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F O R K I D S W H O L I K E T O S O LV E P R O B L E M S

A G A ZINE
r! M #4
M Powe
 Our

STAFF
CONTENTS Editor-in-Chief
Anna Titova
Contributing Author
Andrey Polin
Contributing Author
Laura Gallus
Contributing Illustrator

Golden Statues 2
Margarita Fomenko
Art Director
Margaret Metzger

Amusements 4 KEY
Grades 2 & Up

Escalator Escapades 6
Grades 4 & Up
Grades 6 & Up
Master Solver
Deciphering Ciphers 9

MChallenge 12
Note from the
EDITOR
There is no such thing as a “math
person.” However, a child’s early

The Shortest Distance 14 learning experiences directly impact

their perception of their mathematics
ability. When children are taught
mathematics through fun and engaging
problems, they not only build fluency

Answers 17 in and an intuitive understanding of

mathematics, but they also develop
critical problem-solving skills.

MPower! was created as a resource

for children who want to flex their
mathematical muscles and show
off their problem-solving ingenuity.
We hope you enjoy the stories and
problems inside.

The RSM Foundation is a non-profit that works to equip all young

people with a love of math as well as the math skills to compete and
QUESTIONS &
collaborate to solve real world problems. COMMENTS
©2019 RSM Foundation. All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced Connect with us at:
or distributed in any form or by any means. [email protected]
2
This Magazine
Belongs To:
2 Golden Statues

Golden Statues
T.R. Hunter, an archaeologist, traveled the world in search of artifacts
and treasure. On one particularly exciting adventure, he went in
search of a hidden cave that was rumored to have a vast fortune
in gold and jewels. Using a very old map, he found the cave. While
exploring it, he came upon 12 identical golden statues and an
unmarked balance scale. This perplexed him greatly. As he was about
to take all the golden statues, he saw a parchment, which read:

For all who enter here, be warned. Only one of

these golden statues is real. T he real statue is
heavier than the others, and you can use the scale
no more than three times to find it. If you succeed,
all the treasures that lie within will be yours. But,
if you fail, you will remain imprisoned in this cave
for the remainder of your life!
 Golden Statues 3

T. R. Hunter picked up each statue—they all seemed to weigh the

same amount! He realized that he would have to use the scale. He
thought it would not be possible to find the real statue using the scale
no more than three times. After all, there were 12 statues!

After thinking it through, T. R. succeeded in finding the real golden

statue. How did he do it?
4 Amusements

QUESTION 1 QUESTION 2
You are given the eight cards below.
If
3
5
15
1

11 7 and
13
9

Place three of these cards in the blank spaces to

make the following equation true.
How many do you need on the left side to
balance the right side?
+ + = 24

QUESTION 3 QUESTION 4
You meet twin girls on the first day of school. One A palindrome is a number that reads the same
of the girls is wearing a red bow in her hair and the forward and backward, such as 252. All the four-
other is wearing a purple bow in her hair. The girls digit palindromes are written on a piece of paper.
are named Bella and Ella, but you don’t know who is How many 0s and 9s do you see?
who. The girl with the red bow says, “I am Bella.” The
girl with the purple bow says, “I am Ella.” If you know
at least one of the girls lied, what color bow is Bella
wearing in her hair?
 Amusements 5

QUESTION 5 QUESTION 6
How can you make the equation true if you can What is the next number in the pattern?
only move, but not take away, one stick.
3, 3, 5, 4, 4, 3,

QUESTION 7 QUESTION 8
What digit does each letter represent, if the same Simplify: (x – a) ∙ (x – b) ∙ ∙ ∙ (x – z)
letter represents the same digit?

FOX = OX
6 Escalator Escapades

Escalator Escapades
By Andrey Polin

One weekend, Nick and his parents visited their friends in another city. Nick met Ian, the son of his
parents’ friends. Together, Nick, Ian and their parents spent the weekend sightseeing.

First, they went to a museum. Ian’s dad mentioned that there is a really cool dinosaur exhibit
downstairs and asked if the boys wanted to check it out. Nick and Ian got excited and headed there.
They took the escalator to get to the lower level exhibit hall, but decided to have some fun. They
agreed to count the number of stairs each of them stepped on while walking down the escalator. For
safety, they agreed not to skip any steps when walking down.

Problem 1
Nick and Ian simultaneously walked down from the top of the escalator, each counting all the stairs
that they stepped on. Nick walked down faster than Ian, and reached the bottom of the escalator two
seconds earlier. Who counted more steps: Nick or Ian?

Solution
The result surprised the friends: Let’s explore the situation! Imagine you're descending on an
escalator. If you step on the first stair and don't move, you would count only one step before
reaching the bottom of the escalator. If you move a little faster and walk down two steps, you would
reach the bottom faster, because you would be one step closer. Remember, you count only the
stairs you stepped on! So, if you walk down faster you count more steps.

Look at the picture: the mechanism of an escalator rotates the

stairs, hiding a portion of the stairs as they ascend back to the top.
When you descend on an escalator, you do not have a chance to
step on hidden stairs. Nick got off the escalator first. When he did,
a few steps were still visible to Ian, but they moved away before
Ian could step on them, so he couldn't count them. It was no
mistake and Nick counted more stairs.
 Escalator Escapades 7

Next, they went to a football game at the city stadium. The families used the city subway to get to
the stadium. Since Nick and Ian had so much fun counting the stairs on the escalator at the museum,
they decided to do it again when they saw an escalator at the subway station.

Problem 2
Again, the friends simultaneously walked down the escalator, counting all the stairs that they
stepped on. Nick’s speed was three stairs per second and Ian’s speed was two stairs per second. Ian
counted 40 stairs and Nick counted eight more stairs than Ian. This time the friends figured out how
many visible stairs they would have counted if this escalator did not move. How did they do this?

Solution
Let us fix the moment when the friends just began to walk down the escalator, then the number of
all visible stairs of the motionless escalator would be equal to the sum of the number of stairs that
Nick counted and the number of hidden stairs (or the sum of the number of stairs that Ian counted
and the number of hidden stairs) at the time when he was descending.

We know that it took Nick 48/3 = 16 seconds to walk down. It took Ian 40/2 = 20 seconds to walk
down, which is four more seconds than it took Nick. Ian counted eight stairs less, so eight stairs of the
moving escalator disappeared in four seconds. This means that two stairs go under every second.
Then in 20 seconds, 40 stairs will hide in addition to the 40 stairs Ian counted while walking down.
Thus, they would have counted 80 visible stairs if the escalator did not move.
8 Escalator Escapades

The weekend visit ended at the airport where Nick and his parents waited for their flight home. While
Nick’s mom was sitting, Nick and his dad walked around.

Problem 3
At one point, Nick and his dad got on an empty moving walkway. Nick was watching his favorite
soccer team play a match on his dad’s phone. Nick’s team scored a goal. In his excitement, he yelled
“GOOOOAL” and threw up his hands. The phone flew out of his hand and landed on the neighboring
empty walkway at the exact moment they were halfway down the current walkway. The neighboring
walkway was moving in the opposite direction but at the same speed as the current walkway. Nick’s
dad immediately ran to the end of the current walkway and then over to the neighboring walkway.
At the same time, Nick ran to the start of the current walkway and then over to the neighboring
walkway. If they both ran at the same constant speed, who catches up to the phone first?
 
Neighboring Moving Walkway ( Direction)

Start
End

The Phone
Solution
Let us draw a diagram
to help solve the problem. Original Moving Walkway (Direction )

Nick's Dad
Start

End
Nick

Let V be both Nick’s and his dad’s speed, and let V0 be the speed of the moving walkways.

Nick's dad runs in the direction that each walkway is moving. So, his total speed is V + V0. But
the phone is moving, too, and its speed is equal to the speed of the moving walkway—that is, V0.
Because the phone is moving in the direction away from Nick’s dad, his dad is catching up to the
phone at a speed of V + V0 – V0 = V.

Nick runs in the opposite direction of each walkway. So, his total speed is V – V0. But the phone is
moving towards Nick at the same speed as the walkway—that is, V0. Thus, Nick is catching up to the
phone at a speed of V – V0 + V0 = V.

Since Nick and his dad have the same speed relative to the walkway, they will catch up to the phone
at the same moment. But Nick’s decision was better! If the phone gets to the end of the moving
walkway before his dad reaches the end of the current walkway, then the phone stops and Nick will
get the phone before his dad!

Bonus Problem 1
An escalator is moving upwards. You walked up the escalator in 60 seconds and stepped on 80 stairs
in total. Your friend ran up the escalator and reached the top in 40 seconds, stepping on 120 stairs in
total. What is the total number of visible stairs on the motionless escalator?

Bonus Problem 2
You know that you can walk up a motionless escalator in 45 seconds. In the case that the escalator
is moving upwards, you can walk up the escalator in 30 seconds. If you walk up at the same rate, but
the escalator is moving downwards, would you be able to reach the top? If yes, how fast?
 Deciphering Ciphers 9

Deciphering Ciphers
You’re a new junior agent in the Sigma Squad, a covert squad
dedicated to upholding the laws of math. Kasey, the leader of your
squad, has encrypted a message with the day, time, and place
of Sigma’s next meeting. Being the top agent and an avid fan of
cryptograms (text written in code), Kasey always encrypts her
messages using ciphers - a secret way of writing. Her favorite type of
cipher is a shift cipher. In a shift cipher each letter of the alphabet is
shifted so that it takes the position of another letter of the alphabet.

Z A B
C
Y
X Z A B D
Y C
D
X
W

E
E
W

F
V

F
V

G
G
U
U

H
T
T

I
S

I
S

J
R

K
J
R

Q L
P M K
Q O N
P L
O N M

Continued on Next Page

10 Deciphering Ciphers

As a junior agent you must be able to decrypt her encrypted

messages. So, how does it work?

To encrypt a message using a shift cipher, Kasey first

assigns the numbers in order from 0 to 25 to the letters of
the alphabet.

She then shifts the letters according to the date that she
sends the message. For instance, if she sends a message
on the sixth of the month, then she encrypts the message
Tousing
encrypt a message
a shift using
of six. That is,aeach
shiftletter
cipher, she firstsix places
is shifted
from its
assigns theoriginal
numbers position
from 0totoa25
new to position corresponding
the letters of
thetoalphabet
another in
letter. So, A corresponds to G, B corresponds
order.
to H, and so on. Since each letter must be shifted to the
position of another letter, the last six letters U, V, W, X, Y,
and Z, shift to the positions A, B, C, D, E, and F.

SHIFT 6
 Deciphering Ciphers 11

Another way to visualize the cipher is as a loop. Take a look at the

cipher disks below. The outer circle is stationary, but the inner circle
can rotate clockwise. When the inner circle is not rotated—that is,
when it is in starting position—the inner letter A aligns with the outer
letter A. When the inner circle is rotated six places, the inner letter A
aligns with the outer letter G. lock
wise
s c
te
ta

o
A B A B

sr
Z C Z C

ay
Y Y
D D

Alw
Z A B T U V
X Y C X S
W
D X
X R
E

E
W

W
E

Y
W

Q
F

F
V

V
F

Z
P
V

G
G

A
O
U

U
U

H
N

B
T
T

T
I

C
M
S

I
S

S
J

D
R

L
K
J

J
E
R

Q L K K F K
P O M J I G
Q N Q H
L L
P M P M
O N O N

Starting point: shift of zero Shift of six

Using the cipher above, the message “Math is cool” is encrypted as:

Now that you see how it works, it’s time to decrypt the message
Kasey sent on the 17th of the month.

What is the day, time, and place of Sigma’s next meeting?

12 MChallenge 4

QUESTION 1 QUESTION 2
The four-digit number 7a5b is divisible by 12 and 54. Joe has blue blocks and yellow blocks. He begins
What are the digits a and b? (Find all possibilities.) making towers, with one block in the first tower,
two blocks in the second tower, three blocks in the
third tower and so on, alternating the block colors
as shown in the picture. If he makes 25 towers, how
many more blue blocks than yellow blocks does he
use?

QUESTION 3 QUESTION 4
Find x and y, such that 2x ∙ 9y + 2x ∙ 9y + 2x ∙ 9y = 62019 Bo Peep has some sheep. If she gives Mary six
sheep, then Bo Peep will have two-thirds as many
sheep as Mary. If Mary gives Bo Peep two of her
sheep, Bo Peep will have twice as many sheep as
Mary. How many sheep does each girl have?
 MChallenge 13

QUESTION 5 QUESTION 6
What number does n represent? A convex quadrilateral is drawn in a coordinate
plane such that its diagonals lie on the x- and
2019 ∙ 99 = 2019 ∙ n – 2019 ∙ 99 y-axes and its verticies have integral coordinates.
The area of this quadrilateral is 20 square units
and the sum of the lengths of its diagonals is
13 units. How many such quadrilaterals are
possible?

QUESTION 7 QUESTION 8
1 2 3 a 1
If 2
∙ 3
∙ 4
∙∙∙ b
= 36 , what is (a + b)? In each stage, a yellow equilateral triangle formed
by connecting the midpoints of the sides of each
blue equilateral triangle. What fraction of the
initial blue area is left at stage n?
14 Shortest Distance

Shortest Distance optimized is the sum of the distances between

By Andrey Polin the points.

Heron of Alexandria (c. 10-75 A.D.), best known

for the formula for calculating the area of a
What is the shortest distance between two triangle (i.e. Heron’s Formula), is credited with
points in Euclidean Geometry? The answer solving one of the first non-trivial optimization
is simple: the shortest distance between two problems that involved finding the shortest
points is the straight line that connects the two distance.
points.

The "Shortest Distance" Problem

Now consider three non-collinear points. What Given two points A and B on one side of a
is the shortest distance among three points straight line l, find the point C on the line l such
if we start and end at the same point? The that AC + CB is as small as possible.
answer is still simple: using the fact that the
shortest distance between two points is the
A
straight line that connects them, we connect
B
the first point to the second point by a straight
line, then we connect the second point to the
third point by a straight line, and, finally, we l
connect the third point to the first point by a
straight line. Thus, we get a triangle as shown Solution
in the picture. The shortest distance between the points A and
B is the straight-line segment AB. But, segment
AB does not intersect line l, so we cannot use
this segment.

Let’s take a point C on the line l. Using the

Now consider two points that lie on one side Pythagorean Theorem we find that
of a given straight line. How can we find a third
point, which lies on the given line, such that AC = and BC = + .
the sum of the distances between points is the
smallest? A
B
Problems, such as this one, in which we want
to find the value of a variable that maximizes l
or minimizes a quantity are called optimization
D C E
problems. In the preceding problem, the
position of the third point on the given straight At this point we can use Calculus to minimize
line is the variable and the quantity to be AC + BC.
 Shortest Distance 15

However, what if we haven’t studied Calculus? Let’s consider another problem.

Is there an easier way to solve the problem?
Yes, there is, and Heron found it! Point A on the map is the village of RSM, and
point B is the village of MATH. Construct a
Heron’s Solution: To solve the problem, Heron bridge across the river that has parallel sides
reflected point B across line l. Thus, segment such that two conditions are met: 1. The length
BB’ is perpendicular to l, BE = EB’, and of the bridge is as short as possible; 2. The
BC = CB’. distance between the two villages and the
bridge is as short as possible.
A
B

l A
C E

B'

Now we see that AC + BC = AC + CB’. The B

straight-line segment AB’ is the shortest
distance between A and B’, so the point of
intersection of the segment AB’ with line l is
the desired location of the point C because Solution
AC + CB’ ≥ AB’ (from the Triangle Inequality The sides of the river are parallel. From
Theorem) and AC + CB’ = AB’ is true if and Geometry, the shortest distance between
only if C belongs to AB’. The picture shows the two parallel lines is the perpendicular line
point C on the line such that the AC + CB is as to these two lines. Thus the bridge must be
small as possible. constructed perpendicular to the two sides of
the river.
A
B
A

l
C

B'
B
16 Shortest Distance

But how we can choose the exact place of Additional (bonus) problems
the bridge? We can use the following “trick”.
We take the picture that is above the river Problem 1
(including the upper boundary of the river) Find the shortest walk from one house to the
and “move” this part to the lower boundary of other house, if we cross both streets by the
the river, so that these two parallel lines form shortest way possible?
one line (call it line r) as shown.

Now the shortest distance between the two Problem 2

points (i.e. the villages) is the straight line and Suppose there are two rivers between two
the point of intersection of this line and the villages. Construct two bridges such that:
line r. This is the desired point at which the 1. The length of each bridge is as short as
ends of the bridge will be when we “stretch” possible; 2. The distance between the two
apart the line to form the original two lines, villages and the bridges is as short as possible.
which are the sides of the river.

B
 Answers 17

Answers
Golden Statues (p. 2-3) Deciphering Ciphers (p. 2-3)
T.R. Hunter knows that the real statue is The library Friday at noon*
heavier, and this is very helpful in finding a
solution.
MChallenge (p. 12-13)
T.R. Hunter divides all 12 statues into three 1. 7452
groups of four statues each. For the first 2. 13
weighing, he places one group on the left side 3. x = 2019, y = 1009
of the scale, the next group on the right side 4. Bo Peep has 18 sheep, Mary has 12 sheep.
of the scale, and the third group remains out 5. 198
of the scale. 6. 56
7. 2591
If the scale shows that one group on the scale 8. (3/4)n
is heavier than the other, this means that the
heavier group contains the heavier real statue.
If the scale is balanced, this means that the
third group contains the heavier real statue.
Shortest Distance (p. 14-16)
Bonus Problem 1.
Thus, T.R. Hunter identifies which group of The answer is shown in the picture below.*
four statues contains the real statue, and he
takes only that group for the second weighing.
He places two statues on the left side of the
scale, and the two other statues on the right
side of the scale. One of these two groups is
heavier, and he takes the two statues from
that heavier group for the third weighing.

T.R. Hunter places one statue on the left side

of the scale, another one on the right side of
the scale, and the heavier statue is the real
one!
Bonus Problem 2.
The answer is shown in the picture below.*
Amusements (p. 4-5)
1. 3 + 6 + 15 (one of the possible answers)
2. 6
3. Purple
4. 56
5. 3 + 1 = 4 (shown as sticks)
6. 5 (number of letters in: one, two, three,
four, five, six, seven)
7. F = 6, O = 2, X = 5
8. 0 (because x – x = 0)

Escalator Escapades (p. 6-8)

Bonus Problem 1. 200 Stairs* *Detailed solution can be found at
1
Bonus Problem 2. 1 2 minutes* www.rsmfoundation.org/mpower
At the RSM Foundation, we believe that
there is no such thing as a “math person.”
When introduced logically, slowly, and with excitement,
all children can learn math and appreciate its beauty and
importance in the world around them.
But what is math? It’s more than numbers and calculation. From identifying the
fastest line in the supermarket to helping a knight slay a dragon with instantly
regenerating heads, math is a pathway to higher-level thinking and reasoning. It
provides the tools you need to analyze, understand, and solve complex problems.
It plays a critical role in the development of logical thinking in young minds.

Have suggestions or questions about MPower! ?

Please email [email protected]

Answers can be found at: www.rsmfoundation.org/mpower