Thank you very much for your participation in the Sri Lankan Mathematics Index No

Competition SLMC 2018. Your score on this competition will be posted against
your index number in www.slmathsolympiad.org. The best 30 students in the
SLMC 2018 will be invited to participate in the Sri Lankan Mathematics Medium ENGLISH
Challenge Competition 2018. In this competition we have tried to showcase
mathematics by posing puzzle type problems covering various areas of
mathematics. Though the problems require very little knowledge of mathematics, SRI LANKAN MATHEMATICS
not more than a Year 10 student’s basic mathematics knowledge, some problems
might require the mathematical maturity of a student in a higher grade. We hope COMPETITION 2018
that this kind of problems will stimulate your interest in mathematics beyond
classroom mathematics. If you didn’t do too well, don’t be discouraged! You
may have great mathematical talent, but it requires nurturing!! You have to learn
April 7, 2018
problem solving strategies. Solve math problems for fun. Doing mathematics
outside the school curriculum box will greatly improve your school mathematics.
10:30 am – 12 noon
This question paper has 30 multiple choice questions. The duration of this competition is 90
As you know doing these problems in the exam hall under the pressure of time is minutes. Answer all questions. Please read the questions carefully and fill in the correct
difficult. This way may not bring the best in you. We hope that you will leisurely lettered circle (only one) against the correct question number in the given answer sheet.
do and think about these problems after the competition. Looking back at the Note that no responses get at least two points while incorrect responses receive zero points.
problems you solved and reflecting on them will improve your mathematical Please write your index number in the box provided at the top right corner of your question
thinking. Some of these problems have deep mathematical ideas in them. History paper.
shows us that some mathematical ideas we have to learn in school evolved
through long periods of time baffling the greatest mathematical minds in those Scoring System for the Sri Lankan Mathematics Competition
times. For example negative numbers. Leo Rogers says at
http://nrich.maths.org/5961: Questions 1 to 10 : 5 points for correct response, 2 points for no response, and 0 points for
incorrect response.
Although the first set of rules for dealing with negative numbers was stated in the
7th century by the Indian mathematician Brahmagupta, it is surprising that in Questions 11 to 20 : 6 points for correct response, 2 points for no response, and 0 points
1758 the British mathematician Francis Maseres was claiming that negative for incorrect response.
numbers "... darken the very whole doctrines of the equations and make dark of Questions 21 to 30 : 8 points for correct response, 3 points for no response, and 0 points
the things which are in their nature excessively obvious and simple". for incorrect response.

Read that article. Mathematics is a beautiful subject. But to see the beauty you
have to engage in good mathematics. We hope that this competition will help you
to see the beauty in mathematics.
Sri Lanka Olympiad Mathematics
For any comments/suggestions: Dr. Chanakya Wijeratne ([email protected]) Foundation
1. The following is a coded number coded using dancing men where each dancing man 27. Sarath, Ragavan and Mohamed played in an exhibition carrom event. In this event the loser
represents a unique digit (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 or 9) and different dancing men represent of each game had to sit out the next game. In total Sarath played 9 games, Ragavan played
different digits:… 14 games and Mohamed played 15 games in this event. Which of the following is/are true?

I. Sarath and Ragavan played the 13th game.

II. Ragavan and Mohamed played the 15th game.
III. There were altogether 19 games.
Which of the following could be the correctly decoded number?
………………………………………………………………………………
(A) (B) (C) (A) I only (B II only (C) III only (D) II and III only (E) All
(D) (A)
2. In how many different ways can a nonempty plate be made from 2 identical Kavuns and 3 28. The increasing sequence 1, 3, 4, 9, 10, 12, 13, … consists of all those positive integers which
identical Laddus? are powers of 3 or sums of distinct powers of 3. What is the 100th term of this sequence?

(A) (B) (C) (D) (E) (A) (B) (C) (D) (E)
3. What is the largest number that can be made by using each digit 2, 0, 1 and 8 of 2018 exactly
once and the operations addition and multiplication any number of times? 29. and are positive integers such that has exactly 5 positive divisors and has exactly 7
positive divisors. How many positive divisors does have ?
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)
4. How many different (non congruent) triangles are there with one side 4 cm and area 2018 (A) (B) (C) (D) (E)
cm2?
30. A pentagram is a regular pentagon with its sides extended to their point of intersection. In the
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E) Infinitely many pentagram ABCDE shown below PQRST is a regular pentagon.
5. In the table given below, each of the symbols @, #, & and $ denotes a number. The sum of
the numbers denoted by each symbol in a column is given below the column and the sum of
the numbers denoted by each symbol in a row is given to the right of the row except in the
second row. What is the missing number?

If , then what is the ratio ,the area of the pentagram : the area of the pentagon?

(A) ( ) ( ) (B) ( ) ( ) (C) ( ) ( )

(A) (B) (C) (D) (E) (D) ( ) ( ) (E) ( ) ( )

2 7
21. Two players take turns in tossing a fair coin. The winner is the first one to toss a head and 6. Which of the following statements is true for all real values (positive, negative and zero) of the
the game is played until there is a winner. What is the probability that the first player, the number a?
player who tosses first, wins the game?
(A) (B) (C) ( ) ( ) (D)
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E) (E)
22. Each cell of a 10 10 square grid should be colored in red or blue such that each 2 2 7. The hypotenuse of a right triangle is 2018 cm and a side is 1118 cm. What is the length of the
square has an odd number of blue squares. If each cell is distinct then how many different
colorings are there? other side in cm? (Note: 3136 =56)
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E) (A) (B) (C) (D) (E)
23. All integers from 1 to 2018 are written on a white board. Two players take turns in selecting 8. A regular triangle (equilateral triangle), a regular quadrilateral (square), a regular pentagon and
two numbers and erasing them and writing their positive difference instead. If the last a regular hexagon have interior angles measured in integer degrees. In total, how many types
number written on the board is odd then the first player, the player who plays first, wins. of regular polygons have interior angles measured in integer degrees?
Otherwise the second player wins. Which of the following is/are true?
I. The first player always wins. (A) 0 (B) (C) (D) (E)
II. The second player always wins.
III. The second player has a winning strategy. 9. In a primary school, the number of participants in a sports meet is 75. For the three events A,
(A) I only (B) II only (C) III only (D) II and III only (E) None B and C of the sports meet, the participants are in the ratio 2 : 5 : 4 and each participant
participated in at least one of these three events. Every student who participated in event A
24. A set A consists of 2019 integers such that the sum of any 2018 elements of A is divisible
by 2018. Which of the following statements is/are necessarily true? also participated in event B and no student participated in all three events. If the ratio of the
number who participated in both events B and C to the number who participated in event A
I. Every element of A is divisible by 2018. is 1:3, how many students participated in exactly one event?
II. Every element of A has the same remainder when it is divided by 2018.
III. At least one element of A is divisible by 2018 (A) (B) (C) (D) (E)
(A) I only (B) II only (C) III only (D) All (E) None 10. In the figure given below (not drawn to scale), ABC is an isosceles right triangle with the two
25. How many 4 digit numbers are there such that any 4 digit number obtained by a equal sides of length 2 cm each and PQR is a right triangle. Q is the midpoint of AC.
rearrangement of its digits is divisible by 5? (Note that a number with 4 digits has its first
digit of the four digits non zero.)
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)
26. One of Kanchana, Damitha, Ranjan, Pooja and Roshan broke a vase. The following is what
each of them had to say about the person who broke the vase:
Kanchana: If Ranjan did not break the vase then Pooja or Roshan broke it.
Damitha: Ranjan broke the vase.
Ranjan: Pooja broke the vase.
Pooja: Roshan broke the vase.
Roshan: Kanchana broke the vase.
If only one of these 5 statements is true, who broke the vase? What is the area of the quadrilateral XQYB in cm2?

(A) Kanchana (B) Damitha (C) Ranjan (D) Pooja (E) Roshan (A) (B) (C) (D) (E)

6 3
11. When Sumana’s piggy bank broke, she discovered that the number of 5 rupee coins she had 16. How many parallelograms are contained in the 4th figure in the pattern given in question 15
was three times the number of 10 rupee coins she had and that the value of the 2 rupee coins above? (Hint: symmetry)
she had was three rupees more than the value of the 5 rupee coins she had. If Sumana had at
(A) 620 (B) 625 (C) 630 (D) 635 (E)
least ten 2 rupee coins, what is the minimum amount that she must have had?
1 1 1 1 1 1
17. If   ...     ...  and the total number of fractions on both sides is between
(A) 112 Rupees (B) 115 Rupees (C) 120 Rupees (D) 123 Rupees (E) 128 Rupees 3 3 3 5 5 5
12. Pasindu says that his six digits secret number is the smallest positive integer such that it is a 20 and 26 then what exactly is the total number of fractions?
multiple of 9 and if its first and last digits are crossed out then the remaining number has only
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)
11 as a prime factor. What is Pasindu’s secret number?
18. Let be a sequence of real numbers such that and
(A) 111114 (B) 122220 (C) 333333 (D) 113310 (E) 113319 for n  1 . What is the minimum possible value of ?
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)
13. There are four keys and four locks. Each of the four keys fits exactly one of the four locks
and different keys fit different locks. In the worst-case scenario what is the minimum total 19. A rectangular chocolate bar of size x  y where x and y are positive integers consists of xy
number of times a key has to be tested in a lock to match up all the keys and locks? small squares. The bottom left square is bitter and the other squares are sweet. Two players
take turns in selecting a square and eating all the squares above and to the right of the
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E) selected square in a rectangular block including the selected square. The player who has to
14. Champernowne constant in base 10 is 0.123456789101112… . This is the number obtained eat the bitter square loses. Which of the following is/are true?
by concatenating the positive integers and interpreting the digits as decimal digits to the right
I. If x  1 and y  1 then the first player, the player who eats first, has a winning
of the decimal point. What is the 2018th digit to the right of the decimal point?
strategy.
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E) 7 II. If x  1 and y  1 then the second player has a winning strategy
III. If ( x  1and y  1 ) or ( x  1 and y  1 ) then the first player can win in a single
move.
15.
(A) І only (B) ІІ only (C) І and ІІІ only (D) None (E) All
20. Consider the figure given below. is a variable point on the side of triangle .
Points are on such that . Let and be the areas of the
shaded and un-shaded regions respectively. Which of the following statements is/are true?

The first four figures in a pattern are given above. The first figure in the pattern is an
equilateral triangle. Each other figure in the pattern is obtained by joining the midpoints of I. S = U only when AT is perpendicular to BC.
the sides of the triangle/triangles in the previous figure with straight lines parallel to the II. S = U only when T is the midpoint of BC
sides. If the number of triangles of the smallest size in two successive figures add up to 20 III. S = U for any position of T on the line segment BC.

480, which two figures in this pattern are they? (Note: 46  4096)
(A) 4th and 5th (B) 5th and 6th (C) 6th and 7th (D) 7th and 8th (E) 8th and 9th
(A) I only (B) II only (C) III only (D) None (E) All

4 5