2014 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.
2.
At the theater children get in for half price. The price for adult tickets and child tickets is How much would adult tickets and child tickets cost?
Difficulty rating: 1020
Solution:
Since a child ticket is half an adult ticket, adult and child tickets equal adult tickets, so one adult ticket costs
The second purchase equals adult tickets, costing
Thus, the correct answer is B.
3.
Walking down Jane Street, Ralph passed four houses in a row, each painted a different color. He passed the orange house before the red house, and he passed the blue house before the yellow house. The blue house was not next to the yellow house. How many orderings of the colored houses are possible?
Difficulty rating: 1200
Solution:
If orange comes first, then blue and yellow cannot be adjacent, forcing the order orange, blue, red, yellow.
If blue comes first, yellow can be in the third or fourth position (never second, to avoid adjacency), giving blue, orange, yellow, red and blue, orange, red, yellow.
These are the only valid orderings.
Thus, the correct answer is B.
4.
Suppose that cows give gallons of milk in days. At this rate, how many gallons of milk will cows give in days?
Difficulty rating: 1200
Solution:
The rate is gallons per cow per day.
So cows over days produce gallons.
Thus, the correct answer is A.
5.
On an algebra quiz, of the students scored points, scored points, scored points, and the rest scored points. What is the difference between the mean and the median of the students' scores on this quiz?
Difficulty rating: 1270
Solution:
The remaining scored Since scored at most and scored at most the median is
The mean is
The difference is
Thus, the correct answer is C.
6.
The difference between a two-digit number and the number obtained by reversing its digits is times the sum of the digits of either number. What is the sum of the two-digit number and its reverse?
Difficulty rating: 1270
Solution:
Let the larger number be Then which simplifies to
The only nonzero digits satisfying this are and so the number is and its reverse is
Their sum is
Thus, the correct answer is D.
7.
The first three terms of a geometric progression are and What is the fourth term?
Difficulty rating: 1340
Solution:
Writing the terms as powers of they are The common ratio is
The fourth term is
Thus, the correct answer is A.
8.
A customer who intends to purchase an appliance has three coupons, only one of which may be used:
Coupon 1: off the listed price if the listed price is at least
Coupon 2: off the listed price if the listed price is at least
Coupon 3: off the amount by which the listed price exceeds
For which of the following listed prices will coupon 1 offer a greater price reduction than either coupon 2 or coupon 3?
Difficulty rating: 1440
Solution:
For a price the reductions are and
Coupon 1 beats coupon 2 when that is Coupon 1 beats coupon 3 when that is
The only listed price in is
Thus, the correct answer is C.
9.
Five positive consecutive integers starting with have average What is the average of consecutive integers that start with
Difficulty rating: 1270
Solution:
The integers have average so
The integers starting at have average
Thus, the correct answer is B.
10.
Three congruent isosceles triangles are constructed with their bases on the sides of an equilateral triangle of side length The sum of the areas of the three isosceles triangles is the same as the area of the equilateral triangle. What is the length of one of the two congruent sides of one of the isosceles triangles?
Difficulty rating: 1560
Solution:
The equilateral triangle has area Each isosceles triangle has base and height so giving
A congruent side is the hypotenuse from the apex to a base endpoint:
Thus, the correct answer is B.
11.
David drives from his home to the airport to catch a flight. He drives miles in the first hour, but realizes that he will be hour late if he continues at this speed. He increases his speed by miles per hour for the rest of the way to the airport and arrives minutes early. How many miles is the airport from his home?
Difficulty rating: 1440
Solution:
Let be the remaining distance after one hour and the remaining time until the flight. At mph he would be an hour late, so At mph he is half an hour early, so
Setting these equal gives so and
The total distance is miles.
Thus, the correct answer is C.
12.
Two circles intersect at points and The minor arcs measure on one circle and on the other circle. What is the ratio of the area of the larger circle to the area of the smaller circle?
Difficulty rating: 1630
Solution:
Let the circles have radii (with the arc) and (with the arc). The common chord has length so
The smaller central angle gives the larger radius, so The area ratio is
Thus, the correct answer is D.
13.
A fancy bed and breakfast inn has rooms, each with a distinctive color-coded decor. One day friends arrive to spend the night. There are no other guests that night. The friends can room in any combination they wish, but with no more than friends per room. In how many ways can the innkeeper assign the guests to the rooms?
Difficulty rating: 1660
Solution:
All singles: assign friends to rooms in ways.
One pair: choose the pair in ways, then place the groups into rooms in ways, giving
Two pairs: choose the solo friend in ways and split the rest into two pairs in ways ( groupings), then place the groups into rooms in ways, giving
The total is
Thus, the correct answer is B.
14.
Let be three integers such that is an arithmetic progression and is a geometric progression. What is the smallest possible value for
Difficulty rating: 1630
Solution:
Let so and Since is geometric, which simplifies to so
Then and for a positive integer giving The smallest value is (with ).
Thus, the correct answer is C.
15.
A five-digit palindrome is a positive integer with respective digits where is not zero. Let be the sum of all five-digit palindromes. What is the sum of the digits of
Difficulty rating: 1660
Solution:
Write Summing over all palindromes, each value of occurs with choices of and each value of or occurs with choices of the other two digits.
Using
The sum of the digits of is
Thus, the correct answer is B.
16.
The product where the second factor has digits, is an integer whose digits have a sum of What is
Difficulty rating: 1660
Solution:
By carrying out the multiplication, which has ones.
The digit sum is Setting gives
Thus, the correct answer is D.
17.
A rectangular box contains a sphere of radius and eight smaller spheres of radius The smaller spheres are each tangent to three sides of the box, and the larger sphere is tangent to each of the smaller spheres. What is
Difficulty rating: 1800
Solution:
Place the box with a corner at the origin. Each small sphere sits in a corner with center unit from three faces. The four top small-sphere centers form a square of side whose center lies on the box axis; a corner of that square is from the center.
The big sphere's center is on the axis, at distance from each top small center. The vertical gap between them is
The big center is at height and the top small centers at height so giving and
Thus, the correct answer is A.
18.
The domain of the function is an interval of length where and are relatively prime positive integers. What is
Difficulty rating: 1910
Solution:
Working from the outside, is defined exactly when which is equivalent to
Since the base this means hence
As this reverses to i.e. The length is so
Thus, the correct answer is C.
19.
There are exactly distinct rational numbers such that and has at least one integer solution for What is
Difficulty rating: 1990
Solution:
If an integer is a root, then so For increases, and gives while gives
Thus ranges over which is values. If two integers gave the same then forces which has no integer solutions, so all values of are distinct.
Thus, the correct answer is E.
20.
In and Points and lie on and respectively. What is the minimum possible value of
Difficulty rating: 2110
Solution:
Reflect across line to get and reflect across line to get Then and so a broken path from to
This is minimized when the path is the straight segment We have and
By the Law of Cosines, so
Thus, the correct answer is D.
21.
For every real number let denote the greatest integer not exceeding and let The set of all numbers such that and is a union of disjoint intervals. What is the sum of the lengths of those intervals?
Difficulty rating: 2170
Solution:
Write with integer () and Then and becomes i.e.
Each contributes an interval of length so the total is
Thus, the correct answer is A.
22.
The number is between and How many pairs of integers are there such that and
Difficulty rating: 2270
Solution:
Because each interval contains either two or three powers of The chain holds exactly when the interval contains three consecutive powers of and then there is a unique such
Let and be the numbers of intervals for containing two and three powers of respectively. Since there are powers of in total, giving and
Solving,
Thus, the correct answer is B.
23.
The fraction where is the length of the period of the repeating decimal expansion. What is the sum
Difficulty rating: 2380
Solution:
Reading the block in pairs of digits (base ), expands as since Carrying works out so that every two-digit block appears, the block is skipped, and appears, before the period repeats.
If the blocks through all appeared, the digit sum would be Removing the missing subtracts giving
Thus, the correct answer is B.
24.
Let and for let For how many values of is
Difficulty rating: 2520
Solution:
If then So if for a nonnegative integer then after which the sequence alternates Thus exactly when for some integer
Now equals for for and for Its graph is piecewise linear with turning points and
A line meets this graph three times for and twice for The total is
Thus, the correct answer is C.
25.
The parabola has focus and goes through the points and For how many points with integer coordinates is it true that
Difficulty rating: 2650
Solution:
Since is the midpoint of and the segment is the latus rectum, so the directrix is parallel to at distance on the far side, namely
Equating distances to focus and directrix gives Writing forces and forces odd; with the integer points are
Then iff i.e. That gives lattice points.
Thus, the correct answer is B.