1996 AMC 8 Problem 14

Attempt Problem 14 of the 1996 AMC 8 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 1996 AMC 8 solutions, or check the answer key.

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14.

Six different digits from the set {1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9}\{1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9\} are placed in the squares in the figure shown so that the sum of the entries in the vertical column is 2323 and the sum of the entries in the horizontal row is 12.12. The sum of the six digits used is
2727
2929
3131
3333
3535
Answer: B
Concepts:digitslogical deduction
Small hint:
Three distinct digits summing to 2323 must be 6,6, 8,8, and 99
Big hint:
The shared square is counted in both sums, so the total of the six digits is 23+1223 + 12 minus the shared digit
Solution:
Three distinct digits from 11 through 99 summing to 2323 must be 6,6, 8,8, and 9.9. The row’s other three digits are at least 1+2+3=6,1 + 2 + 3 = 6, so the shared square (belonging to both the column and the row) is at most 12−6=6.12 - 6 = 6. Hence the shared digit is 6.6.
The six digits are then 6,6, 8,8, 9,9, 1,1, 2,2, and 3,3, whose sum is 29.29. Equivalently, 23+12−6=29.23 + 12 - 6 = 29.
Thus, the correct answer is B .
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