Department of Mathematics and Statistics

Junior Mathematics Competition

2017 Solutions and Comments

Web: maths.otago.ac.nz/jmc Twitter: @uojmc

 Year 9 (Form 3) Prize Winners

First Tobias Devereux Kavanagh College

Second Ethan Ng Merrin School
Third David Lu Pinehurst School
Top 30 (in School Order):

Samuel Blyth, Auckland Grammar School JOO-YEON JEONG, Avondale College

Louie Lu, Burnside High School Reuben Clarkson, Cashmere High School
Jasmine Ha, Diocesan School for Girls Jason Lee, Kings College
Sam Zhuang, Kristin School Christian Newey, Kristin School
Shirley Bian, Kristin School Eric Zhang, Kristin School
Oliver Dai, Macleans College Kris Zhang, Macleans College
Abhinav Chawla, Macleans College Andrew Zeng, Macleans College
Sophia Liu, Macleans College Rick Han, Macleans College
James Seo, Otago Boys’ High School Angelina Del Favero, Queen Margaret College
Reina Zhang, Rangitoto College Ethan Lu, Rangitoto College
James Sutton, Rongotai College Michelle Guan, St Kentigern College
Koa Yoshihara, St Kentigern College Haokun He, St Kentigern College
Andy Wu, Takapuna Grammar School Thomas Bailey, Waimea College
Danyi Zhao, Westlake Girls’ High School

Year 10 (Form 4) Prize Winners

First Grace Chang St Kentigern College

Second Ming Wang St Cuthbert’s College
Third Mackinley He Auckland Grammar School
Top 30 (in School Order):

Luke Bao, Auckland Grammar School Daniel Gong, Auckland Grammar School
Isaac Yuan, Auckland Grammar School Qianhao Luo, Auckland Grammar School
Nathan Chen, Auckland Grammar School Jordan Peters, Burnside High School
Ethan Qi, Glendowie College George Bates, King’s High School
Kunli Zhang, Kristin School Vanessa Xiong, Kristin School
Cathy Zeng, Logan Park High School Dillon Hong, Macleans College
Angela Yang, Macleans College Darsh Chaudhari, Macleans College
Terry Shen, Macleans College Jimmy Zhou, Macleans College
Ranudi Lewlwala, Macleans College Jasmine Zhang, Macleans College
Boa Kim, Macleans College Young Yu, Macleans College
Megan Tse, Pakuranga College Cameron Van Rynbach, Palmerston North Boys’ High School
Ciaran Carroll, Palmerston North Boys’ High School Minju Kim, Rangitoto College
Carlie Yung, St Cuthbert’s College Belinda Hu, St Cuthbert’s College
Heeju Rho, St Kentigern College

Year 11 (Form 5) Prize Winners

First Sonia Shao Kristin School

Second Equal Marcus Ooi Kings College
Second Equal James Mead Kings College
Top 30 (in School Order):

Serena Jou, ACG Strathallan College Owen Sun, Auckland Grammar School
Tianyu Chi, Auckland Grammar School Yiren Zhu, Auckland Grammar School
Liam Wong, Auckland Grammar School Seung Jae Hwang, Auckland International College
Louie Wei, Auckland International College Soohyun Kim, Auckland International College
Jing Qu, Botany Downs Secondary College Daniel Liang, Botany Downs Secondary College
Mukund Karthik, Botany Downs Secondary College Yash Shahri, Botany Downs Secondary College
Eric Song, Burnside High School Andrew Chen, Burnside High School
Felix Backhouse, Burnside High School Josephine Situ, Carmel College
Daniel Chong, Christchurch Boys’ High School Paddy Borthwick, King’s High School
Callum Sng, Kings College Edward Day, Kings College
Chris Brand, Kristin School Nicholas Yao, Macleans College
William Han, Macleans College Songyan Teng, Pakuranga College
Jian Pan, St Cuthbert’s College Alice Cao, St Paul’s Collegiate School
Ethan Gray, St Peter’s College (Epsom)
Question 1 (Years 9 and below only)

(a) Over a ଏve day period at Kakanui during April the daily amount of rainfall was recorded.

Day: 1 2 3 4 5
Rainfall (mm): 3 0 4 26 5

(i) How much total rainfall was there over the ଏve day period? 38 mm. Well done. But see below.
(ii) Show that the average rainfall per day over the ଏve day period was 7.6 mm. 38/5. Well done.

(b) Over the same month (30 days) the average rainfall per day at Kakanui was 5.6 mm.

(i) What was the total rainfall for April? 5.6 × 30 = 168 mm. Well done.
(ii) What was the average rainfall for the 25 days not included in the table in part (a)? 168 − 38 = 130,
so 130/25 = 5.2 mm. Pleasing. A good number of students could handle the ’adjustment’.
(c) On Day 2 the maximum temperature was 16°C (degrees Celsius). On Day 3 the maximum tempera-
ture was 10% less than that on Day 2. What was the maximum temperature on Day 3? 14.4°C. Well
done.
(d) Some countries measure temperature using the Fahrenheit scale, while New Zealand uses Celsius.
The formula for converting Celsius (C) to Fahrenheit (F) is F = 95 C + 32.

(i) If the temperature in degrees Celsius is 20° what is the temperature in degrees Fahrenheit?
F = 9/5 × 20 + 32, so F = 68°. Well done.
(ii) If the temperature in degrees Fahrenheit is 50° what is the temperature in degrees Celsius?
50 = 9/5C + 32, so 18 = 9/5C, hence C = 10°. Fairly well done.
(iii) Find the temperature where F = C. F = 9/5F + 32, which gives −4/5F = 32, and so F = −40°. Not
well answered. It was rare to see pupils write x = 9/5 x + 32 and then solve this equation. The
correct answer was more often achieved via guess and check.

Question 2 (All Years)

A prime number has exactly two factors, 1 and itself. By this deଏnition, 1 is not a prime number. The ଏrst
ଏfteen prime numbers are

2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37, 41, 43, 47

To check whether a number is prime or not, one method is:

√
(1) Use a calculator to ଏnd the square root of the number (for example 41 = 6.403 to three decimal
places).
√
(2) Divide the number (x say) by all the prime numbers less than x in decreasing order. For example
for 41 you have to divide 41 by 5, divide 41 by 3, then divide 41 by 2. If it is divisible by any of these
numbers then it is not a prime. However, you do not have to divide by 7 (or anything higher).

With this information answer the following questions:

(a) Germain primes are named after the great French mathematician Sophie Germain. A prime p is a
Germain prime if the number 2p + 1 is also a prime. For example, 41 is a Germain prime because
2 × 41 + 1 = 83, which is also prime.
Are the following statements true or false?
(i) 3 is a Germain prime. True. 2 × 3 + 1 = 7. Also prime. Well answered.
(ii) 11 is a Germain prime. True. 2 × 11 + 1 = 23. Also prime. Well answered.
 (iii) 23 is a Germain prime. True. 2 × 23 + 1 = 47. Also prime. Well answered.
(iv) 2017 is a Germain prime. False. 2 × 2017 + 1 = 4035. Clearly divisible by 5. Well answered al-
though some checked by dividing by every possible prime before they saw the ‘obvious’ answer.
(4035 also has 3 and 269 as prime factors.)
√
(b) 2017 is prime. Show that 2009 is not prime. Hint: Note that 2009 = 44.82 to 2 decimal places.
2009/7 (or 2009/41) is a whole number (287 and 49 respectively). Often well answered but many
students divided by 2, 3, and 5, stopping there and stating that 2009 must be prime.
(c) There is only one prime between 2006 and 2016. State its value. You do not have to show working.
After eliminating all the even numbers along with 2007, 2013 (digits add to a multiple of 3 so they
must be divisible by 3), 2009 (see above), and 2015 (obviously divisible by 5), the only number left is
2011. Well answered but many students did all the divisions on their calculator then wasted time by
writing them all down.
(d) We deଏne whole numbers a and b to be cousin primes if a and b are primes and a − b = 4. For
example 3 and 7 are cousin primes because 7 - 3 = 4.
(i) Find a pair of cousin primes where both are between 10 and 20. 13 and 17. Well answered.
(ii) Find a pair of cousin primes where both are between 100 and 120. There are two possible
answers: 103 and 107 or 109 and 113. Some people chose 113 and 117, but the digits of 117
add to 9, so it must be divisible by 3.
(iii) Is 2017 one of a pair of cousin primes? Show your reasoning. No. 2013 is divisible by 3 and
2021 is divisible by 43. Fairly easy but not so well answered. Many people stated that 2021 was
prime. In too many cases 2013 was given as prime even though in (c) the correct answer of
2011 was given.

Question 3 (All Years)

In one episode of The Simpsons, the crowd at a baseball game was asked to guess the attendance. There
were three options: 8128, 8191, and 8208. All three numbers are interesting from a mathematical point
of view.
(a) The ଏrst, 8128, is a perfect number. This means that after you ଏnd all the factors of it and add them
up (apart from 8128 itself), the result is 8128. The ଏrst ’perfect’ number is 6, because when you add
the factors of 6 (apart from 6 itself) you get 1 + 2 + 3 = 6.
(i) Write down in ascending order all the factors of 28 (apart from 28 itself), including 1. 1, 2, 4, 7,
14. Well answered but some included 28 despite being told not to.
(ii) Is 28 a perfect number? (You do not have to show working.) Yes. Well answered.
(iii) Write down in ascending order all the factors of 8128 (apart from 8128 itself) including 1. (Hints:
there are 13 factors, not counting 8128 itself. One of them is 64.) 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 127, 254,
508, 1016, 2032, 4064. Well answered. We did not penalise the many students who wrote their
answer in descending order. Knowing the meaning of the word ’ascending’ was not essential.
Strangely enough fewer students wrote 8128 here than wrote 28 in part (a).
(b) The second number, 8191, is a Mersenne prime number. A prime number has exactly two factors,
1 and itself, and a Mersenne prime has the form

2p − 1,

where p is a prime number. For example, if p = 3, the number 23 − 1 = 7 is a Mersenne prime. Not
all numbers of the form 2p − 1 are prime. For example, if p = 23 then 223 − 1 = 8388607, which is
not prime since 8388607 = 47 × 178481.
 (i) Solve for p the equation
2p − 1 = 8191.
You do not need to show working. p = 13. Well answered. Either students wrote out 2 × 2 13
times or they used logs:

2p − 1 = 8191
2p = 8192
log 2p = log 8192
p log 2 = log 8192
p = 13.

(ii) Show that 211 − 1 is not a prime number. 211 − 1 = 2047. 2047 is divisible by 23 (and 89). Many
people obtained 2047 (although some reached 21 or 2049). It was more troublesome to ଏnd
the factors.
(c) The third number, 8208, is a narcissistic number. There are four digits and when you add their
fourth powers it makes 8208. In other words

84 + 24 + 04 + 84 = 8208.

Note that if there are two digits the power involved is 2. If there are three digits the power involved
is three. So a three digit example is 370 = 33 + 73 + 03 .

(i) Show whether 35 is narcissistic or not. 32 + 52 = 34. No. Well answered, although some used
4th powers (they obviously did not read the full question).
(ii) Show whether 153 is narcissistic or not. 13 + 53 + 33 = 153. Yes. Similar to the previous question.
(iii) Explain why there are no two digit narcissistic numbers starting with 1. Students found several
methods but many completely missed this out:

• 52 = 25. This means our second digit must be smaller than 5. But 12 + 02 = 1. Also
12 + 12 = 2, 12 + 22 = 5, 12 + 32 = 10, and 12 + 42 = 17. None are narcissistic.

• ‘Brute force’, working every option out.

• Since 12 is odd, adding it to an odd number must make the result even (and vice-
versa). Since the square of an odd number is odd and the square of an even num-
ber is even, no number starting with 1 can be narcissistic.

• (the most ’mathematical’ way). We must have x2 + 12 = 10 + x. This simpliଏes to

x2 − x − 9 = 0. The discriminant is 37 which is not a perfect square, so there are
no integer solutions.
Question 4 (All Years)

In this question we are investigating the straight line 11x +13y = 382 (which we call equation *). A diagram
of the line (not to scale) is shown in Figure 1.
(a) If we substitute x = 0 into the equa- y
tion *, which point (A or B) do we ଏnd
the co-ordinates of? A. Surprisingly
poorly done. See below.

(b) Substitute x = 0 into the equa- A

tion * to ଏnd the co-ordinates (in
the form (a, b), where a and b are
rational numbers) of the appropri-
ate intercept. (0, 382/13). ‘Decimal’ B x
answers were accepted but ‘(0, 29)’
was not unless the level of rounding
was shown. Several students did not
use parentheses. Figure 1 (not to scale)
A third variable t may be introduced to equation * to give the equivalent equation

11(2292 − 13t) + 13(−1910 + 11t) = 382.

In this version of the equation 2292 − 13t = x and −1910 + 11t = y.

(c) If t = 0 write down the values of x and y. x = 2292 and y = −1910. Well answered although many
students had missed the whole question out.
(d) Show that if t = 357 then y = 2017 and ଏnd the corresponding value for x.

y = −1910 + 11 × 357 (= 2017).

x = 2292 − 13 × 357 = −2349.

Incorrect use of ’BEDMAS’ led to many errors. For y working was needed for full credit.
(e) Solve for t the two inequalities
2292 − 13t > 0
and
−1910 + 11t > 0.

Give all integer values between the two solutions you have found. 2292 − 13t > 0 gives t < 176.30
(1 d.p.), while −1910 + 11t > 0 gives t > 173.6 (1 d.p.). Thus t is one of 174, 175, or 176. As expected
this caused problems, although some Year 9 students had no trouble.
(f) Use the solution to part (e) to ଏnd the co-ordinates of all points on the line * where x and y are both
positive integers. t = 174 gives (30, 4). t = 175 gives (17, 15). t = 176 gives (4, 26). Usually missed
out, although many Year 11 students sped through the question. For those who could do (e) this
was very easy.
Question 5 (All Years)

Moana designs a stylised ଏower inside a circle for a company logo. Each petal consists of a semicircle
with radius a joined to an isosceles triangle with two leg sides of length b, a base side of length c, and a
vertex angle of 30°. (Note that c = 2a.) A circle of radius r is drawn around the ଏower such that the curved
edge of each petal just touches the circle’s circumference. See Figure 2.

(a) What is the centre angle of four adjacent petals combined? 120°. Well answered.

(b) The logo in Figure 2 has 12 petals. If the vertex angle of each petal was 20° instead of 30°, how
many petals would there be? Since 360/30 = 12, it follows that 360/20 = 18, and so there must be
18 petals. Well answered.
(c) Suppose each self-contained area of the logo is coloured in. Each self-contained area of the logo
cannot have the same colour with an area adjacent to itself. How many different colours are
needed? Brieଏy explain your answer. 3, since each petal is next to two other petals (which are
not adjacent to each other), but each part of the circle not covered by the ଏower is adjacent to two
petals, so must use a third colour. Explained well by about one third of candidates who attempted
the question but for some otherwise excellent candidates this was suprisingly poorly done. There
were many Year 11 students who answered all of Question 5 correctly except for this part.

For parts (d) and (e) assume b = 3 cm.

(d) (i) Show that the length of c is 1.553 cm (to 3 deci-

mal places). (Use this value of c from now on if
you cannot ଏnd it yourself.) Half the vertex angle 30° a
c
is 15°. Using the TOA part of SOHCAHTOA we get b
c = 2O = 2 × sin 15°×3, so c = 1.553 cm to 3 dec-
imal places. You could also special triangles (ra-
√
tio 1: 3:2) and Pythagoras. Another viable alter-
native is to use the sine rule: sin375° = sinc30° etc.
6 cos 75° also reaches the answer. Not well an-
swered by most, although many Year 11 students Figure 2 (not to scale)
had no problems.
(ii) Hence ଏnd the area of an individual petal. Give your ଏnal answer to 3 decimal places but be as
accurate as possible with your working. We can use Pythagoras to ଏnd the height (h) of our tri-
angle : h2 + 0.7762 = 32, so h = 2.898 to 3 decimal places. As such the area of each ’half’ triangle
is 12 × 0.776 × 2.898 = 1.125 cm2 . (This number is exact.) So the area of two triangles (and thus
the area of one isosceles triangle) is 2.25 cm2 .
Each semicircle can be found using 12 π(1.553/2)2 = 0.947 cm2 to 3 decimal places. The area of
each petal is therefore 2.25 + 0.947 = 3.197 cm2 to 3 decimal places. Too difଏcult for most. The
area of one of the semicircles (sometimes twice this) was the most frequently correct part seen
here.
(e) Find the area of the outer circle not covered by the ଏower. Give your ଏnal answer to 3 decimal places
but be as accurate as possible with your working. The area of the circle is π(h + c/2)2 = 13.5π cm2
or 42.412 cm2 to 3 decimal places. (The 13.5 is exact.) The area of all twelve petals combined is
12 × (h + c/2) = 12 × (2.25 + 0.947) = 38.364 cm2 to 3 decimal places. The area not covered by the
ଏower is then 42.412 − 38.364 = 4.047 cm2 to 3 decimal places. It is noticeable that trigonometry
does not seem to be taught before Year 11 in many schools, although some younger students (in-
cluding one Year 8 student) seem to have taught themselves.
Things Not To Do in Mathematics Exams - A Beginner’s Guide

(a) If a question is really easy, don’t use about six lines explaining it. For example in Question 1(a) all
you had to do was add ଏve numbers. Many students showed us how to do it in three different ways
(and repeated it in 1(b)). A typical example was: ’3 + 0 + 4 + 26 + 5 = 38. This is because 3 + 0 = 3, 3 +
4 = 7, 7 + 26 = 33, and 33 + 5 = 38. Another way of doing it is to go 3 + 0 = 3, 4 + 26 = 30, 5 = 5, so 3
+ 30 + 5 = 38. So the answer is 38.’ Many students who spent so long on the ଏrst question had not
done very much when time was up.
(b) If you are told something don’t write down that it must be incorrect. For example in 2(b) you were
asked to show that 2009 is not prime. Despite the statement suggesting that 2009 is not prime,
many hundreds of students divided 2009 by 2, 3, and 5 (only) and concluded that 2009 was prime
after all. (In fact 2009/7 = 287.) Examiners do make mistakes, but in 99/100 cases they get it right.
(c) Don’t answer questions out of order. A few students started with Question 5 and then found they
did not have time for the ‘easy’ Question 2.
(d) Don’t use words where Maths symbols are quicker. An example is 3(b)(ii) where all you needed to
write was something like ‘2047/23 = 89’. Some students wrote long sentences. An example would
be ‘2047 is not prime because if 2047 is divided by 23 the answer would be 89 which is a whole
number.’
(e) Once you’ve found the answer don’t try to ଏnd more. In 2(a)(iv) once you’ve found that 4035 divides
by 5 to give a whole number don’t try all the other possible numbers as well, spending half a page
on it.

(f) Don’t forget to number your answers. Unnumbered answers can make it hard for markers to work
out if you are correct or not.
(g) Try not to give an impossible answer. In 2(c) you were asked to write down the only prime between
2006 and 2016. The students who wrote down 2003 had no chance of giving a right answer.

(h) If a question has two choices you should give one of them. In 4(a) you were asked to choose A or B.
Many students wrote ‘y’ and received no credit.