DE EXAM SOLUTIONS

Texas A&M High School Math Contest

November 2016

1. Find the length of an edge of an equilateral triangle that has one corner
at (0, 0) and the other two on the graph of xy = 1. Simplify fully.
Solution: The only way to get an acute angle in the triangle is to take the
other two points on the same component of the graph, and they might as
well be on the component where x and y are positive.
The symmetry of the triangle required, and the symmetry of the curve,
suggest that the points we’re looking for will have the form (x, 1/x) and
(1/x, x). If so, we will have to have (x − 1/x)2 + (1/x − x)2 = x2 + 1/x2 =
1/x2 + x2 . Simplifying and multiplying through by x2 leads to just one
equation: 0 = x4 − 4x2 + 1. This √ is a quadratic
√equation in the unknown
x2 and the solution is x2 = (4 ± 12)/2 = (2 ± 3). We can continue with √
the solution using either
√ the plus√ or the minus here.
√ Say x2 = 2 + 3.
Then 1/x2 = 1/(2 + 3) = (2 − 3)/(4 − 3) = 2 − 3 so x2 + 1/x2 = 4.
Thus the side length is 2.

2. In quotient and remainder division of one positive integer p by another, d,

the quotient q is the largest integer q such that qd ≤ p, and the remainder
is p − qd. Thus, for instance, the remainder when dividing 22 by 5 is 2,
and the quotient is 4.
Find the smallest positive integer n so that when n is divided by 3, the re-
mainder is 1, when n is divided by 5, the remainder is 2, when n is divided
by 7, the remainder is 3, and when n is divided by 11, the remainder is 4.
Solution: Whatever n is, it has to have the form n = 3k + 1 so that
the remainder on division by 3 can be 1. Looking at successive values of
3k + 1, starting with k = 0, they go 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19, 22 and so on. The
remainders from division by 5 go 1, 4, 2, 0, 3, 1, 4, 2, 0, 3 and so on. To have
a remainder of 2 when dividing by 5, as well as 1 mod 3, then, n must
be in the arithmetic progression (7, 22, 37, 52 · · · ), that is, n = 7 + 15j.
To get a remainder of 3 when dividing by 7, note that the remainders in
7 + 15j, when dividing by 7, go (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 0, · · · ) so that our new
sequence is n = 52 + 105l. Finally, for remainders on dividing by 11, note
that they’re the same with 52 + 105l as they would be with 8 + 6l. Those
go (8, 3, 9, 4) and we need look no further. Taking l to be not 0, or 1, or
2, but 3 has to work. Now 52 + 315 = 367 so the answer is 367.
3. Multiplying (1 + x + x2 + · · · + x9 )10 gives an expression

c0 + c1 x + c2 x2 + · · · + c90 x90 = 1 + 10x + 55x2 + · · · + 10x89 + x90 .

Find c0 + c1 + c2 + · · · + c90 .

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 Solution: Setting x = 1 in the polynomial gives 1010 . In the expanded
version, it gives c0 + c1 + · · · so the answer is ten billion, or 1010 , or
10000000000.

4. Let m be the integer whose binary (base 2) representation is 1010101.

Find the binary representation of m2 .
Solution: There’s two ways to work this. Just write out a multiplication
of 1010101 times itself and do it, but keep in mind that a 2 in position k
must be replaced with a 1 in position k + 1 and so forth, or put m into
familiar base 10 notation, square it, and convert back to binary.
In the first approach, one gets 1110000111001. In the second, m = 85,
m2 = 7225, and the highest power of 2 that will fit in 7225 is 212 = 4096.
What remains is 3129. Subtracting 211 = 2048 leaves 1081, subtracting
210 = 1024 leaves 57, and 57 = 32 + 16 + 8 + 1. Thus, arranging the digits
with the ones for higher powers of 2 on the left, we have 1110000111001
again.
5. Find the (unique) y so that 1/2 < y and

y2 √
√ + 1 − y 2 = 2y.
1−y 2

√ √
Solution: Multiply everything by 1 − y 2 to get 1 = 2y 1 − y 2 . Square
that to get 1 = 4y 2 (1 − y 2 ) and then 4y 4 − 4y 2 + 1 = 0. This factors
√ as
(2y 2 − 1)2 so y 2 = 1/2. We wanted a positive value of y, so y = 1/ 2.
6. Solve for x and y:

log2 (x3 y 4 ) = −2
log4 (x5 y 7 ) = −1.

Solution: The log base 2 of a number is twice the log base 4. So if we

write X = log2 x and Y = log2 y then 3X + 4Y = −2 and 5X + 7Y = −2.
So then 2X + 3Y = 0 and X = −(3/2)Y . Back to 3X + 4Y = −2 yields
−Y /2 = −2 so Y = 4 and X = −6. Thus y = 16 and x = 1/64.

7. Let P be a polynomial of degree 5. Given that P (0) = 0, and P (1) =

P (2) = P (3) = P (4) = P (5) = 1, find P (8).
Solution: Let Q = P − 1. Then Q(0) = −1 while Q(1) through Q(5)
are 0, so Q = (1/120)(x − 1)(x − 2)(x − 3)(x − 4)(x − 5). It follows that
Q(8) = 21 and P (8) = 22. The answer is 22.

8. Let θ = arctan 2 + arctan 3. Find 1/ sin2 θ and simplify fully.

Solution:
√ Use the formula for sin(u√+ v). Right triangles with sides 1,
2, 5 for arctan 2, and sides 1, 3, 10 for arctan 3, yield values for the

2
 inputs to this formula, so
2 1 1 3 1
sin θ = √ √ + √ √ = √ .
5 10 5 10 2
Consequently, the answer is 2.

9. Let f (x) = |x| + |2x − 1| − |3x − 2|. What is the area of the region inside
the square −1 ≤ x ≤ 1, −1 ≤ y ≤ 1 and above the graph of f (x)? Write
the answer as an improper fraction in lowest terms.
Solution: The graph of |ax+b| has constant slope except for a single angle,
at the x where ax + b = 0. This means that the graph of f (x) consists of
linked straight-line segments, with corners at x = 0, x = 1/2, and x = 2/3.
The slopes of the components of f are ∓1, ±2, and ±3, so that for x < 0,
the overall slope is 0, for 0 < x < 1/2, the slope is 2, for 1/2 < x < 2/3, the
slope is 6, and for x > 2/3, the slope is again 0. Now f (0) = 1 − 2 = −1,
f (1/2) = 1/2 + 0 − 1/2 = 0, and f (2/3) = 2/3 + 1/3 − 0 = 1, so the overall
graph goes in straight line segments from (−1, −1) to (0, −1) to (1/2, 0)
to (2/3, 1) to (1, 1). The area above the first leg of the graph is 2, the area
above the next leg is 3/4, and the next two legs contribute 1/12 and 0.
This sums to 34/12 = 17/6.
√
10. How many integer pairs (m, n) are there so that 0 ≤ n ≤ 2m and
m ≤ 10?
Solution: The answer is 84. There are 165 points inside the rectangle
[0, 10] by [0, 14]. Of these, 3 lie on the line y = 7x/5, half of the rest lie
below, and half lie above it. √Those below or on that line qualify, others
do not. The slopes 7/5 and 2 are equivalent for purposes of this count
because there are no integer points strictly between
√ the lines y = 7x/5
and y = 17/12 (which has slope greater than 2) until after x = 12. And
that, in turn, is true because the triangle with corners (0, 0), (10, 14), and
(12, 17) has area 1, while if there were a lattice point in its interior, the
three triangles that would result from connecting that interior point to
(0, 0), (10, 14), and (12, 17) would have to have each an area of at least
1/2.

11. Find the sum of 5!/(a!b!c!) over all lists (a, b, c) of nonnegative integers so
that a + b + c = 5.
Solution: the answer is 243. If you multiply out (x+y +z)5 , the coefficient
of the term involving xa y b z c is 5!/(a!b!c!). Now set x = y = z = 1.
12. Find a and b, with b > 0, so that (x − b)2 is a factor of x4 − ax + 1.
Solution: The answer is a = 4(3)−3/4 , b = 3−1/4 . For (x − b)2 to be a
factor, the quotient would have to be x2 + 2bx + 1/b2 , so that the x3 term
of the product can be 0 and the constant term can be 1. Now in order to

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 2.0

1.5

1.0

0.5

1 2 3 4 5 6

-0.5

-1.0

-1.5

Figure 1: Intersecting Graphs

get the x2 term in the product to be zero, b must be ±3−1/4 . This then
forces the value for a. (The answer can also be given as
√ √
4 · 31/4 33/4 3 3
a= , b= = .
3 3 3

13. Find the exact value of tan π/8 and simplify.

√
Solution: The answer is 2 − 1. Let A be the required answer. From
trigonometry, tan 2x = 2 tan x/(1 − tan2 x). Since tan π/4 = 1, we have
1 = 2A/(1 − A2 ). Thus 1 − A2 = 2A and A √ + 2A − 1 = 0. The
2
√ quadratic
formula now offers two possibilities: A = 2 − 1 or √ A = − 2 − 1. Since
A > 0 because 0 < π/8
√ < π/2, the answer must be 2−1. (Some students
may answer (−2 + 8)/2 but this is not simplified sufficiently.)
14. How many real numbers x are there such that sin 2x + cos 2x = 1 + cos 3x
and 0 < x < 2π?
Solution: There √are four.√Both expressions are sine waves. The LHS oscil-
lates between − 2 and 2 completing two cycles over the given interval,
while the RHS oscillates between 0 and 2, completing three cycles. A
rough sketch of the two graphs gives good enough reason to think that
there are exactly four, and more detailed calculations confirm it if one has
the time. (see figure)
15. Let C be the unit cube with corners such that each coordinate is 0 or 1.
(Thus, (0, 0, 0) and (1, 1, 1) are a pair of opposite corners.) Let H be the
set of all points inside C and equally distant from those two corners. Let
T be that part of the cube consisting of all points that are on some line
segment joining (1, 1, 1) to a point in H. Find the volume of T .
Solution: √
The answer is 3/8. H is a regular hexagon with each edge having
length 1/ 2. (For instance, one edge goes from (1/2, 0, 1) to (1, 0, 1/2).)
The
√ area of any one of the six√ equilateral triangles that compose H is thus
3/8, so the area of H is 3 3/4. The distance from H to (0, 0, 0) √ is the
distance from the center (1/2, 1/2, 1/2) of H to (0, 0, 0), and that’s 3/2.
The volume of a solid pyramid of base B and height h is Bh/3. Here, that
works out to 3/8.

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16. Find integers A, B, C, D so that

cos 3x = A cos3 x + B cos2 x + C cos x + D.

Solution: A = 4 and C = −3; B = D = 0. Expand cos 3x = cos x cos 2x −

sin x sin 2x and then use the double angle formulas to arrive at that answer.

17. Given that x + y = A and x2 + y 2 = B, express x4 + y 4 in the form

P A4 + QA2 B + RB 2 . That is, find values for P , Q, and R that ensure
the identity holds whatever the values of x and y.
Solution: The answer is that P = −1/2, Q = 1, and R = 1/2. This may
be checked by multiplying out the resulting expression for P A4 + QA2 B +
RB 2 .
18. Find the least prime number that divides 10! + 1.
Solution: There’s a brute force solution, and there’s a conceptual solution.
The brute force solution is that 10! + 1 = 3628801 and this is not divisible
by any of 2, 3, 5, or 7. That leaves 11 as a candidate and sure enough the
result is divisible by 11.
In general, for a conceptual solution, if p is prime then (p−1)! is congruent
to −1 mod p. That’s because every number except p − 1 and 1 has a
multiplicative inverse different from itself mod p. (The exceptions 1 and
p − 1 are their own inverses). The product thus works out to a bunch of
pairs of inverses, which multiply to 1 mod p, one stand-alone 1, and one
stand-alone −1 mod p.
Here, that means that 11 divides 10! + 1. The other prime factor (there’s
only one other) is (10! + 1)/11.
19. Two vertices of a triangle are (0, 0) and (1, 0). The third is taken at random
from the line segment from (−1, 1) to (2, 1). What is the probability that
the triangle entirely encloses the circle about (1/2, 1/2) of radius 1/10?
Solution: The answer is 1/6. The line y = 4x/3 meets the circle (x −
1/2)2 + (y − 1/2)2 = 1/100 at a tangent at the point (21/50, 28/50) and
then hits the line y = 1 at (3/4, 1). The line through (1, 0) to (1/4, 1)
also is tangent to the circle. This means that the point on the line y = 1
must have an x coordinat between 1/4 and 3/4. Since the x coordinate of
the random point can be anywhere from −1 to 2, the chance that it falls
between 1/4 and 3/4 is 1/6.