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985 AIME Problems

The problem involves three squares that are each cut into two pieces and attached to a regular hexagon to form a polyhedron. Finding the optimal location for the point of tangency is a classic problem that results in a straight line path minimizing the sum of distances. The sum of distances is equal to the length of the segment between the foci, which using the distance formula is equal to the length of the major axis. The volume of the polyhedron formed by attaching the six pieces to a hexagon is 96 cm3.

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Sarah Joy Manimtim
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555 views10 pages

985 AIME Problems

The problem involves three squares that are each cut into two pieces and attached to a regular hexagon to form a polyhedron. Finding the optimal location for the point of tangency is a classic problem that results in a straight line path minimizing the sum of distances. The sum of distances is equal to the length of the segment between the foci, which using the distance formula is equal to the length of the major axis. The volume of the polyhedron formed by attaching the six pieces to a hexagon is 96 cm3.

Uploaded by

Sarah Joy Manimtim
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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985 AIME Problems/Problem 8

V
t

Problem
The sum of the following seven numbers is exactly 19:
,
,
,
,
,
,
. It is desired to replace
each by an integer approximation ,
, so that the sum of the 's
is also 19 and so that , the maximum of the "errors"
, the
maximum absolute value of the difference, is as small as possible. For this
minimum , what is
?

Solution
If any of the approximations
is less than 2 or more than 3, the error
associated with that term will be larger than 1, so the largest error will be
larger than 1. However, if all of the
are 2 or 3, the largest error will be less
than 1. So in the best case, we write 19 as a sum of 7 numbers, each of which
is 2 or 3. Then there must be five 3s and two 2s. It is clear that in the best
appoximation, the two 2s will be used to approximate the two smallest of
the , so our approximations are
and
and the largest error is
, so
the answer is
.

Problem
In a circle, parallel chords of lengths 2, 3, and 4 determine central angles of
, , and
radians, respectively, where
. If
, which is
a positive rational number, is expressed as a fraction in lowest terms, what is
the sum of its numerator and denominator?

Solution

All chords of a given length in a given circle subtend the same arc and
therefore the same central angle. Thus, by the given, we can re-arrange our
chords into a triangle with the circle as its circumcircle.

This triangle has semiperimeter


has area
of length
formula

so by Heron's formula it

. The area of a given triangle with sides


and circumradius of length is also given by the
, so

and

Now, consider the triangle formed by two radii and the chord of length 2.
This isosceles triangle has vertex angle , so by the Law of Cosines,
and the answer
is

Problem

How many of the first 1000 positive integers can be expressed in the form
,
where is a real number, and
equal to ?

denotes the greatest integer less than or

Solution

We will be able to reach the same number of integers while ranges from 0 to
1 as we will when ranges from to
for any integer (Quick
proof:
).
Since
, the
answer must be exactly 50 times the number of integers we will be able to
reach as ranges from 0 to 1, including 1 but excluding 0.
Solution 1

Noting that all of the numbers are even, we can reduce this to any real
number between to , as this will be equivalent to to
for any
integer (same reasoning as above). So now we only need to test every 10
numbers; and our answer will be 100 times the number of integers we can
reach between 1 and 10.
We can now approach this by directly searching for the integers (this solution)
or brute forcing all of the cases (next solution):
We can match up the greatest integer functions with one of the partitions of
the integer. If we let
:
,
,
maximum we can get is
numbers.

then we get the solution


,

; now consider when

. But according to this the


, so we only need to try the first 6

: Easily possible, for example try plugging in

: Also simple, for example using .

: The partition must either be

or

. If

, then

but then
; not possible; and vice versa to show that the latter
partition doesn't work. So we cannot obtain .
: We can partition as

that

, and from the previous case we see

works.

: We can partition as

, from which we find that

works.

: We can partition as

, from which we find that

works.

Out of these 6 cases, only 3 fails. So between 1 and 10 we can reach only the
integers
; hence our solution is
.

Problem
An ellipse has foci at
and
in the
-axis. What is the length of its major axis?

-plane and is tangent to the

Solution
An ellipse is defined to be the locus of points such that the sum of the
distances between and the two foci is constant. Let
,
and
be the point of tangency of the ellipse with the axis. Then must be the point on the axis such that the sum
is
minimal. Finding the optimal location for is a classic problem: for any path
from to and then back to , we can reflect the second leg of this path
(from to ) across the -axis. Then our path connects to the reflection
of via some point on the -axis, and this path will have shortest length
exactly when our original path has shortest length. This occurs exactly when
we have a straight-line path.

The sum of the two distances


and
is therefore equal to the length of
the segment
, which by the distance formula is
just

Finally, let and be the two endpoints of the major axis of the ellipse. Then
by symmetry
so
(because
is on the ellipse), so the answer is
.

Problem
An ellipse has foci at
and
in the
-axis. What is the length of its major axis?

-plane and is tangent to the

Solution
An ellipse is defined to be the locus of points such that the sum of the
distances between and the two foci is constant. Let
,
and
be the point of tangency of the ellipse with the axis. Then must be the point on the axis such that the sum
is
minimal. Finding the optimal location for is a classic problem: for any path
from to and then back to , we can reflect the second leg of this path
(from to ) across the -axis. Then our path connects to the reflection
of via some point on the -axis, and this path will have shortest length
exactly when our original path has shortest length. This occurs exactly when
we have a straight-line path.
The sum of the two distances
and
is therefore equal to the length of the
segment
, which by the distance
formula is

just

Finally, let and be the two endpoints of the major axis of the ellipse. Then
by symmetry
so
(because
is on the ellipse), so the answer is
.

Problem

Three 12 cm 12 cm squares are each cut into two pieces and , as shown
in the first figure below, by joining the midpoints of two adjacent sides. These
six pieces are then attached to a regular hexagon, as shown in the second
figure, so as to fold into a polyhedron. What is the volume (in
) of this
polyhedron?

Solution

Note that gluing two of the given


polyhedra together along a
hexagonal face (rotated
from
each other) yields a cube, so the
volume is
Image:

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