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ISBN: 978-1-944931-01-8
Foreword
Welcome to this little Zen Master’s
guide on problem solving. This title
contains the full solutions to every
problem in the title "8 Tips to Solve any
Problem. Practice these and more
problems online at
http://edfinity.com/ZenMasters/8Tips.

James Tanton
January 2016
Acknowledgements
My deepest thanks and appreciation to
Michael Pearson, Executive Director of
the Mathematical Association of
America, for setting me on the path of
joyous mathematical problem solving
with the MAA Curriculum Inspirations
project, and to Shivram Venkat at
Edfinity for inviting me to extend that
wonderful work to the global community
of younger budding mathematicians. I
am so very honored to be part of the
unique, and truly remarkable, digital
format experience Shivram and Edfinity
have developed for the world.

James Tanton
January, 2016
Edfinity’s Zen Master’s Series
Edfinity’s Zen Master’s series is a
collection of 10 digital titles (5 each for
Middle and High School) created for the
modern educator and student. The
titles are available only in digital form
and consist of carefully crafted problem
collections designed to help students
master problem solving. Each title
guides students through the themes of
a specific topic (such as Algebra or
Probability), presenting concise
expository content, select examples
illustrating specific problem solving
techniques, and between 150-200
problems expertly arranged to help the
user achieve complete mastery.
The volumes are each accompanied
with optional access to an Edfinity
‘digital companion’ presenting all the
problems in the title as a self-paced,
online course with auto-grading and
performance analysis. Educators may
enroll their students to track their
progress, or students/parents may
enroll individually. Access to the guides
provides educators access to rich,
supplemental problem collections for
classroom use.
The Zen Master’s Series is designed to
serve broad usage by educators and
students alike, offering substantive
general enrichment, development of
foundational skills in problem solving,
and contest preparation. In addition to
helping students prepare effectively for
local and major international contests,
the problems provide robust attention to
standards and guidelines of the
Common Core State Standards in
Mathematics (USA), GCSE (UK),
Singapore’s Math curriculum,
Australian Curriculum, and most other
international syllabi.
ZEN MASTER’S MIDDLE SCHOOL
SERIES
8 Tips to Solve Any Problem, by James
Tanton
Numbers and the Number System, by
James Tanton
Structure, Patterns and Logic, by
James Tanton
Counting and Probability, by James
Tanton
Relationships and Equations, by James
Tanton
Geometry, by James Tanton
Solutions Manual for each title by
James Tanton
ZEN MASTER’S HIGH SCHOOL SERIES
Algebra, by David Wells
Geometry, by David Wells
Number Theory, by David Wells
Discrete Mathematics, by David Wells
Advanced Topics, by David Wells
Solutions Manual for each title by David
Wells

Enroll at
http://edfinity.com/ZenMasters/8Tips for
online practice with scoring and
complete solutions.
Contents
Foreword
Acknowledgements
Edfinity’s Zen Master Series
Table Of Contents
Solutions (With My Reactions)
About The Author
Solutions (With My Reactions)

EXAMPLE 1: Change one number in the grid below

to produce a new grid whose rows and columns all
have the same sum. What is the value of the new
number?

My Personal Reaction: I’ve never

seen a question like this before! I am
not even sure how to go about
solving it.

Take a Deep
Breath!
The question is about row sums and column sums. I
might as well add up the numbers in the rows and
in the columns. Why not?

Ooh! I see that most of the row and column sums

are 24 , but the second row and the third column
sum only to 23. This makes me think that the “5” in
the grid is suspicious.

In fact, if I change that 5 to a 6 , then the all the

rows and all the columns will add to 24 . That’s it!
That’s the answer.
The value of the new number is 6 .
EXAMPLE 2: ABCD is a square with side length 4
cm. A point P is chosen in the interior of the square
at random. What is the probability that the area of
triangle APB plus the area of triangle CPD is
greater than 10 square centimeters?

My Personal Reaction. This question

is hard to understand without a
picture. So I’ll draw a picture.

I have to remember that when one draws a picture

of a polygon in geometry, the letters for the names
of its corner have to go in order: A , then B , then C ,
then D either clockwise or counter clockwise.

Now, what does the question want? (I’ve forgotten

already!)

What is the probability that the area of triangle

APB plus the area of triangle CPD is greater than
10 square centimeters?

Hmm. let me now draw those triangles and shade

them in.

We want the probability that the two yellow

regions have areas, when added together, greater
than 10 cm2 . Hmmm. This is weird!
How can I know what the areas of those triangles
are?
Just Do
Something!

I do know that the area of a triangle is given by the

1
formula × base × height . That’s the only thing
2
coming into my mind right now.
So in our picture we have:
1 1
area ΔAPB + area ΔCPD = × 4 × h+ × 4 × k
2 2
The sum of the two areas is:

2h+ 2k .
Hmm.

Oh! Look at the picture. We have that h+ k = 4 ,

which means that 2h+ 2k = 8 . The sum of the areas
of the two triangles is 8 cm2 .

In fact,
no matter where P is, the areas add to 8 cm2 . This
is a trick question!

The probability that the two triangles will have

areas adding to greater than 10 cm2 is ZERO!
EXAMPLE 3: What is the area of the triangle drawn
on grid paper shown? (Each small square of the grid
has area one square unit and each corner of the
triangle lies at an intersection point of grid lines.)

My Personal Reaction. This question

doesn’t look strange as I do know a
formula for the area of a triangle.

1
area = × base × height .
2

But as I sit with this question I am coming to realize

that I don’t know what “base” to use in this picture
nor what “height” to think about. This makes me
think that the formula I know is going to be of no
help. Oh dear!

What can I do?

Each small square of the grid has area one square

unit.

So two small squares have area two square units,

three have area three square units, and so on.

I don’t know why, but my eye is drawn to these two

small squares:

In fact, I see that the side of the triangle cuts this

rectangle in half. The area of the white part within
this rectangle is one square unit.
Ooh! I can do this on all three sides!

Is this helpful?

Well … All this area sits inside a 3× 7 rectangle of

area 21 . Aah! This means that the area of the
original triangle is:

21−1− 7 − 7.5 = 5.5

The triangle has area five-and-a-half square units.

EXAMPLE 4: Two circles, each of radius 5, have
centers 8 units apart. What is the length of their
common chord?

My Personal Reaction. This

question is strange to me because I
don’t know what “common chord”
means. I know what is a circle is, I
know what it means for it to have
radius 5 units, and I know what it
means for the centers of two circles
to be a certain distance apart. It’s
that “common chord” term that is
scaring me.

Take a
Deep
Breath!

Perhaps I should draw a picture.

I can see that the circles must intersect if their
centers are only 8 units apart.

So what could their “common chord” be?

Well, a chord is a line segment connecting two

points on a circle and “common,” I guess, means
what it does in everyday language: to have
something the same.

I bet the question wants the length of the vertical

line connecting the two points of intersection.
Okay. How am I going to figure out that length?

Well I am going to guess that the picture is

symmetrical, which means the common chord
chops horizontal segment in half. I bet it is also
perpendicular to that line. I can also draw in a
radius that meets the chord.
I see a right triangle with hypotenuse 5 and one leg
of length 4 . It must be a 3− 4 −5 right triangle.

Ah! Half the common chord has length 3 so the full

length of that common chord is 6 units. DONE!

Comment: Technically we are not done! Were we

correct to assume that the common chord
intersects the line connecting the centers of the
circles at an 90! angle, and that it also divides its
length in half?
EXAMPLE 5: A 2× 2 piece of paper has the numbers
1, 8 , 4 , and 11 written on it is shown. It is blank on
the reverse side.

The 2× 2 piece of paper is folded in half either along

its vertical or its horizontal line of symmetry to
make a 1× 2 rectangle of paper, two layers thick.

That 1× 2 rectangle is then folded in half again to

make a 1×1 square of paper, four layers thick, and
we place this thick 1×1 square of paper flat on a
table top.

Each layer of paper in that 1×1 square has a

number written on it and that number is either
facing upwards or it is facing downwards.

What is the sum of the upward-facing numbers in

that stack of four layers?
My Personal Reaction. This question
is weird!

I didn’t know what to do with this question, so I

tried it with an actual piece of paper! (Why not?)

When I first tried it I could see that the numbers 1

and 11 were facing upward, giving a sum of 12 .
When I did it a second time, the numbers 1 and 11
faced upwards again. And then I realized that if I
turned the stack over, the numbers 4 and 8 would
be facing upwards instead, and they have a sum of
12 ! Hmm.

If I look at the original 2× 2 square, I can see that

any two neighboring numbers are going to be
separated by a line that gets folded. This means
that if one of those two numbers is upward facing,
its’ neighbor is going to be downward facing, and
vice versa. Cool!

So if the number 1 is upward, this means that 8

and 4 will be downward, and 11 upward. Or if 1 is
downward, 8 and 4 will be upward, and 11
downward.
The sum of the upward numbers is either 1+11 or
4 + 8 , which is 12 in both cases! The answer is 12 .
EXAMPLE 6: How many ways are there to arrange
the letters GLOSS?

My Personal Reaction. I do know how

to count the arrangements of some
letters.

For example:

ABC can be arranged 3× 2×1 = 6 ways,

ABCD can be arranged 4 × 3× 2×1 = 24 ways,
ABCDE can be arranged 5× 4 × 3× 2×1 = 120
ways,
and so on.

So if the letters of GLOSS were all different I would

be fine with this question: there would be 120
arrangements.

So what do I do with the repeated letters?

Hmm.
Okay, if the word were GLOS1 S2 , with the S s made
to look different, there were would be 120
different arrangements. But the S s are the same.
Hmm.

Here are some of the arrangements of GLOS1 S2 :

GLOS1 S2
GLOS2S1
LS1OGS2
LS2OGS1
S2OS1GL
S1OS2GL
!
If I made the S s the same, I would see these
answers “collapse” in pairs:

GLOS1 S2 and GLOS2S1 both become GLOSS ,

LS1OGS2 and LS2OGS1 both become LSOGS ,
and so on.

So making the S s the same, divides all the answers

in pairs: There must be 120/2 = 60 ways to arrange
GLOSS .
EXAMPLE 7: A three-digit number is chosen at
random. What is the probability that its digits sum
to a multiple of three?

My Personal Reaction. I do know

that if a number has digits that sum
to a multiple of three, then the
number itself must be a multiple of
three.

Aha! This question just wants the probability of

choosing a three-digit number that is a multiple of
three.

Here are the three-digit numbers:

100,101,102,103,…,998,999 and the multiples of
three are 102,105,108,…,999 . Is that a third of
them?

There are 999− 99 = 900 three-digit numbers in all

and the multiples of three are 102 = 3× 34 up to
999 = 3× 333, which means there are
333− 33 = 300 of these.
Yep, exactly one third of the three-digit numbers
are multiples of three, and the probability asked for
1
is .
3
EXAMPLE 8: Three numbers have median 10, mode
10, and median 100. What is the largest of the
three numbers?

My Personal Reaction: What do I

already know?

Okay, median means the middle number (when

things are arranged in order), mode means the
number that occurs most often, and mean means
average. So if the numbers are a , b , and c in order,
then:

Median = 10 , means b = 10 .
Mode = 10 , means the number 10 happens
twice or three times.
a+b+c
Mean = 100 , means = 100.
3

All three numbers can’t be 10 (the average

wouldn’t be 100 if all three numbers are 10 ).

Okay, let’s suppose a = 10, b = 10, and c equals

something.
 10+10+ c
We need = 100 which gives c = 280 .
3

This is the largest of the three numbers.

EXAMPLE 9: A circle passes through the points
( )( ) ( )
0,0 , 3,0 , and 0,4 . What is the area of the
portion in first quadrant?

My Personal Reaction: Let me start by

drawing the circle.

We want the area of the shaded region. Hmm.

I know the area of a circle is π r 2 where r is the
radius of the circle.

I see a right angle. And I know for circles right

angles come off of diameters. This line must be a
diameter:

Okay, I see that the area I need is a triangle and a

semicircle.

The area of the triangle is

1 1
× base × height = × 3× 4 = 6 .
2 2
 1
The area of the semicircle is π r 2 .
2
What’s the radius?

Oh! The diameter is the hypotenuse of a right

triangle.

By the Pythagorean Theorem its length is

32 + 42 = 9+16 = 5 .

5
The radius is .
2
So, the area of the semicircle is
2
⎛ 5 ⎞ 25
π⎜ ⎟ = π ,
⎝ 2⎠ 4

and the area of the whole shaded region is

25
6+ π.
4
EXAMPLE 10: What is the radius of the largest
circle that sits inside a triangle with sides of
lengths 3, 4 , and 5?

My Personal Reaction: Okay.

A 3-4-5 triangle is a right triangle.
We want the radius of the largest
possible circle one can draw inside
this right triangle. It probably
touches all three sides of the
triangle.
I want the radius of this circle. It feels compelling to
draw in three radii.

I need something more. What do I know about a 3-

4-5 triangle?

It’s a right triangle. We have 32 + 42 = 52 . Its area is

1
× 3× 4 = 6 .
2

Aha! Area. It looks like my radii divide the triangle

into different regions. Can I work out the different
small areas, add them up, and since I know they
add to 6 maybe I’ll learn what the radius is.
It seems compelling to draw in some extra lines:

This divides the 3-4-5 triangle into three triangles,

each with height r . Wow!
1
The area of the bottom triangle is ⋅3⋅r ,
2
1
the area of the left side triangle is ⋅4⋅r ,
2
1
and the area of the right side triangle is ⋅5⋅r .
2
And these all add to 6 !
 1 1 1
⋅3r + ⋅4r + ⋅5r = 6
2 2 2
3r + 4r +5r = 12
12r = 12
r =1

We get that the radius is 1.

EXAMPLE 11: What is the units digit of 2200 ?

My Personal Reaction: There is no

way I am going to work out

(two hundred times!)

Let’s try smaller examples and see what we see:

21 = 2 ends with 2.
22 = 4 ends with 4 .
23 = 8 ends with 8 .
24 = 16 ends with 6 .
25 = 32 ends with 2.
26 = 64 ends with 4 .
27 = 128 ends with 8 .
28 = ?? ends with 6 .
29 = ?? ends with 2.

I can see that in doubling the units digits cycle

through 2, 4 , 8 and 6 in that order.
So 2200 has the same units digit as 2196 , and 2192 ,
and 2188 . In fact, these powers are all multiples of
four. So 2200 has the same units digit as 24 , which is
a 6.
EXAMPLE 12: There are five pennies on a table. If I
am allowed to remove 1, 2, or 3 pennies at a time,
in how many different ways could I deplete the
pile?

My Personal Reaction: There seem

to be many options! Take 3 then 2, or
take 2 then 3, ... it’s too
overwhelming.

Let’s make the problem simpler. The simplest case

is:
One penny: There is 1 way to remove one penny.

Next simplest:
Two Pennies: There are 2 ways to remove two
pennies: 1 then 1, or take 2 right away.

Okay. How about three?

Three Pennies: Take 3; Take 2 then 1; Take 1 then
2, Take 1 then 1 then 1. There are 4 ways to
remove three pennies.

Now it is getting harder.

Four pennies:
Take 1 and then we are left with three pennies that
can be removed four ways.
OR
Take 2 and then we are left with two pennies that
can be removed two ways.
OR
Take 3 and then we are left with one penny that
can be removed in one way.

There are a total of 4 + 2+1 = 7 ways to remove

four pennies.
But finally …

Five pennies:
Take 1 and be left with four pennies: seven ways.
OR
Take 2 and be left with three pennies: four ways.
OR
Take 3 and be left with two pennies: two ways.

There are a total of 7 + 4 + 2 = 13 was to remove

five pennies.
EXAMPLE 13: Arman lists all the four-digit
numbers whose digits add to ten. What is the
largest possible difference between two numbers
in his list?

My Personal Reaction: It seems

like I should list all these four digit
numbers. However, if I think about
it for a moment, the largest
difference between two numbers
on the list will be the difference
between the smallest number on
the list and the largest. So I only
need to figure out these two
numbers.

SMALLEST: It will begin with a 1 . So is 1009 the

smallest four-digit number with digits adding to
ten? I think so, as this has no hundreds and no tens.
LARGEST: It will have to be in the nine thousands. In
fact, 9100 is as large as it can be.

The difference is 9100−1009 = 8091 .

EXAMPLE 14: ABCDEF is a regular hexagon with
area 600 square centimeters. Line segments AC
and AE divide the hexagon into three regions
labeled I, II, and III as shown.

What is the value of

(area I ) + (areaII ) + (areaIII ) ?
2 2 2

My Personal Reaction: It seems too

hard to work out these separate
areas. Hmm.

The area of the whole hexagon is 600 square

centimeters. I can’t help but recall that a hexagon is
composed of six equilateral triangles, which are
much easier pieces to think about.
 Each equilateral triangle has area 100 square
centimeters.

Oh! Look at region I. It is half of two equilateral

triangles. Region I has area 100 square
centimeters.

Region III is the same. So region II must have area:

600−100−100 = 400 square centimeters.

Thus
( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
2 2 2 2 2 2
area I + areaII + areaIII = 100 + 400 + 100 = 180000
EXAMPLE 15: With how many zeros does the
product 1× 2× 3×!×19× 20 end?

My Personal Reaction: This is a big

number! Let’s try some smaller ones
first and get a feel for things.

1× 2 = 2 ends with no zeros.

1× 2× 3 = 6 ends with no zeros.

Hmm. This is not going to be helpful! When will I

get a zero at the end? We need a multiple of ten.

Ah. The first multiple of ten will come from

1× 2× 3× 4 ×5 with that 2 and the 5 .

1× 2× 3× 4 ×5 ends with one zero.

When will such a product end with two zeros? We

need two multiples of ten. It must be:

1× 2× 3× 4 ×5× 6 × 7 × 8 × 9×10 ends with two

zeros.
(We have a 2 and a 5, and another 2 and a 5 from
within the 10 .)

Okay, I have a feel for it. We need to see how many

multiples of ten, that is, how many 2 and 5 pairs lie
within the product 1× 2× 3×!×19× 20 .

Now, a 2 and 5 pair comes from:

the 2 and the 5 ,

from 10 ,
from 20 ,

and

from 15 and any other even number. That’s it!

We have that 1× 2× 3×!×19× 20 ends with four

zeros.
EXAMPLE 16: Red marbles weigh 15 grams, blue
marbles weigh 25 grams, and orange marbles
weigh 35 grams. Lulu has a bag of marbles. The
marbles in that bag weigh a total of 270 grams.
What is the least number of marbles Lulu
possesses?

(A) 7 (B) 8 (C) 9 (D) 10 (E) 11

My Personal Reaction: Each

marble weight ends with a “ ” yet
the total weight of the bag ends is
grams. There must be an even
number of marbles in the bag. This
means options (A), (C), and (E) are
out!

Now is it 8 marbles or 10 marbles?

Can I get a weight of 270 with eight marbles? How
many 35 s could I have?

7 × 35 = 245

Oh! Seven 35 s and one 25 does it! The answer is

(B).
Comment: Why is it not possible for six marbles to
have weight 270 grams?
EXAMPLE 17: The value of
⎛ 4 2 1 3 11 ⎞
5× 7 × 9×11×13× ⎜ + + + + ⎟ is
⎝ 5 7 9 11 13 ⎠

(A) 0 (B) 1 (C) 45045

1013
(D) 99568 (E) 104311
15015

My Personal Reaction: The fraction

on the right is bigger than one. The
product to its left is a big number.
Options (A) and (B) are definitely out!

In fact

5× 7 × 9×11×13 = 35× 99×13

= 455× 99 = 45500− 455 = 45045

so option (C) is out. (This number gets multiplied by

something larger than one.)
I can see if I distribute the parentheses the answer
is going to be a sum of seven whole numbers and
so is itself going to be a whole number:

⎛ 4 2 1 3 11 ⎞
5× 7 × 9×11×13× ⎜ + + + + ⎟
⎝ 5 7 9 11 13 ⎠
5× 7 × 9×11×13× 4 5× 7 × 9×11×13× 2
= +
5 7
5× 7 × 9×11×13×1
+ +!
9

Option (D) is out.

This leaves (E) as the only possible option for the
correct answer.
EXAMPLE 18: Which of the following values is the
sum of sixteen consecutive whole numbers?

(A) 500 (B) 501 (C) 502

(D) 503 (E) 504

My Personal Reaction: Any sum of

sixteen consecutive integers will be a
sum of eight odd numbers and eight
even numbers. The sum will be
even. Options (B) and (D) are out.

Now what?

Let’s write the numbers as: n +1 , n + 2 , …, n +16

Their sum is:

( )
16n + 1+ 2+ 3+!+15+16 = 16n +136

This number is certainly even. It looks like it might

be a multiple of four?
 (
16n +136 = 4 4n + 34 )
Neither (A) nor (E) are multiples of four. The answer
must be (C).

Comment: What is a good way to see that

1+ 2+ 3+!+15+16 equals 136 ?
EXAMPLE 19: Some string is wrapped around a
rectangle of cardboard as shown:

If the cardboard and rope is carefully flipped over

about a vertical axis, which of the following could
be the layout of string we would see? (Assume the
string is pulled taut so that all sections of sting are
straight lines).
My Personal Reaction: Let me draw
the back pattern of the original
picture.

Only options (B) and (C) have two adjacent vertical

and two diagonal pairs. With the flip, the vertical
pairs will end up on the right.

The answer must be (B).

EXAMPLE 20:
“Precisely one of these sentences is false.”
“Precisely two of these sentences are false.”
“Precisely three of these sentences are false.”
“All four of these sentences are false.”

If each of the four sentences above is referring

to those four sentences, how many of sentences
can be true?

(A) 1 sentence can be true

(B) 2 sentences can be true
(C) 3 sentences can be true
(D) All four sentences can be true
(E) None of the sentences can be true.

My Personal Reaction: Since all four

sentences are saying different things,
they can’t all be true. Option (D) is
out..

In fact, since they are all saying different things, no

two sentences can be true.
So there are either zero or just one true sentences.
That leaves option (A) or option (E).

If (E) is correct, then none of the sentences are

true. Which means what the last sentence is saying
is something true after all. Oops! Option (E) cannot
be right.

The answer must be (A) (and the third sentence is

true).
EXAMPLE 21: Twenty students sit in a circle. The
age of each student in the circle happens to equal
the average of the ages of his or her left and right
neighbors. Betty is in the circle and is 10 years old.
Lucas sits in the circle too. How old is Lucas?

My Personal Reaction: The answer to

this question must be 10 as this is the
only number mentioned.

Betty’s age is 10 and this is the average of her two

neighbors. If one neighbor is younger than Betty,
the other neighbor must be older. (Their ages are
10− a , 10 , and 10+ a , for some number a .)

Ah! In general, if someone in the circle sits next to

someone who is younger, the person on his or her
other side must be older. And the person that older
person’s side must be older still, and the next
person older still, and so on, all the way around the
circle back to Betty. The ages going around the
circle can’t all be increasing! The only way out of
this pickle is for everyone to have the same age.
Lucas must be 10 as well. Sneaky
EXAMPLE 22: Jill and Scott bought some postcards
while vacationing at the beach. All postcards cost
the same number of pennies each (more than one
penny). Jill spent $2.53 on postcards and Scott
spent $3.41. How many more postcards did Scott
buy than Jill?

My Personal Reaction: The numbers

and are suspicious!

We have:

253 = 23×11
341 = 31×11

Hmm. It must be that the postcards cost 11 cents

each (this is the only common factor of the two
numbers) and that Jill bought 23 and Scott bought
31 , which is 8 more.
EXAMPLE 23: A bug walks along the floor of a 10
foot by 10 foot square room. It starts in the one
corner of the room and walks 6.5 feet in a straight
line towards the opposite corner of the room. It
then turns left 90! and walks in a straight line for 2
feet, before turning to face the corner it first came
from and walking 1 foot towards that corner. The
bug then stays still.

If a , b , c , and d are the distances of the bug from

each of the four walls of the room, what is the
value of a + b + c + d ?

My Personal Reaction: This is

complicated! Let me draw a picture:
Wow! The picture makes it obvious that
a + b + c + d = 10+10 = 20 feet!
EXAMPLE 24: In how many different ways can
2014 be written as the sum of three three-digit
prime numbers?

My Personal Reaction: This seems

hard. I don’t know any three-digit
primes off the top of my head! Hmm.

Take a
Deep
Breath!

We need three primes to add to 2014 .

They can’t all be odd (because three odd numbers

add to an odd).

So one of the primes must be 2, which isn’t three

digits long.

The answer is: IT CAN’T BE DONE! Zero ways!

EXAMPLE 25: Is the number 220 −1 prime?

My Personal Reaction: There is no

way I am going to work out
2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2x
2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2-1
and then see if it factors. There’s got
to be an easier way!

What do I know about 220 −1 ? Not much.

Can I rewrite it?
( ) −1 .
5
2 −1 = 2
20 4

( ) −1 and (2 ) −1 and (2 )
4 2 10
It is also 2 5 10 2
−1 .

This reminds me of algebra class. There we learned

(
that x 2 −1 factors as x −1 x +1 . )( )
So …
 (2 ) −1 = (2 )( )
2
10 10
−1 210 +1 .

The number factors and it cannot be prime!

EXAMPLE 26: What is the value of the sum ?
1+ 2+ 3+ 4 +5+ 6 + 7 + 8 + 9+10+ 9+ 8 + 7 + 6
+5+ 4 + 3+ 2+1

My Personal Reaction: This is my

favorite example of the power of a
picture.

Look at the diagonals of a 10×10 grid of dots:

The answer must be 10×10 = 100 , all one hundred

dots in the picture.
EXAMPLE 27: Two flagpoles have heights that
come in a 5:6 ratio. If their heights differ by 3
meters, what is the height of the tallest pole?

My Personal Reaction: Let me draw

the two poles: one is five units high
and the other is six units high. (I just
don’t know what a “unit” is.)

It is clear from the picture they differ by one unit.

But that difference, we are told, is 3 meters.

The tallest pole is six copies of 3 meters, and so is

18 meters tall. Done!
EXAMPLE 28: In a list of five numbers, the
average of the first three numbers is 10 ,
the average of the last two numbers is 20 .
What is the average of all five numbers?

My Personal Reaction: To me the

problem looks something like this:

So each of the first three numbers is basically 10 ,

the last two are each basically 20 , which means all
five numbers add to
10+10+10+ 20+ 20 = 70
70
and so have average value = 14 .
5
Is that right?

Maybe a better way to think about this is to focus

on sums.
 A+ B +C
= 10 and so A + B + C = 30 .
3

D+E
= 20 and so D + E = 40.
2

So the sum of all five numbers is

A + B + C + D + E = 30+ 40 = 70

70
and their average is = 14 .
5

I was right!
EXAMPLE 29: What is the area of the circle with
( )
center at the point 3,4 and tangent to the x -axis?

My Personal Reaction: Let’s draw that

circle.

It is now clear that this is a circle of radius 4 and so

its area is π ⋅42 = 16π .
EXAMPLE 30: How many solutions are there to the
equation x + y + z = 8 if each of x , y , and z is
either a positive whole number or zero?

My Personal Reaction: Can I think of

each solution to as a
picture?

Here’s a picture of 1+ 4 + 3 = 8 :

Here’s 4 + 0+ 4 = 8 :

And this picture:

depicts 2+ 3+ 3 = 8 , and this one:

shows 7 +1+ 0 = 8 .
The solutions match all the ways to color two dots
black out of ten.
As one learns in a course on clever counting, there
8! 8 × 7
are = = 28 of these configurations.
2!6! 2
EXAMPLE 31: Each morning on my way to work I
walk up a set of moving escalators out of the
subway station. I seem to walk up them at the
same speed each morning as I always count 86
steps. If I walked a little slower, would I count
fewer steps, a greater number of steps, or the
same number of steps?

My Personal Reaction: What if I

walked so slowly that I didn’t move at
all? That is, what if I stood still?

Then the escalator would take me all the way up

and I would count zero steps. The number of steps I
take must go down if I walk more slowly.
EXAMPLE 32: There are 48 people in a room. What
is the largest number N so that there is sure to be
N people in that room with birthdays in the same
month?

My Personal Reaction: This question

is hard to understand! The “ ” stuff
is confusing. But I do see that the
question is about people having
birthdays in the same month.

Let’s think extremes.

Is it possible for everyone to have a birthday in the

same month? Yep. Everyone could be born in
August, for example.
Must everyone have the same birthday month? No.

Could 47 people have the same birthday month?

Yes. 47 in January, say, and 1 in August.
Must this happen? No.

Okay, how low can we go?

Could 10 people have the same birthday month?
Yes!
Must there be ten people with the same birthday
month? No. We could have nine people in each of
January, February, March, April, and May, and
three in August.

Could 5 people have the same birthday month?

Yes.
Must 5 have the same birthday Month? No, we
could have four people born in each of the months
January through December.

Okay, I think the number 4 is going to be

interesting!

Must there be 4 people with the same birthday

month? YES!

If there were only three people with birthdays in

January, and three in February, and three in March,
all the way up to just three in December, then that
would account for only 36 people. We can’t have at
most three people born in any month.

So is N = 4 the answer to the weird question?

 What is the largest number N so that there is
sure to be N people in that room with
birthdays in the same month?

Yes. Now that I read it again, I understand that

there must be 4 people in the room with birthdays
in the same month, and 4 is the largest number for
which this must be the case. (There could be more
people with the same birthday month, but it is not
guaranteed.)
EXAMPLE 33: A set A has 300 elements. A set B
has 200 elements. What is the smallest possible
number of elements in A∪ B , the union of the two
sets?

My Personal Reaction: Let me draw a

Venn diagram for this question.

Here a is the number of elements in A alone, b the

number of elements in B alone, and c the number
of elements in their intersection.

A∪ B is the set if all elements in the diagram.

There are a + b + c elements in the A∪ B . The
question wants the smallest possible value for
a + b + c . Hmm.
Let’s look at the extreme values of b .

Could b = 0 ?

Sure! Then c would have to be all 200 elements in

B , c = 200 , making a = 100 , and giving

a + b + c = 100+ 0+ 200 = 300 .

What’s the biggest b could be?

I guess b = 200 is possible, Then c = 0 and a = 300 .

This makes:

a + b + c = 300+ 200+ 0 = 500 .

Other values of b will have to give values between

300 and 500 .

So A∪ B could have as few as 300 elements.

Comment: Now that I think of it, I could

have seen this answer right away!
 My Venn diagram could look like this.
(This has b = 0 ).

The union here has just 300 elements, and this is

the smallest possible union.
EXAMPLE 34: Three-quarters of the people in a
room have brown hair and five-sevenths of the
people in the room have brown eyes. What is the
smallest possible number of people that could be in
the room who have both brown hair and brown
eyes?

My Personal Reaction: This question

feels a bit tricky.

Let N be the number of people in the room. Then:

3
Count of brown-haired people = N .
4
5
Count of brown-eyed people = N .
7

So N better be both a multiple of 4 and a multiple

of 7 .

The smallest common multiple of these is 28 and

so there are at least 28 people in the room.

Let’s draw a Venn diagram for this smallest case.

Now we want to know the smallest b can be.

Could b = 0 ?

If so, then a = 21 and c = 15 and there would be

21+ 0+15 = 36 people in the room. Too many!

Could b = 1?

If so, then a = 20 and c = 14 and there would be

20+1+14 = 35 people in the room. Too many!

Could b = 2?

If so, then a = 19 , c = 13 and 19+ 2+13 = 34 still

gives too many people in the room!
But I see that each time I increase b by one, the
count of people in the room goes down by one. This
makes me think that b = 8 could be interesting.

Could b = 8 ?

If so, a = 13 , c = 7 and there are 13+ 8 + 7 = 28

people in the room. Perfect!

Let’s just make sure that b = 7 can’t work:

With b = 7 we get a = 14 , c = 8 giving

14 + 7 + 8 = 29 people in the room. Too many!

So the smallest number of people with brown hair

and brown eyes is 8 people.
EXAMPLE 35: Infinitely many circles are drawn,
each with radius 1. All their centers lie on a single
line and none of the circles intersect. One more
circle is drawn. It has radius different from 1 and
can be centered at any location in the plane. What
is the maximum number of times this new circle
could intersect with the circles of radius 1 ?

My Personal Reaction: This question

is weird.

We have lots and lots and lots of circles in a row.

It looks like another circle would intersect these

either no times, once, twice, three times or four
times:
But the new circle doesn’t have to be the same
radius!

Okay, let’s do something extreme. Let’s assume it

has a really, really big radius. Then I can see it can
intersect lots of times.

The bigger the radius the more intersections I can

get.

This is a trick question: There is no limit to the

number of intersection points!
EXAMPLE 36: Balls numbered 1 through 9 are
placed in a bag. Two balls are pulled out of the bag
at random, without replacement, and their values
are recorded as a two-digit number. (For example,
pulling the 2 ball and then the 9 ball is recorded as
the number 29 .) What is the probability that that
the two-digit number recorded is a multiple of
four?

My Personal Reaction: Hmm. I am

not sure how to think about this
question.

The two-digit multiples of four are:

12,16,20,24,28,32,36,40,44,48,52,
56,60,64,68,72,76,80,84,88,92

and 96 .

There are 22 of them.

Now, when I pull out two balls in the manner the

question suggests, I will get a two-digit number
without a repeat digit and without any zeros! There
are 9 possibilities for its first digit and 8 for its
second. This means there are 9× 8 = 72 two-digit
numbers under consideration.

The two-digit multiples of four we might see are:

12,16, 20 ,24,28,32,36, 40 , 44 ,48,52,

56, 60 ,64,68,72,76, 80 ,84, 88 ,92
and 96 .

There are 16 of them.

The probability of seeing a multiple of four is thus

16 2
= .
72 9
EXAMPLE 37: Each of the four walls in a square
room is to be painted either sage green, sunset
orange, or shiny gold. How many different ways are
there to paint the room if no two opposite walls
can be the same color?

My Personal Reaction: Each of the

walls can be painted one of three
colors, so there are
ways to color the room without any
restrictions. But we have restrictions!

With only three colors to work with, two walls are

going to have to be the same color. But they can’t
be opposite walls.

Here’s a diagram of all the possible color

configurations I can think of. (I am pretty sure I
have them all.)
In the top left picture we have three choices for
color 1, two for color 2, and one for color 3 giving
3× 2×1 = 6 coloring patterns. The same is true for
the other diagrams on the top row.

On the bottom row each configuration has three

choices for color 1 and two for color 2, giving
3× 2 = 6 options again.

There are thus 6 + 6 + 6 + 6 + 6 = 30 ways to pain the

room!
EXAMPLE 38: Is it possible to fill in the cells of a
4 × 4 grid with numbers so that, for any given cell,
the sum of its neighbors is odd?

My Personal Reaction: I don’t know!

I’ll just have to try it.

I’ll start with the simplest thing and put zero in the
top left corner.

That zero has two neighbors. Let me just make one

of them 0 and one of them 1. They add to an odd
number.
That 1 has three neighbors, with one of them 0
already. Let me make its other two neighbors 0 and
1 again. Then 0+ 0+1 is still an odd sum.

The new 1 I just placed in has four neighbors, two

of which are 0 and 1 . Let me make its other two
neighbors each 0 .
Actually, when I kept fiddling with this in this way I
found that could fill in the rest of the grid (with just
zeros and ones) and arrange matters so that each
cell has neighbors with an odd sum. (Can you finish
off this problem too?)

So the answer to the question is: YES! It can be

done!
EXAMPLE 39: In how many ways can one place
three dots in a 3× 3 grid so that each row and each
column contains exactly one dot?

My Personal Reaction: Again, I don’t

know!

There are three possible locations for the dot in the

top row.

Since the dot in the second row cannot be in the

same column as the dot in the first row, each of
these gives two possible locations for the dot in
that second row.
Ooh! Now I see that in each of these six possibilities
there is no choice as to where to place the third
dot.
This means that the six options we have are all the
possible ways to arrange these three dots, the
answer is 6 .

EXAMPLE 40: JinPyo has six friends: Albert, Bilbert,

Cuthbert, Dibert, Egbert, and Filbert. He can invite
two of his friends for a sleepover. How many
different options does he have for whom to invite?

My Personal Reaction: I don’t know

what else to do other than list out all
the possibilities. I’ll do it in a
systematic way.

JinPyo could invite these pairs:

That’s 15 pairs.
EXAMPLE 41: The product of four consecutive odd
numbers must be …

(A) A multiple of 3, but not necessarily of 9 .

(B) A multiple of 5.
(C) A multiple of 7 .
(D) A multiple of 9 .
(E) A multiple of 3×5× 7 × 9 = 945 .

My Personal Reaction: My instinct is

to write out some examples of
products of four consecutive odds
and look at possible answers:

3×5× 7 × 9
5× 7 × 9×11
7 × 9×11×13
9×11×13×15
11×13×15×17
…

I see from these that not all are multiples of 5, not

all are multiples of 7 , not all are multiples of 9 , and
certainly not all are multiples of 3×5× 7 × 9 = 945 .
Thus (A) is the only option that remains and that
must be the answer!

Comment: Can you see why every such

product must contain a multiple of 3?

EXAMPLE 42: The six faces of a cube are painted

red. The cube is then cut into N 3 little cubes by
making planar cuts as indicated by the diagram.
(In the diagram shows the case for N = 4 .)

Which of the following numbers could be the

count for the number of little cubes that have
paint on them?

(A) 725 (B) 726 (C) 727 (D) 728 (E) 729
My Personal Reaction: This question
seems hard! Okay,

Take a Deep
Breath!

If the cube is cut into N 3 little cubes as shown, then

there are:

8 corner cubes with three faces of paint on them.

There are 12× something little cubes with two

faces of paint. Hmm.

There are 12 edges and there are N cubes on each

edge. But each edge has two corner cubes, which
I’ve already counted. So there are N − 2 cubes on
each edge with two faces of paint.

( )
There are 12 N − 2 little cubes with two faces of
paint.
There are six faces with N 2 cubes on each face. But
only the “inner” ones of these have only one face of
paint. I see that these inner ones make a
( ) (
N − 2 × N − 2 grid. )
( )
2
There are 6 N − 2 little cubes with just one face of
paint.

So the total number of cubes with paint on them is:

( ) ( )
2
6 N − 2 +12 N − 2 + 8 .

This number is always going to be even. So that

means that options (A), (C), and (E) are out.
We now have to choose between (B) 726 and (D)
728 .

Our answer ends in +8 and option (D) ends in an 8 .

Coincidence?

Can I choose a value of N that gives the answer

728 ?

( )
Actually, can I choose a value of N − 2 that makes

( ) ( )
2
6 N − 2 +12 N − 2 + 8 equal to 728 ? Well since I
want the units digits to be 8 maybe I should think
powers of ten.

( )
Choose N − 2 = 10 (that is, N = 12 ). Then:

( ) ( )
2
6 N − 2 +12 N − 2 + 8 = 6⋅102 +12⋅10+ 8
= 600+120+ 8
= 728
Bingo! The answer is (D).
EXAMPLE 43: The average of six positive integers is
100 . What is the largest possible value for the
largest integer among the six?

(A) 100 (B) 106 (C) 160 (D) 240

(E) 595

My Personal Reaction: The question

wants a largest possible value.
Could the answer be the largest
possible number offered? Are there
six numbers with average with
one value equal to ?

Yes! We want six numbers that add to 600 (this

makes the average 100 ) and 1,1,1,1,1,595 work.

The answer is (E).

EXAMPLE 44: Which of the following numbers is
not the difference of two square numbers?

(A) 99 (B) 360 (C) 450 (D) 600

(E) 1080

My Personal Reaction: Hmm. This

seems tricky!

The first number, 99 , is close to the square number

100 . Oh! 99 = 102 −12 . It is a difference of two
squares.

Okay. Is 360 close to a square number? Umm.

192 = 361 .

And 360 = 192 −12 , a difference of two squares.

How about 450 ?

222 = 484 , but 34 is not a square.

232 = 529 , but 79 is not a square.

242 = 576 , but 126 is not a square.

This one seems hard. It might be the culprit for this
problem.

How about 600? We have 252 = 625 and

600 = 252 −52 is a difference of two squares.

How about 1080 ? We have 432 = 1849 and

1080 = 432 − 72 , a difference of two squares.
The answer must indeed be (C).
Comment: Can you explain why 450 cannot be
the difference of two square numbers? In fact,
can you prove that no number that is two more
than a multiple of four can be the difference of
two squares (and all other numbers can be)?
Whoa!
EXAMPLE 45: In how many different ways can one
arrange the letters ABCDEF so that B appears
somewhere to the left of E?

My Personal Reaction: There are

ways to
arrange six letters. But there is no
way I am going to list all
arrangements of to see
how many of them have
somewhere to the left of !

Hmm. What can I do?

Well, any arrangement that has B somewhere to
the left of E must be matched with an
arrangement that has E somewhere to the left of
B.
So this means half the arrangements have what we
want and half of them don’t!
There are 720/2 = 360 arrangements of ABCDEF
with the letter B somewhere to the left of the
letter E . Cool!
About The Author

JAMES TANTON
Visit http://www.maa.org/math-
competitions/teachers/curriculum-
inspirations/james-tanton-biography

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Believing that mathematics really is
accessible to all, James Tanton (PhD,
Mathematics, Princeton 1994) is
committed to sharing the delight and
beauty of the subject. In 2004 James
founded the St. Mark’s Institute of
Mathematics, an outreach program
promoting joyful and effective
mathematics education. He worked as
a fulltime high-school teacher at St.
Mark’s School in Southborough, MA
(2004-2012), and he conducted, and
continues to conduct, mathematics
courses and workshops for
mathematics teachers across the
nation and overseas.

James is the author of Solve This: Math

Activities for Students and Clubs (MAA,
2001), The Encyclopedia of
Mathematics (Facts on File, 2005),
Mathematics Galore! (MAA, 2012),
Geometry: An Interactive Journey to
Mastery (The Great Courses, 2014),
Without Words: Volumes 1 and 2
(Tarquin 2015), Trigonometry: A Clever
Study Guide (MAA, 2015), and twelve
self-published texts. He is the 2005
recipient of the Beckenbach Book
Prize, the 2006 recipient of the Kidder
Faculty Prize at St. Mark’s School, and
a 2010 recipient of a Raytheon Math
Hero Award for excellence in school
teaching and currently serves as the
Mathematician-at-Large for the
Mathematical Association of America.

James is the author of Edfinity’s Zen

Master’s Series For Middle School
Students - a unique collection of digital
titles for the modern educator and
student.
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is an educational technology company
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