1

1. Write as a reduced fraction 3

− ( 14 − 51 ).
2. What is the area of a triangle with sides 10, 10, and 16?
3. Jack is three times as old as Jill. In 7 years, he will be twice as
old as she. How old is Jack?
4. The price of an item is increased by 25%, and then there is an-
other increase of 20%. What is the overall percentage increase?

5. If f (x) = x2 + 1, what is the value of f (f (f (f (0))))?

6. A certain kind of candy was originally priced at 50 cents, but
then the price was reduced, and all the candy bars, of which
there were fewer than 1000, sold for a total amount of $31.93.
What was the new price, in cents? Since pennies are the small-
est coins, the price in cents must be an integer.
7. What positive number N has the property that if the following
steps are performed successively, beginning with N , the final
result is 2? Divide by 3, then square, then subtract 52, then
take square root, then add 8, then divide by 10.
8. Let N be a 3-digit positive number with distinct nonzero digits.
What is the smallest possible value for the ratio of N to the sum
of its digits?
9. Let a and b be positive numbers. Write a simple equation sat-
isfied by a and b so that the three points where the parabola
y = ax2 − b intersects the x- and y-axes are the vertices of an
equilateral triangle. Simplify your equation as much as you can.
10. A function f satisfies f (0) = 0, f (2n) = f (n), and f (2n + 1) =
f (n) + 1 for all positive integers n. What is value of f (2016)?
11. A rectangular billiards table is 2 meters by 3 meters. A ball
√
is on the short edge at distance 31 3 from a corner. It is hit
in such a way that it strikes each of the other walls once and
returns to its starting point. How many meters did it travel?
(You may consider the ball to have radius 0.)

1
2
√
12. Let Z = 11 10, the 11th root of 10. What is the smallest value
of n such that the product of the numbers Z, Z 2 , Z 3 , . . . , Z n
exceeds 99,999?
13. In the diagram below, angle D equals 30 degrees. What is the
sum of the angles at A, B, C, D, E, and F ? Express your
answer in degrees.

B..................
... .......
.......
...
...
...
.......
.......
.......
C ...
..........
... ..... .............. ...
... .................... ..
... ............... ... .
............
.
... ......... .......
. ........... ... ............
..........
........... .. ...
............................................................................................................................
A ...
.....
...
..
.
D
.... ...
... ...
... ...
... ....
... .......
..........
............
...
... ...................
.......... E
F

14. Alice and Bill live at opposite ends of the same street. They
leave their houses at the same time and each walk, at constant
speed, from their house to the other house and back. The first
time they meet, they are 400 yards from Alice’s house, and the
second time they meet, they are 300 yards from Bill’s house.
Both times they are traveling in opposite directions. What is
the distance, in yards, between the two houses?
15. Define a sequence by a1 = 5, an+1 = an + 4n − 1, for n ≥ 1.
What is the value of a1000 ?
16. How many 3-element subsets of {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11} are
there for which the sum of the elements in the subset is a mul-
tiple of 3?
 3

17. Sam has two identical cups. The first is full of water, while
the second is empty. He pours half the water from the first
cup into the second. Then on the second transfer, he pours
one third of the water that is in the second cup back into the
first. He repeats this, alternating cups, pouring 1/(i + 1) of the
water that is in one cup back into the other on the ith transfer.
What fraction of the water is in the first cup just before the
19th transfer?
18. Let A, B, and C be digits of base-7 numbers, with possible
values 0, . . . , 6. If ACB7 + BCC7 = 14007 , what is the base-10
value of ACB7 ?
17
19. What is the remainder when 1717 is divided by 7?
20. What is the smallest positive value of (4x2 + 8x + 5)/(6x + 6)
for all real numbers x?
1
21. What is the solution set of the inequality x
+ 2x ≥ 3?
22. Let ABC be a triangle with side lengths 5, 12, and 13. Let P
be a point inside the triangle. What is the minimum value of
(AP )2 + (BP )2 + (CP )2 , the sum of the squares of the distances
from the point to the vertices?
23. A square is inscribed in a circle, and the region inside the circle
but outside the square is shaded. A circle is then inscribed in
the square, and a second square is inscribed inside this second
circle. The region inside the second circle but outside the second
square is shaded. If this process is continued ad infinitum, what
fraction of the area of the original circle is shaded?
24. A triangle has a right angle at A with AC = 3 and AB = 1.
The angle bisector at B meets AC at P . What is the length
CP ?
25. Define integers xi,j for i, j ≥ 0 by xn,0 = n = x0,n , while xi,j =
xi−1,j + xi,j−1 if i, j ≥ 1. Write a simple expression involving n
X n
which equals xi,n−i .
i=0
4

26. A deck of cards consists of four suits with 13 distinct cards in

each suit. A “hand” is a subset of these cards consisting of
exactly 6 cards. Let N be the number of hands containing at
least one card of each suit. What is the largest prime factor of
N?
27. If a and b are positive real numbers satisfying (a − b)2 = 4(ab)3 ,
what is the smallest possible value of a1 + 1b ?
28. The longer leg of a right triangle equals the hypotenuse of a 30-
60-90 triangle. The two triangles have equal perimeters. What
is the tangent of the smallest angle of the first triangle?
29. In the grid below, how many paths from the top row to the
bottom row are there, where a path consists of 6 steps, and
each step is a segment connecting the center of a square to the
center of a square which shares at least one vertex with the
current square and lies in the row below it? The paths can
start in any square in the top row and end in any square in the
bottom row. ..................................................................................
. .. . . .
... .. ... ... ...
... .. . . .
......................................................................................
... .
.
. ... ...
.... ..
. .... ....
... .... ... ...
..................................................................
... ... ...
... ... ...
. . .
............................................
.... ....
.... ...
............................................
.. ... ..
... ... ...
.. . ..
...............................................................
.... .... .... ....
.. .
. .
.. ...
. .
.....................................................................................
.. .. .. ... ..
... ... ... ... ...
.. .. .. . ..
...................................................................................

30. There are two values of m so that the equation

x4 − (3m + 2)x2 + m2 = 0
has four real roots in arithmetic progression. What is the
smaller of these two values of m?
31. In parallelogram ABCD, side AD is extended beyond D to
point F . The segment F B intersects side CD at G, and in-
tersects diagonal AC at E, in such a way that F G = 4 and
GE = 1. What is the length EB?
 5

32. In a sequence of 0’s and 1’s, a “run” is defined to be a string of

consecutive 1’s or 0’s, including runs of length 1. For example,
the sequence 00100011 has four runs. In a random sequence
containing 15 0’s and 9 1’s, what is the average (or expected)
number of runs?
1
33. If a complex number z satisfies z + = 1, then what is the
z
80 1
value of z + 80 ?
z
√ √
34. What is the smallest integer larger than ( 5 + 3)6 ?
35. In square ABCD of side length 3, P and Q trisect side AB. Let
E be a point on an edge of the square, but not on AB, which
maximizes angle P EQ. What is the area of triangle P EQ?
36. Triangle ABC has AB = 6, AC = 5, and BC = 4. Points P1 ,
P2 , and P3 on BC satisfy BP1 = P1 P2 = P2 P3 = P3 C = 1.
What is the value of (AP1 )2 + (AP2 )2 + (AP3 )2 ?
37. You have three bowls, each of which contains 6 balls. A “move”
consists of selecting a random bowl and then a different random
bowl and moving a ball from the first bowl to the second. What
is the probability that after 5 such moves, all bowls will again
have 6 balls?
38. Let P denote the set of all subsets of {a, b, c}, including the
empty set. How many functions f are there from P to P which
satisfy that, for all A and B in P, f (A ∪ B) = f (A) ∪ f (B)?
a2n − an an−1 + 1
39. If a0 = 0, a1 = 1, and an+1 = 1 + for n ≥ 1,
an − an−1
what integer is closest to a12 ?
40. A triangle has sides of length 5, 7, and 8. Of all the points
inside the triangle, what is the maximum value of the product
of the lengths of the altitudes to the three sides of the triangle?
6

SOLUTIONS TO 2016 CONTEST, annotated with the number, out of the 54

scorers, of people answering it correctly.
1 1
1. 17/60. [54] It is 3
− 20
.
2. 48. [54] It is composed of two 6-8-10 right triangles. They can
be rearranged to form a 6-by-8 rectangle.
3. 21. [54] If x is Jill’s age, then 3x + 7 = 2(x + 7), so x = 7, and
Jack’s age is 3 · 7.
4. 50 or 50%. [53] The price is multiplied by 5/4 and then that
is multiplied by 6/5. The net effect is to multiply the price by
3/2.
5. 26. [54] The successive values are 1, 2, 5, 26.
6. 31. [53] The total amount in cents factors as 103 · 31. It must
be that there were 103 candy bars sold at 31 cents apiece.
7. 42. [53] Working backwards from the 2, the numbers must be
20, 12, 144, 196, 14, 42. Note that if it had not been specified
that we were looking for a positive number, then −42 would
also work.
8. 10.5. [19] You would want the first digit to be 1 and the other
digits to be as large as possible. The number should be 189.
9
Note, for example, that using N = 179 gives a ratio of 10 + 17 ,
which is larger than 10.5.
p
9. ab = 3. [27.5]
q The points are (0, −b) and (± b/a, 0). Thus
p
2 b/a = b2 + ab . Thus 3 ab = b2 , and so ab = 3.
10. 6. [50] You can easily work backwards, or can note that this
function gives the number of 1’s in the binary expansion of n.
f (2016) = f (63) = 6 since 63 = 1111112 .
√ √
11. 2 13. [31] The 13 3 is irrelevant. The easiest way to work the
problem, by far, is to draw a grid of 2-by-3 rectangles. By con-
sidering reflections, the path can be viewed as a straight line
 7

path on this grid from the starting point to the correspond-

ing point two blocks over and two blocks up. The distance is
√
42 + 62 .
12. 10. [51] Since the product equals Z n(n+1)/2 , we require 10n(n+1)/22 >
105 − 1, so n(n + 1) ≥ 110.
13. 360. [39] Since P = B + D and Q = A + C (exterior angles of
triangles), and P + Q + E + F = 360, the answer follows. Note
that the information about angle D was irrelevant.
B..................
... .......
.......
...
...
...
.......
.......
.......
C ...
..........
... ..... ............... ....
... ................... .
... ....
. .......... .... . .
........
..
.
.
... ......... .......
. .......... ... ............
.........
........... .. ...
...........................................................................................................................
A P
...
..... Q ...
....
D
... ..
.... ...
... ..
... ..
.
.
... ..
..........
..........
..................
....
... ..........
.......... E
F

14. 900. [44] If their speeds are SA and SB , respectively, and the
distance is D, then 400
SA
= D−400
SB
and D+300
SA
= 2D−300
SB
. Thus
D−400 2D−300 2
400
= D+300 . We obtain D − 100D = 800D, so D = 900.
Note that other solutions are possible if they might have been
traveling in the same direction the second time that they met,
if one was much faster than the other.
15. 1997006. [39] a1000 = 5 + 3 + 7 + 11 + · · · , with 1000 terms
including the 5. Thus it equals 5 + 3 · 999 + 4(1 + 2 + · · · 998) =
3002 + 2 · 998 · 999 = 3002 + 2(1000 − 2)(1000 − 1) = 3006 + 2 ·
106 − 6000.
16. 57. [44] The mod 3 values of the elements in the subset can
be {0, 0, 0}, {1, 1, 1}, {2, 2, 2}, or {0, 1, 2}. The number of such
subsets is 33 , 43 , 43 , and 3 · 4 · 4, respectively. So the answer

is 1 + 4 + 4 + 48.
17. 10/19. [31] If you work out the first few, it appears that after
an odd numbered transfer, it will be half and half, while just
8

before the (2k + 1)st transfer, it will be (k + 1)/(2k + 1) in the

first, and k/(2k + 1) in the second. This can easily be proved
by induction.
18. 319. [50] The units digit implies that B + C = 7. Then the 7’s
digit implies 2C + 1 = 7, so C = 3 and B = 4. Now the 72 -digit
implies A + 4 + 1 = 11 so ACB7 = 6347 = 31910 .
17
19. 5. [38] We want the mod 7 value of 317 . Since 36 ≡ 1 mod
7, we note that, mod 6, 1717 ≡ (−1)17 ≡ 5. Thus, mod 7,
17
317 ≡ 35 ≡ 5.
2
20. 2/3. [34] The expression simplifies to 4(x+1) +1
6(x+1)
= 32 (x+1)+ 16 x+1
1
.
By the AM-GM Inequality, the minimum value of X + Y , for
√
positive numbers X and Y , is 2 XY , achieved when X = Y .
p
In this case, the minimum is 2 2/18, achieved when x = −1/2.

21. (0, 12 ]∪[1, ∞). [39] The inequality can be written as (2x−1)(x−
1)/x ≥ 0. This is satisfied if all three factors are nonnegative,
or if only one is nonnegative. The solution x = 0 is excluded
since 1/x is not defined.
22. 338/3. [12] Let the vertices be (0, 0), (12, 0), and (0, 5), and let
(x, y) be the point. The desired sum is
x2 + y 2 + x2 + (5 − y)2 + (12 − x)2 + y 2
= 3(x2 − 8x + 48) + 3(y 2 − 10
3
y + 25)
= 3((x − 4)2 + 32) + 3((y 5 2
− 3 ) + 50
9
),
50
whose minimum is 96 + 3
.
23. 2(π − 2)/π or 2 − π4 . [46] Let the radius of the initial circle equal
√
1. Then the sidelength of the inscribed square is 2, and so the
area shaded in the first round is π − 2. The radius of the second
√
circle is 21 2, and so the area shaded in the second round is
1/2 times the area shaded in the first round. Similarly, each
successive round has half as much area shaded as the preceding
 9

round. Thus the total area shaded is (π−2)(1+ 12 +( 12 )2 +· · · ) =

2(π − 2), so the fraction is as claimed.
√
24. (10 − 10)/3. [45.5] Let θ equal angle P BA. Then 3 =
2 tan θ
tan(2θ) = 1−tan 2 θ. Solving the quadratic equation for tan θ,
√
10−1
we obtain AP = tan θ = 3
and CP = 3 − AP .
25. 2n+1 − 2. [19] The easiest way is to make a table of the first few
rows and observe the pattern. It can be proved inductively as
follows:
n
X Xn−1
xi,n−i = 2n+ (xi−1,n−i +xi,n−i−1 ) = 2n+2(2n −2−(n−1)) = 2n+1 −2.
i=0 i=1

26. 19. [14] The number of ways in which there are two suits with


2 2
two cards is 42 13 2

13 , while the number with three cards
13
in one suit is 4 3 133 . The sum of these can be factored as
134 · 23 (33 + 11) = 24 · 134 · 19.
√
27. 2 2. [9] a1 + 1b = m is equivalent to a + b = mab. The given
equation says 4(ab)3 = (a + b)2 − 4ab = m2 a2 b2 − 4ab. Thus
4(ab)2 − m2 ab + 4 = 0, which is only satisfied for some ab > 0
√
if m2 ≥ 8, so m ≥ 2 2. Equality is obtained for {a, b} =
√
{ 2 ± 1}.
√
28. 41 (3 − 3). [27] We may assume that the sides of the second
√
triangle are 1, 3, and 2. The first triangle has sides 2, x, and
√ √ √
4 + x2 , with 2 + x + 4 + √ x2 = 1 + √ 3 + 2. Thus 4 + x2 =
√
(1 + 3 − x)2 , and so x = 1+√3 3 = 3−2 3 . Thus the tangent is
√
3− 3
4
.
29. 169. [33] Working up or down from the middle square, we insert
the number of paths from each square to the center square.
There are 4 + 5 + 3 + 1 paths from the top row to the center
10

square, and 13 paths from the center square to the bottom row.
...................................................................................
... .. ... ... ...
4 5 3 1 ...
...
...
..
..
..
.......................................................................................
..
..
..
..
... .
. ... ...
2 2 1 ...
...
..
.
.
...
.
.............................................................
...
.
..... .. ...
...
1 1 ...
...
........................................
...
...
...
... ...
1 ..........................................
....
.
...
.
.
.... .... ....
1 1 ..
.
..................................................................
.
. ...
.. .. ... ..
1 2 2 ...
..
...
..
...................................................................................
...
.
...
..
.... .... .... .... ....
..
. 1 3 5 4 .
.
.
.
.
.
..................................................................................
.
.. ...

30. −6/19. [8] Let the roots be a ± t and a ± 3t. Then ((x − a)2 −
t2 )((x−a)2 −9t2 ) = x4 −(3m+2)x2 +m2 is an identity. We must
have a = 0, 10t2 = 3m + 2, and 9t4 = m2 . Hence m = ±3t2
and 2 = (10 ± 9)t2 . Now t2 = 2 or 2/19, and 3m = 20 − 2 or
20
19
− 2. Finally m = 6 or −6/19.
√
31. 5. [17] Let EB = x, DG = y, and DC = b. Since triangles
EBA and EGC are similar, x1 = b−y b
. Since triangles GF D and
GBC are similar, y = b−y . The first equation yields yb = x−1
4 1+x
x
,
1+x b 1+x x
while the second says 4 = y − 1. We obtain 4 = x−1 − 1,
which simplifies to x2 = 5.

..
........
F
..... ..
..... ....
..
...... ...
.. ...
.....
..... ...
..
....... ...
...
..
..... ...
..
....
. ...
.
...... ...
D .
...
.
.. ...... .
...
G
..............................................................................................................................
.
... .
C
..
. ............. .........
.
... ..............
..
. .. ......
. . . . . . . . ....

.... ..
......
.
.....
.

.. .........
. ..
... ..
... ...............
.............
.
.
...
.
E
... ..... ...
.....
.....
.
. .. . ..... .
.... ... ... .......
..... .............. .
...............................................................................................................................
A B
32. 12.25. [0] Let Xi be the random variable which is 1 if the
ith entry starts a run, and 0 otherwise, and let E(Xi ) be its
expected value. Then E(X1 ) = 1. If i > 1, then the probability
that Xi = 1 is 15 · 9 + 24
24 23
9
· 15
23
, so E(Xi ) = 2·15·9
24·23
. The expected
number of runs is E(X1 ) + · · · + E(X24 ) = 1 + 23 2·15·9
24·23
= 1 + 45
4
.
 11

33. −1. [29] Let wn = z n + z −n . Expanding shows that wn+m =

wn wm −w|n−m| . Also w0 = 2 and w1 = 1. From this it follows by
induction that w2n = −1 for n ≥ 1. Next w3·2n = w2n+1 w2n −
w2n = 1 − (−1) = 2 for n ≥ 1. Finally w5·2n = w2n+2 w2n −
w3·2n = 1 − 2 = −1 for n ≥ 1. Alternatively: z = eiπ/3 , so the
answer is e80iπ/3 + e−80iπ/3 = 2 cos(2π/3) = −1.
34. 3904. [8] Note that
√ √ √ √
( 5 + 3)6 + ( 5 − 3)6
√ √ √ √ √ √
= 2(( 5)6 + 15( 5)2 ( 3)2 (( 5)2 + ( 3)2 ) + ( 3)6 )
= 2(125 + 15 · 15 · 8 + 27) = 3904.
√ √
Since 5 − 3 < 1, this is the desired answer. The actual value
is roughly 3903.98.
√
35. 21 2. [5] For any point E, angle P EQ subtends the minor arc
of chord P Q in the circle passing through P , E, and Q. To
make this angle as large as possible, we would want the radius
of this circle to be as small as possible. The circle through P
and Q tangent to sides BC and AD accomplishes this, as no
smaller circle through P and Q meets another edge. The line
through E parallel to P Q will be a diameter of the circle. The
right triangle determined by P , the center of this circle, and
the midpoint of P Q shows q that the altitude in triangle P EQ
3 2 1 2
√
from side P Q has length ( 2 ) − ( 2 ) = 2. Since the base of
√
triangle P EQ has length 1, its area is 12 2.
62 +42 −52
36. 163/2. [6] Let θ denote the angle at B. Then cos θ = 2·4·6
=
9
16
. We have
(AP1 )2 = 62 + 12 − 2 · 1 · 6 cos θ
(AP2 )2 = 62 + 22 − 2 · 2 · 6 cos θ
(AP3 )2 = 62 + 32 − 2 · 3 · 6 cos θ.
9
Thus (AP1 )2 +(AP2 )2 +(AP3 )2 = 3·62 +12 +22 +32 −2·6·6· 16 =
81 163
122 − 2 = 2 .
12

37. 5/108. [1] There are 6 choices for each move (3 for the bowl
from which the ball is chosen, and 2 for the bowl into which
it is placed), and so there are 65 possible sequences of moves.
Suppose the bowls are labeled A, B, and C. It must be the case
that 2 bowls have two balls removed, and one bowl has one
removed. There are 3 choices for the bowl from which only one
ball is removed. Assume that is bowl A. There are 5 choices for
the turn on which that removal will take place, and 2 for the
bowl into which that ball will be moved. If the ball from bowl
A is moved into bowl B, then it must be that the ball that is
moved into bowl A must come from bowl C, for if it came from
B, it would be impossible to end up with an equal number of
balls in bowls B and C. There are now 4 choices of the turn on
which the ball is moved from C to A. On the other three moves,
there must be two from B to C, and one from C to B. There
are three choices for the turn on which we switched from C to
B. So there are 3 · 5 · 2 · 4 · 3 choices altogether. The ratio of this
to 65 is 5/108.
38. 729. [0]First note that f (∅ ∪ A) = f (∅) ∪ f (A) implies that
f (∅) ⊂ f (A) for all A. Also, f is determined by f (∅), f ({a}),
f ({b}), and f ({c}). If |f (∅)| = 3, then |f (A)| = 3 for all A, so
there is only one such f . If f (∅) = {a, b}, there are 23 choices for
f , depending on which of f ({a}), f ({b}), and f ({c}) contain c.
The situation is similar for f (∅) = {a, c} or {b, c}, so there are
3 · 8 possible f ’s for which |f (∅)| = 2. For f (∅) = {a}, there are
43 possible functions f , depending independently on whether or
not b and/or c is in (independently) f ({a}), f ({b}), and f ({c}).
So there are 3 · 43 functions f for which |f (∅)| = 1. Finally, if
f (∅) = ∅, then there are, independently, 8 possibilities for each
of f ({a}), f ({b}), and f ({c}), so 83 possible f with |f (∅)| = 0.
The total number of f is 1 + 24 + 192 + 512 = 729 functions
altogether.
 13

1
39. 19. [2] Let bn+1 = an+1 − an . Then b1 = 1 and bn+1 = 1 + bn
.
Thus bn = fn+1
fn
, the ratio of successive Fibonacci numbers.
a12 = b1 + · · · + b12 = 1 + 2 + 23 + 53 + · · · + 144
89
+ 233
144
.
The values of bn approach the golden ratio φ ≈ 1.618. Beginning
with b4 , they are quite close to that value, and so a12 ≈ 4.5 +
9 · 1.618 = 19.062. The actual value is roughly 19.098.
√
40. 200 3/63. [1] If x, y, and z are the lengths of the altitudes,
then the area of the triangle equals 12 (5x + 7y + 8z). By Heron’s
√ √
formula, it equals 10 · 5 · 3 · 2 = 10 3. Thus 5x + 7y + 8z =
√ p
20 3. By AM-GM Inequality, (5x+7y+8z)/3 ≥ 3 (5x)(7y)(8z).
√ 3 √
Thus 280xyz ≤ ( 20 3 √
3) and so xyz ≤ 200 3/63. Equality is
√ √
obtained when x = 4 3/3, y = 20 3/21, and z = 5 3/6.