2011 AMC 12A Exam Solutions
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All of the real AMC 8, AMC 10, AMC 12, and AIME problems in our complete solution collection are used with official legal permission of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA).
1.
A cell phone plan costs each month, plus ¢ per text message sent, plus ¢ for each minute used over hours. In January Michelle sent text messages and talked for hours. How much did she have to pay?
Difficulty rating: 840
Solution:
The text charge is cents She talked minutes past the -hour allowance, so the overage is cents
The total is
Thus, the correct answer is D.
2.
There are coins placed flat on a table according to the figure. What is the order of the coins from top to bottom?
Difficulty rating: 840
Solution:
Coin is drawn as a complete, unbroken circle, so nothing covers it and it lies on top.
Reading the remaining overlaps, each coin's uncovered arc shows it sits above the next: covers covers covers and covers while lying under the others. This gives the top-to-bottom order
Thus, the correct answer is E.
3.
A small bottle of shampoo can hold milliliters of shampoo, whereas a large bottle can hold milliliters of shampoo. Jasmine wants to buy the minimum number of small bottles necessary to completely fill a large bottle. How many bottles must she buy?
Difficulty rating: 880
Solution:
Fourteen bottles hold milliliters, which is not enough. Fifteen bottles hold milliliters, which suffices.
So Jasmine needs bottles.
Thus, the correct answer is E.
4.
At an elementary school, the students in third grade, fourth grade, and fifth grade run an average of and minutes per day, respectively. There are twice as many third graders as fourth graders, and twice as many fourth graders as fifth graders. What is the average number of minutes run per day by these students?
Difficulty rating: 1040
Solution:
Take the grade sizes in the ratio for third, fourth, and fifth grades. The weighted average is
Thus, the correct answer is C.
5.
Last summer of the birds living on Town Lake were geese, were swans, were herons, and were ducks. What percent of the birds that were not swans were geese?
Difficulty rating: 990
Solution:
The birds that are not swans make up of the total, and geese are of the total. The requested fraction is
Thus, the correct answer is C.
6.
The players on a basketball team made some three-point shots, some two-point shots, and some one-point free throws. They scored as many points with two-point shots as with three-point shots. Their number of successful free throws was one more than their number of successful two-point shots. The team's total score was points. How many free throws did they make?
Difficulty rating: 1170
Solution:
Let be the number of two-point shots. The two-point shots score points, and the three-point shots score the same points. The free throws number and score points.
The total is so and the free throws number
Thus, the correct answer is A.
7.
A majority of the students in Ms. Demeanor's class bought pencils at the school bookstore. Each of these students bought the same number of pencils, and this number was greater than The cost of a pencil in cents was greater than the number of pencils each student bought, and the total cost of all the pencils was What was the cost of a pencil in cents?
Difficulty rating: 1370
Solution:
Total cents is Writing (students)(pencils each)(cost per pencil) the number of students is a divisor of that is a majority of hence more than The only such divisor is
Then (pencils)(cost) with cost pencils forcing pencils at cents each.
Thus, the correct answer is B.
8.
In the eight-term sequence the value of is and the sum of any three consecutive terms is What is
Difficulty rating: 1190
Solution:
Since we get and likewise the sequence repeats with period Thus the eighth term, equals
From and we have
Thus, the correct answer is C.
9.
At a twins and triplets convention, there were sets of twins and sets of triplets, all from different families. Each twin shook hands with all the twins except his/her sibling and with half the triplets. Each triplet shook hands with all the triplets except his/her siblings and with half the twins. How many handshakes took place?
Difficulty rating: 1440
Solution:
There are twins and triplets.
Twin-twin handshakes: each twin shakes other twins, giving
Triplet-triplet handshakes: each triplet shakes other triplets, giving
Twin-triplet handshakes: each twin shakes half the triplets, giving (each such handshake counted once).
The total is
Thus, the correct answer is B.
10.
A pair of standard -sided fair dice is rolled once. The sum of the numbers rolled determines the diameter of a circle. What is the probability that the numerical value of the area of the circle is less than the numerical value of the circle's circumference?
Difficulty rating: 1370
Solution:
For diameter area circumference means i.e. Since this needs a sum of or
A sum of has probability and a sum of has probability totaling
Thus, the correct answer is B.
11.
Circles and each have radius Circles and share one point of tangency. Circle has a point of tangency with the midpoint of What is the area inside circle but outside circle and circle
Difficulty rating: 1540
Solution:
Place so their tangency point is the origin, the midpoint of Then since passes through the origin.
The distance from to (and to ) is Two unit circles whose centers are apart overlap in a lens of area
Circles and meet only at the origin, so the two lenses do not overlap. The wanted area is
Thus, the correct answer is C.
12.
A power boat and a raft both left dock on a river and headed downstream. The raft drifted at the speed of the river current. The power boat maintained a constant speed with respect to the river. The power boat reached dock downriver, then immediately turned and traveled back upriver. It eventually met the raft on the river hours after leaving dock How many hours did it take the power boat to go from to
Difficulty rating: 1580
Solution:
Measure everything relative to the water. In that frame the raft is stationary at the point where the boat started, and the boat moves at its constant speed relative to the water, both downstream and upstream.
The boat leaves the raft, travels away for some time, then returns to it at the same relative speed, so it spends equal times going and returning. Hence the outbound leg to takes half of which is hours.
Thus, the correct answer is D.
13.
Triangle has side-lengths and The line through the incenter of parallel to intersects at and at What is the perimeter of
Difficulty rating: 1600
Solution:
Let be the incenter. Because bisects and alternate angles give so is isosceles with Similarly
Therefore the perimeter of is
Thus, the correct answer is B.
14.
Suppose and are single-digit positive integers chosen independently and at random. What is the probability that the point lies above the parabola
Difficulty rating: 1690
Solution:
Substituting the point is above the parabola when i.e.
For all values work. For so giving For so giving For no works.
The count is out of so the probability is
Thus, the correct answer is E.
15.
The circular base of a hemisphere of radius rests on the base of a square pyramid of height The hemisphere is tangent to the other four faces of the pyramid. What is the edge-length of the base of the pyramid?
Difficulty rating: 1870
Solution:
Let the base have side centered at the origin, with apex at height Cut with the vertical plane through the apex and the midpoints of two opposite base edges. The slant face appears as the line from to
This line is The hemisphere is tangent to the face, so the distance from the origin to this line is the radius
Then so and giving
Thus, the correct answer is A.
16.
Each vertex of convex pentagon is to be assigned a color. There are colors to choose from, and the ends of each diagonal must have different colors. How many different colorings are possible?
Difficulty rating: 1820
Solution:
The diagonals connect the vertices in the order which is a -cycle. The condition is exactly that this cycle is properly colored.
The number of proper -colorings of a cycle of length is With and
Thus, the correct answer is C.
17.
Circles with radii and are mutually externally tangent. What is the area of the triangle determined by the points of tangency?
Difficulty rating: 1920
Solution:
The centers are separated by the sums of radii: and a right triangle with the right angle at the radius- center. Place that center at the radius- center at and the radius- center at
The tangency points lie on the segments at distances equal to the radii: and on the hypotenuse at
By the shoelace formula the area is
Thus, the correct answer is D.
18.
Suppose that What is the maximum possible value of
Difficulty rating: 1840
Solution:
The identity turns the condition into the boundary of the square with and
On this region increases as decreases and as increases, so the maximum is at
Thus, the correct answer is D.
19.
At a competition with players, the number of players given elite status is equal to Suppose that players are given elite status. What is the sum of the two smallest possible values of
Note: is the greatest integer less than or equal to
Difficulty rating: 2150
Solution:
Let so the elite count is giving
Consistency requires i.e. so
The two smallest choices are giving and giving Their sum is
Thus, the correct answer is C.
20.
Let where and are integers. Suppose that and for some integer What is
Difficulty rating: 2030
Solution:
Since we have Then
From we get and from we get Subtracting, then and
So which lies in giving
Thus, the correct answer is C.
21.
Let and for integers let If is the largest value of for which the domain of is nonempty, the domain of is What is
22.
Let be a square region and an integer. A point in the interior of is called -ray partitional if there are rays emanating from that divide into triangles of equal area. How many points are -ray partitional but not -ray partitional?
Difficulty rating: 2460
Solution:
For even the -ray partitional points are exactly with giving points.
For () there are points. A point is both - and -ray partitional iff its coordinates are multiples of i.e. it is -ray partitional, giving points.
So the count is
Thus, the correct answer is C.
23.
Let and where and are complex numbers. Suppose that and for all for which is defined. What is the difference between the largest and smallest possible values of
Difficulty rating: 2560
Solution:
Represent by Then says composed with itself four times is the identity, so is a scalar matrix.
This happens when the ratio of eigenvalues is a fourth root of unity. The order- case gives i.e. which simplifies to The order- case gives
Then and as runs over ranges over so ranges over (the value is included). The difference is
Thus, the correct answer is C.
24.
Consider all quadrilaterals such that and What is the radius of the largest possible circle that fits inside or on the boundary of such a quadrilateral?
Difficulty rating: 2460
Solution:
Because a tangential quadrilateral (one with an inscribed circle) with these sides exists. For a tangential quadrilateral the area equals with semiperimeter so maximizing means maximizing the area.
Among tangential quadrilaterals with given sides, the largest area is achieved by the cyclic (bicentric) one, whose area is
Then
Thus, the correct answer is C.
25.
Triangle has and Let and be the orthocenter, incenter, and circumcenter of respectively. Assume that the area of the pentagon is the maximum possible. What is
Difficulty rating: 2840
Solution:
When a classical fact is that and all lie on a common circle, so is a convex cyclic pentagon whose vertices depend only on the shape of the triangle.
Fixing and the circumradius is and are determined by (with ). Writing the pentagon area as a function of on the allowed range and maximizing gives an interior maximum at
So the maximizing angle is
Thus, the correct answer is D.