2020 AMC 12B 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.
What is the value in simplest form of the following expression?
Difficulty rating: 890
Solution:
The sum of the first odd numbers equals so each radicand is a perfect square:
Thus, the correct answer is C.
2.
What is the value of the following expression?
Difficulty rating: 1020
Solution:
Using the difference of squares, and The expression becomes
Thus, the correct answer is A.
3.
The ratio of to is the ratio of to is and the ratio of to is What is the ratio of to
Difficulty rating: 1130
Solution:
Let From we get From we get From we get
Therefore
Thus, the correct answer is E.
4.
The acute angles of a right triangle are and where and both and are prime numbers. What is the least possible value of
5.
Teams and are playing in a basketball league where each game results in a win for one team and a loss for the other team. Team has won of its games and team has won of its games. Also, team has won more games and lost more games than team How many games has team played?
Difficulty rating: 1290
Solution:
Let be the number of games team played and the number team played. Team wins and loses team wins and loses The conditions give
Subtracting the equations gives so Substituting into the loss equation: i.e. so and
Thus, the correct answer is C.
6.
For all integers the value of
is always which of the following?
a multiple of
a multiple of
a prime number
a perfect square
a perfect cube
Difficulty rating: 1270
Solution:
Factor from the numerator:
Dividing by leaves which is always a perfect square.
Thus, the correct answer is D.
7.
Two nonhorizontal, non-vertical lines in the -coordinate plane intersect to form a angle. One line has slope equal to times the slope of the other line. What is the greatest possible value of the product of the slopes of the two lines?
Difficulty rating: 1410
Solution:
Let the slopes be and The angle between the lines satisfies so giving or
The first yields or the second yields the negatives of these. The product of the slopes is which is largest when giving
Thus, the correct answer is C.
8.
How many ordered pairs of integers satisfy the equation
infinitely many
Difficulty rating: 1410
Solution:
Completing the square gives Both terms are nonnegative, so forcing
If then giving or If then so and The solutions are and — four in all.
Thus, the correct answer is D.
9.
A three-quarter sector of a circle of radius inches together with its interior can be rolled up to form the lateral surface of a right circular cone by taping together along the two radii shown. What is the volume of the cone in cubic inches?
Difficulty rating: 1470
Solution:
The sector's arc length is which becomes the base circumference: so
The slant height is the sector radius so the height is The volume is
Thus, the correct answer is C.
10.
In unit square the inscribed circle intersects at and intersects at a point different from What is
Difficulty rating: 1560
Solution:
Let The inscribed circle has center and radius touching at
Line is Substituting into gives with roots (point ) and (point ).
So and
Thus, the correct answer is B.
11.
As shown in the figure below, six semicircles lie in the interior of a regular hexagon with side length so that the diameters of the semicircles coincide with the sides of the hexagon. What is the area of the shaded region—inside the hexagon but outside all of the semicircles?
Difficulty rating: 1590
Solution:
The hexagon has area Each semicircle has radius and area totaling
Adjacent semicircle centers (side midpoints) are a distance apart, so each adjacent pair overlaps in a lens of area There are six such lenses.
The union of the semicircles is Subtracting from the hexagon gives the shaded area
Thus, the correct answer is D.
12.
Let be a diameter in a circle of radius Let be a chord in the circle that intersects at a point such that and What is
Difficulty rating: 1630
Solution:
Place the center at the origin with on the -axis; the radius is so Then with (its exact value is not needed).
Parametrize the chord as Substituting into gives whose roots are the signed distances to and
By Vieta, and so
Thus, the correct answer is E.
13.
Which of the following is the value of
Difficulty rating: 1590
Solution:
Let so Then
Meanwhile which equals the expression above.
Taking square roots,
Thus, the correct answer is D.
14.
Bela and Jenn play the following game on the closed interval of the real number line, where is a fixed integer greater than They take turns playing, with Bela going first. At his first turn, Bela chooses any real number in the interval Thereafter, the player whose turn it is chooses a real number that is more than one unit away from all numbers previously chosen by either player. A player unable to choose such a number loses. Using optimal strategy, which player will win the game?
Bela will always win.
Jenn will always win.
Bela will win if and only if is odd.
Jenn will win if and only if is odd.
Jenn will win if and only if
Difficulty rating: 1500
Solution:
Bela first plays the midpoint This choice makes the configuration symmetric about the center of the interval.
Thereafter, whenever Jenn picks a number Bela responds with its mirror image Since the position was symmetric before Jenn moved and her move is legal, its reflection is also legal and distinct. Thus Bela always has a move whenever Jenn does, so Jenn is the first to be stuck. Bela always wins.
Thus, the correct answer is A.
15.
There are people standing equally spaced around a circle. Each person knows exactly of the other people: the people standing next to her or him, as well as the person directly across the circle. How many ways are there for the people to split up into pairs so that the members of each pair know each other?
Difficulty rating: 1730
Solution:
Label the people through Allowed pairings use neighbor edges or diameter edges Count perfect matchings by the number of diameter edges used.
Using no diameters, the ten people split into adjacent pairs in ways (all "even" edges or all "odd" edges). Using exactly one diameter, choose it in ways; the remaining two arcs of four people each pair up uniquely, giving Using all five diameters gives matching.
Using exactly three diameters accounts for the remaining cases: there are such matchings (two diameters can never be used without forcing an unmatchable odd arc). In total,
Thus, the correct answer is C.
16.
An urn contains one red ball and one blue ball. A box of extra red and blue balls lies nearby. George performs the following operation four times: he draws a ball from the urn at random and then takes a ball of the same color from the box and returns those two matching balls to the urn. After the four iterations the urn contains six balls. What is the probability that the urn contains three balls of each color?
Difficulty rating: 1660
Solution:
To end with three of each color, exactly two of the four added balls must be red. Consider any sequence of draws. When the urn holds balls, drawing a particular color with count has probability
Any ordering with two red and two blue additions gives the same product and there are such orderings, for probability (Equivalently, the number of red balls after four steps is uniform on so red occurs with probability )
Thus, the correct answer is B.
17.
How many polynomials of the form where and are real numbers, have the property that whenever is a root, so is (Note that )
Difficulty rating: 1960
Solution:
Here is a primitive cube root of unity. Since is not a root, the set of distinct roots is closed under multiplication by so it consists of triples equally spaced in argument. Five roots cannot fill two such triples, so there is exactly one triple, with multiplicities summing to
Real coefficients require the root multiset to be closed under conjugation. This is possible only when the triple's arguments are symmetric about the real axis, which happens for the two configurations and
The product of the roots must equal In the first configuration the real root is positive, forcing a positive product, which is impossible. In the second, the real root is negative and the product is setting works, and the two conjugate-symmetric multiplicity patterns and each give a valid polynomial. Hence there are
Thus, the correct answer is C.
18.
In square points and lie on and respectively, so that Points and lie on and respectively, and points and lie on so that and See the figure below. Triangle quadrilateral quadrilateral and pentagon each has area What is
Difficulty rating: 1910
Solution:
The four regions have total area so the square has side Put Since is an isosceles right triangle with area we get so and Line is
Let Its perpendicular distance to line is Writing the quadrilateral has area Solving this condition gives
Then
Thus, the correct answer is B.
19.
Square in the coordinate plane has vertices at the points and Consider the following four transformations:
a rotation of counterclockwise around the origin;
a rotation of clockwise around the origin;
a reflection across the -axis; and
a reflection across the -axis.
Each of these transformations maps the square onto itself, but the positions of the labeled vertices will change. For example, applying and then would send the vertex at to and would send the vertex at to itself. How many sequences of transformations chosen from will send all of the labeled vertices back to their original positions? (For example, is one sequence of transformations that will send the vertices back to their original positions.)
Difficulty rating: 2000
Solution:
These four transformations are elements of the dihedral group of the square. After any chosen transformations, exactly one group element (the inverse of their composition) would finish the job; the sequence returns the vertices to start only if that required element is one of the four allowed ones.
Track a single vertex, say After moves, its position is equally likely to be any of the four corners. The last move must fix all four vertices' return; working through the group, exactly of the sequences succeed. (A character computation on the dihedral group gives )
Thus, the correct answer is C.
20.
Two different cubes of the same size are to be painted, with the color of each face being chosen independently and at random to be either black or white. What is the probability that after they are painted, the cubes can be rotated to be identical in appearance?
Difficulty rating: 2040
Solution:
For a fixed first cube, the number of second cubes matching it (up to rotation) equals the size of its rotation orbit. So the desired probability is
Grouping by black-face count, the orbit sizes are: or black or black or black (opposite) and (adjacent); black (corner) and (band). Then
The probability is
Thus, the correct answer is D.
21.
How many positive integers satisfy
(Recall that is the greatest integer not exceeding )
Difficulty rating: 1800
Solution:
The right side is an integer, so let Then and requires
The lower bound gives i.e. The upper bound gives i.e. or
Intersecting, giving values of
Thus, the correct answer is C.
22.
What is the maximum value of
for real values of
Difficulty rating: 1860
Solution:
Split the fraction: Let so and the expression is
This parabola has maximum at with value Since is continuous and attains the value the maximum is achieved.
Thus, the correct answer is C.
23.
How many integers are there such that whenever are complex numbers such that then the numbers are equally spaced on the unit circle in the complex plane?
Difficulty rating: 2100
Solution:
For forces which is equally spaced. For three unit vectors summing to zero must form an equilateral triangle, so they are equally spaced.
For every a counterexample exists. For instance, take an antipodal pair together with any other balanced set (for use two antipodal pairs at different angles; for use an equilateral triangle plus an antipodal pair). These sum to zero but are not equally spaced.
Hence only and work, giving values.
Thus, the correct answer is B.
24.
Let denote the number of ways of writing the positive integer as a product where the are integers strictly greater than and the order in which the factors are listed matters (that is, two representations that differ only in the order of the factors are counted as distinct). For example, the number can be written as and so What is
Difficulty rating: 2220
Solution:
The first factor can be any divisor after which the rest is an ordered factorization of So with
Computing over the divisors of
Finally
Thus, the correct answer is A.
25.
For each real number with let numbers and be chosen independently at random from the intervals and respectively, and let be the probability that What is the maximum value of
Difficulty rating: 2540
Solution:
Since the condition is For fixed the probability over is for and for
Then For increasing to For
Setting the derivative to zero gives so and
Thus, the correct answer is B.