NATIONAL BOARD FOR HIGHER MATHEMATICS

AND
HOMI BHABHA CENTRE FOR SCIENCE EDUCATION
TATA INSTITUTE OF FUNDAMENTAL RESEARCH

Pre-REGIONAL MATHEMATICAL OLYMPIAD, 2015

Mumbai Region

October 4, 2015

QUESTION PAPER SET: A

• There are 20 questions in this question paper. Each question carries 5 marks.
• Answer all questions.
• Time allotted: 2.5 hours.

QUESTIONS
3 1
1. A man walks a certain distance and rides back in 34 hours; he could ride both ways in 2
hours. How many hours would it take him to walk both ways? 2

2. Positive integers a and b are such that a + b = a/b + b/a. What is the value of a2 + b2 ?

3. The equations x2 − 4x + k = 0 and x2 + kx − 4 = 0, where k is a real number, have exactly

one common root. What is the value of k?
4. Let P (x) be a non-zero polynomial with integer coefficients. If P (n) is divisible by n for each
positive integer n, what is the value of P (0)?
5. How many line segments have both their endpoints located at the vertices of a given cube?

6. Let E(n) denote the sum of the even digits of n. For example, E(1243) = 2 + 4 = 6. What
is the value of E(1) + E(2) + E(3) + · · · + E(100)?
7. How many two-digit positive integers N have the property that the sum of N and the number
obtained by reversing the order of the digits of N is a perfect square?

8. The figure below shows a broken piece of a circular plate made of glass.

A B
C

C is the midpoint of AB, and D is the midpoint of arc AB. Given that AB = 24 cm and
CD = 6 cm, what is the radius of the plate in centimetres? (The figure is not drawn to
scale.)

1
 9. A 2 × 3 rectangle and a 3 × 4 rectangle are contained within a square without overlapping
at any interior point, and the sides of the square are parallel to the sides of the two given
rectangles. What is the smallest possible area of the square?

10. What is the greatest possible perimeter of a right-angled triangle with integer side lengths if
one of the sides has length 12 ?

11. In rectangle ABCD, AB = 8 and BC = 20. Let P be a point on AD such that 6 BP C = 90◦ .
If r1 , r2 , r3 are the radii of the incircles of triangles AP B, BP C and CP D, what is the value
of r1 + r2 + r3 ?

12. Let a, b, and c be real numbers such that a − 7b + 8c = 4 and 8a + 4b − c = 7. What is the
value of a2 − b2 + c2 ?

13. Let n be the largest integer that is the product of exactly 3 distinct prime numbers, x, y and
10x + y, where x and y are digits. What is the sum of the digits of n?

14. At a party, each man danced with exactly four women and each woman danced with exactly
three men. Nine men attended the party. How many women attended the party?

15. If 3x + 2y = 985 and 3x − 2y = 473, what is the value of xy?

16. In acute-angled triangle ABC, let D be the foot of the altitude from A, and E be the midpoint
of BC. Let F be the midpoint of AC. Suppose 6 BAE = 40◦ . If 6 DAE = 6 DF E, what is
the magnitude of 6 ADF in degrees?

17. A subset B of the set of first 100 positive integers has the property that no two elements of
B sum to 125. What is the maximum possible number of elements in B?

18. Let a, b and c be such that a + b + c = 0 and

a2 b2 c2
P = + 2 + 2
2a2 + bc 2b + ca 2c + ab

is defined. What is the value of P ?

19. The circle ω touches the circle Ω internally at P . The centre O of Ω is outside ω. Let XY
be a diameter of Ω which is also tangent to ω. Assume P Y > P X. Let P Y intersect ω at
Z. If Y Z = 2P Z, what is the magnitude of 6 P Y X in degrees?

20. The digits of a positive integer n are four consecutive integers in decreasing order when read
from left to right. What is the sum of the possible remainders when n is divided by 37?

2
Answer keys Pre-RMO 2013, Mumbai region October 29, 2013

Below you will find the answer keys to the (set A and set B) Pre-RMO 2013 examination papers for the
Mumbai region. There are three questions (in each set) which have been withdrawn since their formulation
left some ambiguity in interpretation. We give here a brief explanation about them.
• Question 10 of set A (which is the same as Question 7 of set B) is withdrawn since any number could
be an answer to this question. The question in its original formulation had the additional condition
that the three numbers given to Carol are natural numbers, but this condition is missing in the final
version that appeared in the paper, and hence the ambiguity.
• Question 14 of set A (which is the same as Question 11 of set B) is withdrawn since there is a
possible confusion about whether m = 1 is a valid choice or not. The reason for this is the expression
1 + 2 + · · · + m appearing in the question.
• Question 17 of set A (which is the same as Question 18 of set B) is withdrawn since there is an ambiguity
about the diameter specified in the problem. The condition on X in the original formulation was that
it lies on the diameter of S passing through the centre of S2 . But in its final version that appeared in
the paper “of S” is missing and hence the amibiguity.
All the students are given full points for these three questions. Further, though a total of 300 students were
to be selected for writing the RMO on December 1, 2013, the cutoffs were reduced so that more students
are selected to write the RMO.
Answer keys – Set A

Ques. No. Answer Ques. No. Answer

1 5 11 8
2 2 12 1
3 3 13 12
4 0 14 12
5 28 15 48
6 400 16 40
7 8 17 62
8 15 18 1
9 25 19 15
10 84 20 217

Answer keys – Set B

Ques. No. Answer Ques. No. Answer

1 9 11 –
2 91 12 14
3 0 13 8
4 1 14 208
5 10 15 14
6 12 16 36
7 – 17 61
8 18 18 –
9 2 19 0
10 120 20 630