2018 AMC 12B Exam Problems
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1.
Kate bakes a -inch by -inch pan of cornbread. The cornbread is cut into pieces that measure inches by inches. How many pieces of cornbread does the pan contain?
Answer: A
Difficulty rating: 840
Solution:
The pan has area square inches, and each piece has area square inches.
The number of pieces is
Thus, the correct answer is A.
2.
Sam drove miles in minutes. His average speed during the first minutes was mph (miles per hour), and his average speed during the second minutes was mph. What was his average speed, in mph, during the last minutes?
Answer: D
Difficulty rating: 1080
Solution:
In the first minutes Sam covered miles, and in the second he covered miles.
The last minutes covered miles, so the speed was
Thus, the correct answer is D.
3.
A line with slope intersects a line with slope at the point What is the distance between the -intercepts of these two lines?
Answer: B
Difficulty rating: 1240
Solution:
The line of slope is setting gives The line of slope is setting gives
The distance between the intercepts is
Thus, the correct answer is B.
4.
A circle has a chord of length and the distance from the center of the circle to the chord is What is the area of the circle?
Answer: B
Difficulty rating: 1310
Solution:
Dropping a perpendicular from the center to the chord bisects it, forming a right triangle with legs (half the chord) and (the distance), and hypotenuse
Then so the area is
Thus, the correct answer is B.
5.
How many subsets of contain at least one prime number?
Answer: D
Difficulty rating: 1390
Solution:
The set has elements, giving subsets. The subsets with no prime use only the four non-primes and there are of these.
So the number containing at least one prime is
Thus, the correct answer is D.
6.
Suppose cans of soda can be purchased from a vending machine for quarters. Which of the following expressions describes the number of cans of soda that can be purchased for dollars, where dollar is worth quarters?
Answer: B
Difficulty rating: 1430
Solution:
One can costs quarters, which is dollars. The number of cans that dollars can buy is
Thus, the correct answer is B.
7.
What is the value of
Answer: C
Difficulty rating: 1580
Solution:
The factors split into two telescoping chains. The odd-position factors form and the even-position factors form
The product is
Thus, the correct answer is C.
8.
Line segment is a diameter of a circle with Point not equal to or lies on the circle. As point moves around the circle, the centroid (center of mass) of traces out a closed curve missing two points. To the nearest positive integer, what is the area of the region bounded by this curve?
Answer: C
Difficulty rating: 1600
Solution:
Let be the center of the circle. The centroid of is the average of and since is the midpoint of the centroid lies one-third of the way from to
As traces the circle of radius the centroid traces a circle of radius Its area is
Thus, the correct answer is C.
9.
What is
Answer: E
Difficulty rating: 1620
Solution:
Splitting the sum,
Since this equals
Thus, the correct answer is E.
10.
A list of positive integers has a unique mode, which occurs exactly times. What is the least number of distinct values that can occur in the list?
Answer: D
Difficulty rating: 1700
Solution:
The mode uses of the entries, leaving Because the mode is unique, every other value appears at most times, so at least distinct non-mode values are needed.
Adding the mode gives This is achievable: use copies each of through ten copies of and one copy of
Thus, the correct answer is D.
11.
A closed box with a square base is to be wrapped with a square sheet of wrapping paper. The box is centered on the wrapping paper with the vertices of the base lying on the midlines of the square sheet of paper, as shown in the figure on the left. The four corners of the wrapping paper are to be folded up over the sides and brought together to meet at the center of the top of the box, point in the figure on the right. The box has base length and height What is the area of the sheet of wrapping paper?
Answer: A
Difficulty rating: 1760
Solution:
Following a fold from a corner of the paper to the center of the box top, the distance from a corner of the sheet to its center is
That segment is a leg of a -- triangle whose hypotenuse is a full side of the square sheet, so the side length is
The area of the sheet is
Thus, the correct answer is A.
12.
Side of has length The bisector of angle meets at and The set of all possible values of is an open interval What is
Answer: C
Difficulty rating: 1820
Solution:
Let and The angle bisector theorem gives so
Applying the triangle inequalities to sides and and substituting yields and (the third inequality holds automatically). Together these force
So and
Thus, the correct answer is C.
13.
Square has side length Point lies inside the square so that and The centroids of and are the vertices of a convex quadrilateral. What is the area of that quadrilateral?
Answer: C
Difficulty rating: 1810
Solution:
Place and Averaging the vertices, the four centroids are
These form a square whose diagonals, one horizontal and one vertical, each have length Its area is independent of where lies.
Thus, the correct answer is C.
14.
Joey and Chloe and their daughter Zoe all have the same birthday. Joey is year older than Chloe, and Zoe is exactly year old today. Today is the first of the birthdays on which Chloe's age will be an integral multiple of Zoe's age. What will be the sum of the two digits of Joey's age the next time his age is a multiple of Zoe's age?
Answer: E
Difficulty rating: 1870
Solution:
Let Chloe be today, so she is years older than Zoe. In years Chloe's age is a multiple of Zoe's age exactly when divides Having such birthdays means has exactly divisors.
A number with exactly divisors has the form or the only two-digit case is So Chloe is and Joey is
Joey's age is a multiple of exactly when divides The next time is making Joey with digit sum
Thus, the correct answer is E.
15.
How many -digit positive odd multiples of do not include the digit
Answer: A
Difficulty rating: 1930
Solution:
Write the number as The hundreds digit has choices (), and the units digit has choices ().
The tens digit may be any of These split into three residue classes mod of equal size so exactly choices of make divisible by
The count is
Thus, the correct answer is A.
16.
The solutions to the equation are connected in the complex plane to form a convex regular polygon, three of whose vertices are labeled and What is the least possible area of
Answer: B
Difficulty rating: 1990
Solution:
Translating by the solutions of are eight points on a circle of radius forming a regular octagon. The minimum-area triangle uses three consecutive vertices.
Take and Then and the height is so the area is
Thus, the correct answer is B.
17.
Let and be positive integers such that and is as small as possible. What is
Answer: A
Difficulty rating: 2090
Solution:
From we get and from we get Now
Hence With the fraction lies strictly between and so and
Thus, the correct answer is A.
18.
A function is defined recursively by and for all integers What is
Answer: B
Difficulty rating: 2150
Solution:
Repeatedly substituting the recursion into itself gives So increases by every time increases by
Since we have
Thus, the correct answer is B.
19.
Mary chose an even -digit number She wrote down all the divisors of in increasing order from left to right: At some moment Mary wrote as a divisor of What is the smallest possible value of the next divisor written to the right of
Answer: C
Difficulty rating: 2170
Solution:
Let be the next divisor after If then divides forcing impossible for a -digit number. So shares a prime factor with
Then so Indeed occurs for which is even and -digit.
Thus, the correct answer is C.
20.
Let be a regular hexagon with side length Denote by and the midpoints of sides and respectively. What is the area of the convex hexagon whose interior is the intersection of the interiors of and
Answer: C
Difficulty rating: 2270
Solution:
Both and are equilateral, and has half the area of the hexagon. The vertices where the two triangles cut each other let the shaded hexagon be measured against the midpoint triangle of
That midpoint triangle has the area of hence of the hexagon. The shaded region equals of the midpoint triangle, so it is of the hexagon.
The hexagon has area so the shaded area is
Thus, the correct answer is C.
21.
In with side lengths and let and denote the circumcenter and incenter, respectively. A circle with center is tangent to the legs and and to the circumcircle of What is the area of
Answer: E
Difficulty rating: 2360
Solution:
Since the triangle is right-angled at Set and Then is the midpoint of namely with circumradius The inradius is so
Because 's circle is tangent to both legs, Internal tangency to the circumcircle gives Setting this equal to and solving gives so
The shoelace formula on gives area
Thus, the correct answer is E.
22.
Consider polynomials of degree at most each of whose coefficients is an element of How many such polynomials satisfy
Answer: D
Difficulty rating: 2330
Solution:
Write with each of in The condition is
Let and both in Then By stars and bars the number of nonnegative solutions is and each automatically satisfies the upper bounds since the sum is
Thus, the correct answer is D.
23.
Ajay is standing at point near Pontianak, Indonesia, latitude and E longitude. Billy is standing at point near Big Baldy Mountain, Idaho, USA, N latitude and W longitude. Assume that Earth is a perfect sphere with center What is the degree measure of
Answer: C
Difficulty rating: 2400
Solution:
The longitudes differ by and is at latitude N. Place on the unit sphere.
Then The dot product is so and
Thus, the correct answer is C.
24.
Let denote the greatest integer less than or equal to How many real numbers satisfy the equation
Answer: C
Difficulty rating: 2500
Solution:
Let The equation becomes so Since we need i.e.
On each interval the increasing parabola meets the segment exactly once. These intervals run for giving solutions.
Thus, the correct answer is C.
25.
Circles and each have radius and are placed in the plane so that each circle is externally tangent to the other two. Points and lie on and respectively, so that and line is tangent to for each where See the figure below. The area of can be written in the form where and are positive integers. What is
Answer: D
Difficulty rating: 2840
Solution:
Let be the center of and let be the intersection of lines and Because triangle is a -- triangle. With we get and
The Law of Cosines in (with ) gives which simplifies to so
Then and the area is
So
Thus, the correct answer is D.