2011 AMC 12B Problem 11

Attempt Problem 11 of the 2011 AMC 12B 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 2011 AMC 12B solutions, or check the answer key.

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11.

A frog located at (x,y),(x, y), with both xx and yy integers, makes successive jumps of length 55 and always lands on points with integer coordinates. Suppose that the frog starts at (0,0)(0, 0) and ends at (1,0).(1, 0). What is the smallest possible number of jumps the frog makes?

22

33

44

55

66

Answer: B
Concepts:lattice pointdistance formula
Difficulty rating: 1510
Solution:

One jump cannot work, since (0,0)(0,0) and (1,0)(1,0) are only 11 apart. Two jumps also fail: the intermediate point would be at distance 55 from both, forcing it onto the perpendicular bisector x=12,x=\dfrac12, which contains no lattice points.

Three jumps suffice, for example (0,0)(3,4)(6,0)(1,0), (0,0)\to(3,4)\to(6,0)\to(1,0), where each step has length 5.5.

Thus, the correct answer is B.

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