Question

Alex has $75$ red tokens and $75$ blue tokens. There is a booth where Alex can give two red tokens and receive in return a silver token and a blue token, and another booth where Alex can give three blue tokens and receive in return a silver token and a red token. Alex continues to exchange tokens until no more exchanges are possible. How many silver tokens will Alex have at the end?

$62$

$82$

$83$

$102$

$103$

Answer: E

Concepts:system of equations invariant

Difficulty rating: 1550

Solution:

After $m$ red-booth and $n$ blue-booth exchanges, Alex has $75 - (2m - n)$ red tokens, $75-(3n-m)$ blue tokens, and $m+n$ silver tokens. At termination the red count is $0$ or $1,$ and the blue count is $0,1,$ or $2.$ Solving the token equations over these six cases leaves only $(m,n)=(59,44),$ ending at $(1,2),$ or $(m,n)=(60,45),$ ending at $(0,0).$ The latter is unreachable: its final exchange would have to start at either $(-1,3)$ or $(2,-1).$ Hence Alex finishes with $59+44=103$ silver tokens. Thus, the correct answer is E.

2013 AMC 12B Problem 10

Answer: E

Difficulty rating: 1550

Solution:

Problem 10 in Other Years