the desired probability is
Thus, the answer is D .
24.
A cube is constructed from white unit cubes and blue unit cubes. How many different ways are there to construct the cube using these smaller cubes? (Two constructions are considered the same if one can be rotated to match the other.)
Difficulty rating: 1860
Solution:
This is the number of ways to choose which of the cube vertices are blue, up to cube rotation. Use Burnside's lemma on the rotations of the cube.
The identity fixes colorings. The quarter-turn face rotations each fix . The half-turn face rotations each fix . The rotations about opposite vertices each fix . The half-turn rotations about opposite edges each fix .
Thus the number of inequivalent constructions is
Thus, the answer is A .
25.
A rectangle with side lengths and a square with side length and a rectangle are inscribed inside a larger square as shown. The sum of all possible values for the area of can be written in the form where and are relatively prime positive integers. What is
Difficulty rating: 2480
Solution:
Use similar triangles as shown in the diagram. The left side of the large square has length , and the bottom side has length . Since these are equal, , so . The side length of the large square is therefore .
In the upper part of the figure, let the marked horizontal segment be . The two right triangles formed by the sides of rectangle have parallel corresponding sides and equal hypotenuses, so they are congruent. This gives the lengths shown below.
Similar triangles give Hence , so
If , rectangle has side length in both directions, so its area is . If , its side lengths are and , so its area is .
The two possible areas sum to . Since the rectangle gives , we have . The sum of the possible areas is
Thus , and the answer is E .