ABACUS International Math Challenge

for

7th and 8th graders

February, 2007

(These is the last set of questions for this year!

Please, send all your solutions in by April 30, 2007.)

 

C.577. Break up the first 100 positive whole numbers into two groups any way you want to. Prove that at least one of the groups contains two such numbers whose difference is in that group, also.

 

C.578. Smart Alec participated in a Math Competition. He solved 9 out of the first 12 problems perfectly, but did not receive points for the other 3 problems. He solved a third of the rest of the problems perfectly, but did not receive points for the others. This way he received 50% of all possible points. How many problems did he have to solve if each correct answer worth 6 points?

 

C.579. The phone numbers in New York are 7-digit numbers. They may start with any digit but zero. How many phone numbers have strictly increasing digits from left to right?

 

C.580. In my candle holder one candle barely finishes burning in one night. In the morning always collect the melted wax leftover in the candle holder because from the remainder of 4 candles I can make a new candle that is the same size as the original candles. Right now I do not have any candles and any leftover wax. At least how many candles should I buy if I need candle light for 100 nights?

 

C.581. I have a red and a white candle. They have different heights and different thicknesses. I light them at the same time and notice that after 45 minutes they are the same height. The red candle burns down in 90 minutes, the white one in 2 hours. How many times taller was the red candle originally than the white candle?

 

C.582. The sum of the abcde and the edcba 5-digit numbers is divisible by 11111. (a, b, c, d and e are different digits.) We also know that the number abcde is divisible by 7, and that the sum of its digits is 10. Waht number is abcde?

 

C.583. A merchant bought a truck-load of items. After selling 2/3 of the items, he got 3/4 of his money back. What % of profit can he expect if he sells the rest of the items by the same rate of price increase as he had done sofar?

 

C.584. The shortest height of a right triangle is 7 cm, and its smallest angle is 15 degrees. How long is its hypotenuse?

 

Please, send your solutions to Dr. Zsuzsanna Szaniszló:

Abacus.c@valpo.edu

 

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