Ritangle 2022
Preliminary questions
Question 1 (Monday 3rd Oct)
A 3cm by 3cm by 3cm cube of white wood is painted black all
over, and then chopped into 27 1cm by 1cm by 1cm cubes.
These smaller cubes are then put into a bag
and three are picked (without replacement) at random.
What (to 3 s.f.) is the probability
of getting exactly four black faces in total?
To get your final answer,
multiply your initial answer by 185
and take the integer part.
Question 2 (Monday 10th Oct)
a to j are the digits from 0 to 9 in some order.
1 divides the one-digit number a,
2 divides the two-digit number ab,
3 divides the three-digit number abc,
…
10 divides the ten-digit number abcdefghij.
What is the ten-digit number abcdefghij?
To get your final answer,
multiply your initial answer by 1.7 × 10-7
and take the integer part.
You may need to write a computer program
to tackle this question. You can learn to do this HERE.
Question 3 (Monday 17th Oct)
What is the maximum possible product for the three numbers?
To get your final answer,
multiply your initial answer by 3.8 x 10-6
and take the integer part.
Question 4 (Monday 24th Oct)
The lines y = x, y = ax and y = bx + c
where b < a < 0 and c > 0
enclose an equilateral triangle of area 1.
What is the sum (to 3 s.f.) of the y-coordinates
of the three vertices of the triangle?
To get your final answer,
multiply your initial answer by 476
and take the integer part.
Stage 1; The Main Part
Question 5 (Monday 31st Oct)
The diagram shows a regular octagon and a circle
that each have area 1.
The circle passes through two vertices of the octagon as shown.
What (to 3 s.f.) is the area of the part of the circle
inside the octagon?
To get your final answer,
multiply your initial answer by 29388
and take the integer part.
Question 6 (Wednesday 2nd Nov)
The polynomial f(x) is cubic,
while the polynomial g(x) is quadratic.
y = f(x) + g(x), while z = f(x) – g(x).
y’’…’’(a), where there are n dashes, means
‘the nth derivative of y with respect to x
evaluated at x = a.’
You are given that 4 = y’’’(3) = y’’(2) = y’(1) = y(0),
And in addition 16 = z’’(2) = z’(1) = z(0).
What (to 3 sig. figs) is y(1)?
To get your final answer,
multiply your initial answer by 0.7
and take the integer part.
Question 7 (Friday 4th Nov)
If ab = c12, cd = e7 and ef = a5, what is b×d×f?
To get your final answer,
multiply your initial answer by 0.172
and take the integer part.
Question 8 (Monday 7th Nov)
In the above diagram, CD is a diameter of the circle,
O is the centre, and DB = 2AD.
If angle AOB is 100o, what (in degrees to 3s.f.) is the angle ACD?
To get your final answer,
multiply your initial answer by 2.23
and take the integer part.
Question 9 (Wednesday 9th Nov)
P is the sum of an infinite series as follows.
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
P =1 + − − + − − + − − + − ...
2 4 8 16 32 64 128 256 512 1024
Now we swap the plus and minus signs to get Q
(the 1 at the front does not change sign).
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Q =1 − + + − + + − + + − + ...
2 4 8 16 32 64 128 256 512 1024
What (to 3 sig. figs) is P/Q?
To get your final answer,
multiply your initial answer by 61
and take the integer part.
Question 10 (Friday 11th Nov)
abc, def and ghi are three three-digit numbers,
where a to i are the nine digits from 1 to 9 in some order.
T (if it exists) is the triangle with sides length abc, def and ghi.
If P = maximum possible area for T, and
Q = minimum possible non-zero area for T,
then what, to the nearest whole number, is P/Q?
To get your final answer,
multiply your initial answer by 0.081
and take the integer part.
Question 11 (Monday 14th Nov)
Luke expands (a + bx)5 for some values of a and b
and notices
• the coefficients of x3 and x4 are equal
• the coefficients of x and x2 add to 1.
What (to 3s.f.) is a?
To get your final answer,
multiply your initial answer by 237
and take the integer part.
Question 12 (Wednesday 16th Nov)
Note; means ’20 + b’.
What is the six-digit number abcdef?
To get your final answer,
multiply your initial answer by 4.6 x 10-5
and take the integer part.
Question 13 (Friday 18th Nov)
If the solutions to the equation ax + b = |x2 + cx + d|
are x = 1, 4, 9 and 16, what is a2 + b2 + c2 + d2?
To get your final answer,
multiply your initial answer by 0.054
and take the integer part.
Question 14 (Monday 21st Nov)
If AB = sin (2xo), CD = cos xo, and EF = sin xo,
and 0 < x < 90, what to 3s.f. is x?
To get your final answer,
multiply your initial answer by 1.98
and take the integer part.
Question 15 (Wednesday 23rd Nov)
o x
Define the pointiness of an angle xo for 0 ≤ x ≤ 180 by P( x ) = 1 − .
180
Thus P(90o) = 0.5, P(1o) = 179/180, P(180o) = 0.
NOT TO SCALE
In the diagram the angle OAB has pointiness 0.9,
while ABC has pointiness 0.8, BCD has pointiness 0.7 and so on.
The points O, B, D, F and H lie in a straight horizontal line,
and the same is true for A, C, E and G.
OA is vertical and is of length 1cm.
An ant walks from O to A to B … to H along the line segments above.
What distance (to 3s.f.) does the ant travel?
To get your final answer,
multiply your initial answer by 0.74
and take the integer part.
Question 16 (Friday 25th Nov)
The points A = (a, a) and B = (b, b), where a < 0 and b > 0,
lie on the curve y = px2 + qx + 4.
The gradient of the curve at A is b,
and the gradient of the curve at B is a.
What is a2 + b2?
To get your final answer,
multiply your initial answer by 1.21
and take the integer part.
Question 17 (Monday 28th Nov)
The triangle with sides a , b , c exists and has area A.
The point (a, b, c)
lies on a sphere, centre the origin, with radius 899 .
The cuboid with edge-lengths a, b and c has surface area 1702.
What (to 3 sig. figs) is A?
To get your final answer,
multiply your initial answer by 1.8
and take the integer part.
Question 18 (Wednesday 30th Nov)
A robot is given a pile of 1024 (= 210) cards numbered from 1 to 1024 in some
random order. It sorts them into a pile that is in strict numerical order.
It does this by dividing them into 2m equal piles (0 < m ≤ 10), sorting each pile,
and then by collating pairs of equally-sized piles repeatedly until it has a single
ordered pile.
So for m = 4, it divides the cards into 16 piles of 64 each, and sorts each of the
64-card piles. It then collates the 16 piles into 8 piles of 128 each, then into 4
piles of 256 each, then into 2 piles of 512 each, then finally into one pile of 1024.
• Dividing the pack into 2m equal piles takes 1000 centiseconds.
• To order the kth card within a pile takes k centiseconds.
• To collate two piles of cards takes a centisecond per card, plus one
centisecond.
What is the smallest time, to the nearest second, in which the robot can sort the
pack of cards?
To get your final answer,
multiply your initial answer by 0.017
and take the integer part.
Question 19 (Friday 2nd Dec)
On Planet Zog a clock has two hands,
one to show the hours (of which there are 7 in a Zog day)
and another to show the minutes
(and there are 100 minutes in a Zog hour).
The hour hand goes around the clock once a day.
The minute hand goes round the clock seven times a day.
The clock is started with both hands vertical
at time 0 hours, 0 minutes.
The hands are pointing to opposite sides of the clock
for the first time in the day after a minutes,
and for the last time in the day after b minutes.
What to the nearest integer is b - a?
To get your final answer,
multiply your initial answer by 0.247
and take the integer part.
Question 20 (Monday 5th Dec)
You are given three statements about a positive integer a.
• A1 says a is even,
• A2 says a2 is even,
• A3 says a2 + a is even.
If Ai (where i = 1 or 2 or 3) implies Aj (where j = 1 or 2 or 3)
then bij = i + j, otherwise bij = 0.
If B is the 3 x 3 matrix
whose elements are given by the numbers bij,
what is the absolute value of the determinant of B?
To get your final answer,
multiply your initial answer by 0.51
and take the integer part.
End of Stage 1
The final answer to each Stage 1 question is of the form 2a3b , which generates a pair of coordinates (a, b).
These can then be combined with the grid formed using the pieces unlocked by Stage 2 questions.
This generates the sentence ‘Your code word; Volcania,’ which unlocks Stage 3.
Stage 2 Questions
(Tuesday 6th Dec)
Question 21
An a-pointer prime p is one where
p plus the sum of the digits of p
is the next prime after p.
An m-pointer prime q is one where
q plus the product of the digits of q
is the next prime after q.
Define an am-pointer prime r as one where
r plus the sum of the digits of r plus the product of the digits of r
is the next prime after r.
Notice that all a-pointer primes containing the digit zero
are am-pointer primes.
Find the first am-pointer prime that is not an a-pointer prime.
Question 22
We say the integer m ≥ 1, where m is in base 10, is a repunit base n,
where n is in base 10 and n > 1,
if the base n representation of m is all 1s
(so 63 is a repunit base 2).
31 is the smallest number m to be a repunit base n
for three different positive integers n
(31 is 11 in base 30, 111 in base 5, and 11111 in base 2).
What is the next smallest integer so that this is true?
You are given that this number is less than 10 000.
Question 23
A triangle of area A has three altitudes
of length 9cm, 10cm and 11cm.
What (to 3 sig. figs) is A?
Question 24
A sequence is defined as follows;
u1 = a, u2 = b, un+1 = |un| - un-1.
If m is the smallest positive integer so that
um = u1 for all values of a and b, what is m?
Question 25
Given two positive integers a and b with a > b,
form the integer c that is
the number a - b concatenated with the number a + b.
So a = 9 and b = 8 would lead to 117.
Neither a + b nor a - b can begin with 0.
You are told that for a certain choice of a and b,
c is prime with five digits.
What is the smallest c can be?
Question 26
where the numerator and denominator
of the fraction have no common factors.
What is the six-digit number abcdef?
Question 27
The turning points on the curve y = x4 - 2a2x2 + a4,
where a is positive, form an equilateral triangle.
What (to 4s.f.) is a?
Question 28
The functions 3sinxo, 2sin(2xo) and sin(3xo)
are evaluated at x = a,
and the results, in some order, are in arithmetic progression.
(You are given that 0 < a < 180).
o k −1
If cos(a ) = , where k is an integer, what (to 3 s.f.) is sin(ao)?
2