Argonaut Math Olympiad

5.9 Systematic Counting — Part I

In the classroom:

Lessons with guided exercises (40 minutes)

Break (0 minutes)
Lessons with guided exercises (30 minutes)
Wrap up (5 minutes)

Homework:

All Non-starred questions

Homework submission at www.argomath.com/homework
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Copyright Hardy K. S. Leung

Systematic Counting — Part I P.2

Counting problems are tricky. Counting as an the activity may not be hard, but
how do you know you didn't make a mistake, a mental error? You (usually)
can't. Your best bet is to use methods that eliminate the possibility of error,
and the main technique to do so is to be systematic.

Previously, we learned about Fence-Post (linear) counting and circular

counting. In fact, I consider them main techniques of systematic counting:

Fence-Post counting — by always referring to the Fence-Post

terminologies, you're unlikely to confuse between posts and panels.

How many multiples of 5 between 101 and 199?

The first post is at 105, and the last is at 195. The length of the fence is
195 − 105 = 90, and so there are 90 ÷ 5 = 18 panels. The number of

posts is 19. There are 19 multiples of 5.

Circular Post counting — using transformation, we systematically convert
problems from difficult ones to easy ones without changing the answer.

Today is Tuesday. What day of the week is 100 days from today?

The answer is the same if we increase or decrease 100 by any multiple of

7, for example:

100 → 30 → 2
 
decrease by 70 decrease by 28

Now ask yourself: what day of the week is 100 − 98 = 2 days from
Tuesday? The answer is Thursday.
Systematic Counting — Part I P.3

Today we'll show other ways to count systematically, and we'll name them,
similar to what we did with Geometry:

Gridlines
Negative-Space
Detach-and-Reattach
Snaky-Snake

Naming techniques helps abstract the techniques into well-defined but tiny
tools — or spells — so you can focus on critical thinking.

Technique #1 — Count by Categories

Instead of arbitrarily counting, we'll first find out all categories of things that
need to be counted. We only start counting if we are sure that the categories
cover all bases!
Systematic Counting — Part I P.4

Guided Exercise

Square ACEG is drawn at the bottom. Points B, D, F , and H are the

midpoints of the sides of the square. What is the total number of squares
of all sizes which can be traced using only the line segments shown?

What are the categories here?

big squares
small squares
∘
45 big squares
∘
45 small squares

Hopefully, you are convinced that these categories are exhaustive. Let's count
them:

big squares: 1
small squares: 4
∘
45 big squares: 1
∘
45 small squares: 4

The answer is 10.

Systematic Counting — Part I P.5

Guided Exercise

As shown, the 5 × 5 "checkerboard" contains one shaded square. In this

diagram, how many squares of any size do not include the shaded
squares?

This type of problem is error-prone. You can come up with an answer, but
how do you know it is correct?

Being systematic is the answer. We'll consider squares of different sizes, and
we know only 1 × 1, 2 × 2, and 3 × 3 squares fit.

1 × 1 24: of them.
2 × 2 : we'll try to place a 2 × 2 square at each position and see which one
works. There are 4 + 2 + 2 + 4 = 12 squares (each number corresponds
to the number of 2 × 2 that starts in that row).
3 × 3 : only 3.

The answer is 24 + 12 + 3 = 39.

Guided Exercise

Suppose Sandy writes every whole number from 1 to 100 without

skipping any numbers. How many times will Sandy write the digit "2"?
Systematic Counting — Part I P.6

The categories here are the tens digit and the ones digit. It is good to be able
to conjure up the following table (mentally) on demand:

00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29

30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39

40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49

50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59

60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69

70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79

80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89

90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99

Be careful what numbers are included or excluded, whether the rows are 0 to
9, or 1 to 10!

We'll count the number of 2s in the tens digit separately from the number of
2s in the unit digit. This is actually one reason why I prefer 0 to 9, so that

each row has the same tens digit.

By inspection, there are 10 2s in the tens digit, and 10 2s in the ones digit. The
answer is 20.

Actually we "cheated" a little bit by using a 00 − 99 table, chosen because it is

easy to count. It's okay, because neither 00 nor 100 have any twos, so
including 00, excluding 100, and allowing leading zeroes don't matter.
However, we should be mindful of the "hacks" that we made. If the question
is asking how many times will Sandy write "0", the answer (11) would be
very different!
Systematic Counting — Part I P.7

Technique #2 — Count by Casework

This technique is similar to Counting-by-Categories, except that we don't
have distinct categories, but distinct "cases".

Guided Exercise

Fifteen darts have landed on the dartboard shown. Each dart scores 3, 5,
or 7 points. In how many different ways can the fifteen darts score a total
of 75 points?

There are too many variations, and it is hard to correctly list all possibilities
without making any mistake. Instead, can we go through all variations but in
a systematic way?

Well, we can exhaustively consider all cases of 7 points:

Case #0: 0 7s
Case #1: 1 7s
Case #2: 2 7s
…

It is easy to see that this is exhaustive. But how does it help? Well, say you
are considering Case #4, with 4 7-point hits. The 7-point hits already account
for 4 × 7 = 28 points, so there are 15 − 4 = 11 remaining hits and to make a
remaining score of 75 − 28 = 47 points. The solution, if exists, must be
unique!
Systematic Counting — Part I P.8

#7 s score from 7s # 3 s/5s score from 3s/5s Solution?

0 0 15 75

1 7 14 68

2 14 13 61

3 21 12 54

4 28 11 47

5 35 10 40

6 42 9 33

7 49 8 26

8 56 7 19

We can prepare this table in a rather mechanical fashion. We don't have to go

too far because after a while there are too many 7s! Now we solve it:

#7 s score from 7s # 3 s/5s score from 3s/5s (#3s, #5s)

0 0 15 75 (0, 15)

1 7 14 68 (1, 13)

2 14 13 61 (2, 11)

3 21 12 54 (3, 9)

4 28 11 47 (4, 7)

5 35 10 40 (5, 5)

6 42 9 33 (6, 3)

7 49 8 26 (7, 1)

8 56 7 19 —

In fact, by being systematic, even the solutions form a pattern! The answer is
8.
Systematic Counting — Part I P.9

Technique #3A — Count by Faces (3D)

Each cube has 6 faces, say facing North, East, South, West, Up, Down.
Sometimes it is helpful to consider the faces individually. also take advantage
of "sibling" faces with identical measurement.

Guided Exercise

Eight cubes are glued together to form the figure shown. The length of
an edge of each cube is 3 centimeters. The entire figure is covered in
paint. How many square centimeters are covered in paint?

North and South: 8 squares each.

East and West: 3 squares each.

Up and Down: 3 squares each.

Hole: 4 squares.

Total: (8 + 8 + 3 + 3 + 3 + 3 + 4) × (3 × 3) = 32 × 9 = 288 square

centimeters.

(Note: in this case it is more convenient to count the hole separately, but in some
other cases, you can also attribute the hole to each of the six directions)
Systematic Counting — Part I P.10

Guided Exercise

Twenty unit cubes are glued together to form this figure, with "holes"
which you can see through. The total figure measures 3 × 3 × 3. If the
figure is fully dipped in a bucket of paint, how many square units of
surface area would be painted?

You can observe that all faces are identical to each other, so we'll only need to
calculate the area of a single face, say the UP face.

Be careful with the squares that are facing UP but hidden inside the interior
of the cube. 4 are in the interior, and 8 are on the surface, for a total of 12
squares. Since the cube, like a die, has 6 faces, the answer is 6 × 12 = 72.
Systematic Counting — Part I P.11

Technique #3B — Count by Layers (3D)

Guided Exercise

The set of stairs shown at the right is constructed by placing layers of

cubes on top of each other. What is the total number of cubes contained
in the staircase?

This is easy to count by layers: 1 × 3, 3 × 3, 5 × 3, and 7 × 3. The answer:

3(1 + 3 + 5 + 7) = 3 × 16 = 48

Technique #3C — Count by Columns (3D)

Guided Exercise

The tower shown is made of congruent cubes stacked on top of each

other. Some of the cubes are not visible. How many cubes in all are used
to form the tower?
Systematic Counting — Part I P.12

We can solve this problem counting by layers, or by columns. Either way

works but in this case it is easier to count the 10 columns:

4 + (3 + 3) + (2 + 2 + 2) + (1 + 1 + 1 + 1) = 4 + 6 + 6 + 4 = 20

Technique #4 — Count by Tree

Guided Exercise

Three circular streets intersect at points A, B, C, D, E , and F as shown.

How many different paths can be walked along the streets from A to F ,
if no intersection is entered more than once when walking each path?

This must be an all-time most diffcult problem in Math Olympiad — only 1%

of students answered this correctly. To get this right, you must be very
discipline and systematic. We will use a tree which is helpful in enumerating
options.
Systematic Counting — Part I P.13

Starting from A, we repeatedly branch out to all possibilities.

We'll continue to expand each node while keeping track of the constraint we
need to satisfy (no repeated visit).

By being systematic, the solution is more robust because you may find
patterns in the system:

Finally,
Systematic Counting — Part I P.14

To be careful, we'll circle the ones that are real endpoints:

There are 28 paths.

Systematic Counting — Part I P.15

Guided Exercise

Numbers such as 543 or 531 have their digits in decreasing order because
each digit is less than the digit to its left. The digits in 322 are not in
decreasing order. How many whole numbers between 100 and 599 have
their digits in decreasing order?

Let's use a tree:

Careful, some of the intermediate paths lead to nowhere, and we must be

careful not to consider them (this is a common mistake). I prefer to circle the
correct ones (the answer is 20):
Systematic Counting — Part I P.16

Technique #5 — Count by Scratch Table

Guided Exercise

Assume that a post office issues only 3¢ and 8¢ stamps and all postage is
in whole numbers of cents. What is the greatest amount of postage in
cents which cannot be made using only 3¢ and 8¢ stamps?

You can use trial-and-error to find out what postage can be made. But what
about those that cannot be made?

There is no obvious method to count all possibilities using some kind of

formula. Yet, we still do this systematically. Sometimes a tree works better;
sometimes a table does.

In this case, we use a table of numbers, and we circle, or "scratch-off",

numbers that satisfy our criteria. I call this a Scratch Table. It is the most useful
when you can only find the result by looking at the big picture after the fact,
e.g. if you need to count the unique number of ways to do something, or to
find the largest unscratched number. An ancient technique used to find
prime numbers, called the Sieve of Eratosthenes, is based on Scratch Table.

We start by circling (or boxing) 3 and 8 because we know they are "reachable"
(can be made with 3¢ and 8¢ stamps):
Systematic Counting — Part I P.17

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

Next, we'll go down the numbers one by one, and ask, is this number
reachable by adding a 3¢ stamp or a 8¢ stamp to a previously-reachable
postage? If the answer is no, we'll leave it alone. If the answer is yes, we'll
circle (or box) the number to mark it as "reachable".

1 ¢: — 12 ¢: Reachable (from 9)
2 ¢: — 13 ¢: —
3 ¢: Reachable (original) 14 ¢: Reachable (from 11)
4 ¢: — 15 ¢: Reachable (from 12)
5 ¢: — 16 ¢: Reachable (from 8)
6 ¢: Reachable (from 3) 17 ¢: Reachable (from 14)
7 ¢: — 18 ¢: Reachable (from 15)
8 ¢: Reachable (original) 19 ¢: Reachable (from 16)
9 ¢: Reachable (from 6) 20 ¢: Reachable (from 17)
10 ¢: — 21 ¢: Reachable (from 18)
11 ¢: Reachable (from 8) 22 ¢: Reachable (from 19)

At this point, the table looks like this:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

21 22 …
Systematic Counting — Part I P.18

Now observe that there is a long sequence of reachable numbers starting

from 14. It is not hard to reason that anything afterwards is reachable:

14, 15, 16 ⟶ 17, 18, 19

17, 18, 19 ⟶ 20, 21, 22

20, 21, 22 ⟶ 23, 24, 25

23, 24, 25 ⟶ …

Therefore, we have seen the last of the uncircled, which is 13¢!

Systematic Counting — Part I P.19

Guided Exercise

Consider all pairs of counting numbers whose sum is less than 11. The
two members of a pair could be either the same as each other or
different. How many different products are possible if the two numbers
are multiplied?

Do you realize that the multiplications that we want are just the upper-left
corner of the 10 × 10 multiplication table? We can further cut it roughly by
half because of duplicates (e.g. 3 × 4 = 4 × 3):

× 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

2 dup 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 —

3 dup dup 9 12 15 18 21 — —

4 dup dup dup 16 20 24 — — —

5 dup dup dup dup 25 — — — —

6 dup dup dup dup — — — — —

7 dup …

We need to eliminate duplicates (e.g. 2 × 6 = 3 × 4), either using an actual

Scratch Table, or just keep track of unique numbers in-place (more error-
prone).

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

21 22 23 24 25 …

The answer is 19.

Systematic Counting — Part I (HW5) P.29

Problem 01

For how many different counting numbers between 10 and 200 is the
sum of the digits equal to 6, if zero is not a digit of any of the numbers?

Problem 02

How many numbers between 10 and 99 have digits that differ by 3?

Problem 03

Abracadabra has four different coins with values as shown at the

bottom. Suppose you had just one of each of the four different coins.
How many different amounts can be made using one or more of the four
different coins?
Systematic Counting — Part I (HW5) P.30

Problem 04

I have four 3¢-stamps and three 5¢-stamps. Using one or more of these
stamps, how many different amounts of postage can I make?

Problem 05

A boy has the following seven coins in his pocket: 2 pennies, 2 nickels, 2
dimes, and 1 quarter. He takes out two coins, records the sum of their
values, and then puts them back with the other coins. He continues to
take out two coins, record the sum of their values, and put them back.
How many different sums can he record at most?

Problem 06

The six faces of a three-inch wooden cube are each painted red. The cube
is then cut into one-inch cubes along the lines shown in the diagram.
How many of the one-inch cubes have red paint on at least two faces?
Systematic Counting — Part I (HW5) P.31

Problem 07

The tower shown at the bottom is made of horizontal layers of unit

cubes, not all being visible in the diagram. How many unit cubes are
contained in the tower?

Problem 08

The structure at the bottom is made of unit cubes piled on top of each
other. Some cubs are not visible. What is the number of cubes in the
structure?
Systematic Counting — Part I (HW5) P.32

Problem 09

Five disks, numbered 1, 2, 4, 8, and 16, are placed in a bag. Three disks
are withdrawn from the bag, the sum of their numbers is recorded, and
the three disks are then returned to the bag. Suppose this process is
repeated indefinitely. What is the largest number of different sums that
can be recorded?

Problem 10

A set of 10 coins may contain any combination of pennies, nickels,

dimes, quarters, or half-dollars. In how many different ways can the set
of 10 coins have a total value of 59¢?
Systematic Counting — Part I (HW5) P.33

Problem 11

The tower shown at the bottom is made by placing congruent cubes on

top of each other. Not all cubes of the tower are visible. How many cubes
does the tower contain?

Problem 12

At the bottom is a 4 × 4 × 4 cubic block of wood. Suppose all six faces of

the cube are painted red and the cube is then cut into 1 × 1 × 1 cubes
along the lines shown. How many 1 × 1 × 1 cubes will have red paint
on just two faces?
Systematic Counting — Part I (HW5) P.34

Problem 13

A person has four special coins whose values in cents are shown at the
bottom. How many different amounts can the person make using one or
more of the coins?

Problem 14

The tower shown at the right is made by placing congruent cubes on top
of each other with no gaps. Not all cubes are visible. How many cubes
does the tower contain?
Systematic Counting — Part I (HW5) P.35

Problem 15⋆

In the number 203, 500, the last two zeroes are called terminal zeroes.
The zero after the digit 2 is not a terminal zero. How many terminal
zeroes does the product of the first 30 counting numbers (
1 × 2 × 3 × ⋯ × 30) have?

Problem 16⋆

Takeru has four 1-cent stamps, three 5-cent stamps, and three 25-cent
stamps. How many different postage amounts of at least 1 cent can
Takeru make?

Problem 17⋆

In each turn of a certain game, only the following point-scores are

possible: 5, 3, 2, 0. Eight turns are taken. In how many ways can the total
point score be 25?
Systematic Counting — Part I (HW5) P.36

Problem 18⋆

The tower at the bottom has no gaps. Suppose it is painted red on all
exterior sides including the bottom, and then cut into cubes along the
indicated lines. How many cubes will each have red paint on just three
faces?

Problem 19⋆

Let all the odd numbers from 1 through 301 inclusive be written. How
many times will the digit 3 appear?

Problem 20⋆

(1, 1, 9) is a triple of counting numbers whose sum is 11. We consider

(1, 9, 1) and (9, 1, 1) to be the same triple as (1, 1, 9) because each triple

has the same three numbers. How many other triples of counting
numbers have a sum of 11?