FMM 2020 Individual Questions 1-2 October 10, 2020

Time limit: 10 minutes

Instructions: For this test, you will individually solve two short answer questions.
No calculators.

1. Find the positive integer x such that

log5 12, log5 x, log5 108

is an arithmetic sequence in that order.

Answer: 36
Solution: If real numbers a, b, and c are an arithmetic sequence in that order, then they satisfy b − a =
log5 12+log5 108 √ √
c − b, or b = a+c
2 . Therefore, log5 x = 2 = log5 12 × 108 =⇒ x = 12 × 108 = 36 .

2. A rhombus has side length 10 and area 80. A circle is inscribed in the rhombus. If the area of the circle
can be written as kπ, find k.
Answer: 16
Solution: Consider the rhombus drawn in Figure 1. Since the total area of the rhombus is 80, the area

Figure 1: Rhombus with side length 10 and area 80

of triangle XY Z is a quarter of 80, or 20. Now, we know that radii to points of tangency are perpendicular
to tangent lines, so ZP ⊥ XY . We calculate the area of triangle XY Z:

1
[XY Z] = (XY )(ZP )
2
1
= (10)(r)
2
= 5r.

Therefore, 5r = 20, so r = 4. The area of the circle is πr2 = 16π, and the answer is 16 .

3. If f (x) is a linear function and f (f (f (x))) = 8x + 693, find f (1).

Answer: 101

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FMM 2020 Individual Questions 1-2 October 10, 2020

Solution: Let f (x) = ax + b. Then,

f (f (x)) = a(ax + b) + b = a2 x + ab + b,

and
f (f (f (x))) = a(a2 x + ab + b) = a3 x + a2 b + ab + b = 8x + 693.

Equating the x coefficient yields a = 2. Now, equating the constant terms, we have a2 b + ab + b = 693.
Plugging in a = 2, we get 7b = 693 → b = 99. Our original function is f (x) = 2x + 99, and f (1) = 101 .

4. Find the number of permutations of 1, 2, 3, . . . , 10 such that for all integers x with 1 ≤ x ≤ 5, in the
permutation x appears to the left of 2x.
Answer: 37800
Solution: Consider the sets {1, 2, 4, 8}, {3, 6}, {5, 10}, {7}, {9}. Within each of these sets, the numbers
must occur in increasing order, and any such permutation works. So then we can choose which slots
belong to which set. There are 10 ways to choose where 1, 2, 4, 8 go, then 62 ways to choose 3, 6, then



4
4


2 ways to choose 5, 10, and then 2 ways to choose 7. So the number of ways is
     
10 6 4
· · · 2 = 210 · 15 · 6 · 2 = 37800 .
4 2 2

5. Moor takes a triangular sheet of paper and lays it over another (not necessary congruent) triangular sheet
of paper. The resulting polygon formed by the two triangles together has n sides. What is the sum of all
possible values of n?
Answer: 64
Solution: We can use some simple casework, working downward from a hexagram, or working upward
from a triangle entirely encased in the other triangle. The answer is 3+4+5+6+7+8+9+10+12 = 64 .

6. How many values x satisfy 0 ≤ x < 1001 and x3 − 1000x2 − 9x + 992 ≡ 0 (mod 1001)?
Answer: 27
Solution: Notice that −1000 ≡ 1 (mod 1001) and 992 ≡ −9 (mod 1001), so we can write the equation
as
x3 + x2 − 9x − 9 = (x + 1)(x2 − 9) = (x + 1)(x + 3)(x − 3) ≡ 0 (mod 1001).

Since 1001 = 7 · 11 · 13, we have x ≡ 3, 4, 6 (mod 7), x ≡ 3, 8, 10 (mod 11), and x ≡ 3, 10, 12 (mod 13).
By the Chinese Remainder Theorem, each combination of remainders modulo 7, 11, and 13 gives a unique
value modulo 1001, so we have 3 · 3 · 3 = 27 solutions.

7. Maira is interested in constructing quadratics out of each other and starts with a relatively simple example.
She takes two quadratics: (x + m)2 and (x + m + 2)2 , and takes their average (adding both together and
dividing the sum by 2). She takes her new quadratic and finds the roots rm and sm . Finally, she calculates
P2020 2
the remainder of m=1 (rm + s2m ) when it is divided by 1000. What value does she get?
Answer: 580

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 FMM 2020 Individual Questions 1-2 October 10, 2020

Solution: The average of the two quadratics is x2 + (2m + 2)x + (m2 + 2m + 2). Using Vieta’s formulas,
we know that

2
rm + s2m = (rm + sm )2 − 2rm sm = (2m + 2)2 − m2 + 2m + 2 = 2m2 + 4m.

So, Maira is now calculating

2020
X
(2m2 + 4m).
m−1

n(n+1)(n+2)
Using the formulas for the sum of squares 1 + 4 + 9 + · · · + n2 = 6 and natural numbers
n(n+1)
1 + 2 + 3 + ··· + n = 2 , we get

2020 · 2021 · 4041 2020 · 2021

2· +4· ≡ 20 · 21 · 413 + 2 · 20 · 21 (mod 1000)
6 2

≡ 20 · 7 · 41 + 20 · 42 ≡ 20(287 + 42) ≡ 20(329) (mod 1000)

≡ 3290 · 2 ≡ 290 · 2 ≡ 580 (mod 1000).

8. For positive integers n and b, let fb (n) denote the sum of the digits of the base b representation of n. How
many positive integers n ≤ 2020 satisfy f2 (n) = f4 (n)?
Answer: 63
Solution: If we have the base 4 representation of n, we convert to base 2 by writing each digit as a 2-digit
base 2 number, so we would write 00, 01, 10, 11 in place of 0, 1, 2, 3. The sum of the digits of this base 2
number is always less than or equal to the sum of the digits of the base 4 number, with equality if and only
if the digit is 0 or 1. So then the n which work are the ones whose digits in base 4 are all 0 or 1. Note that
45 < 2020 < 211 , so we need n to have at most 6 digits in base 4, and we can add leading zeroes so that n
has exactly 6 digits. Then we have 2 choices for each of these digits, so 64 choices total. This includes 0,
46 −1
which is not allowed. Other than this, the maximum number we get is 1 + 4 + 42 + . . . + 45 = 3 < 2020,
so all such numbers work. So then there are 63 values of n.

9. Two elements are selected at random from the set {1, 2, 3, · · · , 2020}. If the expected value of the larger
m
of the two elements is n in lowest terms, find m + n.
Answer: 4045
2020


Solution: There’s a total of 2 possible pairs. There is one way for the larger element to be 2, 2 ways
for the larger element to be 3, and so on, up to 2019 ways for the larger element to be 2020. Thus, the
sum of the larger elements over all possible pairs is

1 · 2 + 2 · 3 + · · · + 2019 · 2020
Pn n(n+1) Pn n(n+1)(2n+1)
Using the identities i=1 i= 2 and i=1 i2 = 6 , we have

2019 · 2020 · 2021

1 · 2 + 2 · 3 + · · · + 2019 · 2020 =
3

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 FMM 2020 Individual Questions 1-2 October 10, 2020

The expected value is the sum of the larger elements of the pairs, divided by the number of possible pairs.
So we have:
2019·2020·2021
3 4042
2020·2019 =
2
3

Thus, our answer is 4042 + 3 = 4045

10. Sam writes all positive divisors of 5040 (including itself) on a whiteboard. Then, in one turn, he picks one
of the numbers on the whiteboard uniformly at random, and then erases that number and all multiples
of it. He keeps doing this until all numbers are erased. If the expected number of turns taken by this
m
process is n in lowest terms, find m + n.
Answer: 1667
Solution: The number of turns is the number of numbers which are chosen. By Linearity of Expectation,
if each k | 5040 has probability Pk of being chosen, then the expected number of chosen numbers is
P
k|5040 Pk .

To find Pk , consider all d(k) divisors of k, including itself. Then k gets erased the first time one of these
divisors gets chosen, and none of the other divisors can get erased until one of these is chosen. This
means all numbers on this list are equally likely to be the first one chosen, so then the probability that k
1
is chosen first is d(k) .
1
We can factor 5040 = 24 · 32 · 5 · 7, so since d(k) is multiplicative,
P
So then we want to find k|5040 d(k) .
we can write this as
       
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
+ + + + · + + · + · +
d(1) d(2) d(22 ) d(23 ) d(24 ) d(1) d(3) d(32 ) d(1) d(5) d(1) d(7)
     2
1 1 1 1 1 1 1
= 1+ + + + · 1+ + · 1+
2 3 4 5 2 3 2
1507
= ,
160
1507
and the expected number of turns is 160 , yielding an answer of 1667 .