The CENTRE for EDUCATION

in MATHEMATICS and COMPUTING

cemc.uwaterloo.ca

Pascal Contest
(Grade 9)
Tuesday, February 28, 2017
(in North America and South America)
Wednesday, March 1, 2017
(outside of North America and South America)

Time: 60 minutes ©2016 University of Waterloo

Calculators are allowed, with the following restriction: you may not use a device
that has internet access, that can communicate with other devices, or that contains
previously stored information. For example, you may not use a smartphone or a
tablet.
Instructions
1. Do not open the Contest booklet until you are told to do so.
2. You may use rulers, compasses and paper for rough work.
3. Be sure that you understand the coding system for your response form. If you are not sure,
ask your teacher to clarify it. All coding must be done with a pencil, preferably HB. Fill in
circles completely.
4. On your response form, print your school name and city/town in the box in the upper right
corner.
5. Be certain that you code your name, age, grade, and the Contest you are writing
in the response form. Only those who do so can be counted as eligible students.
6. This is a multiple-choice test. Each question is followed by five possible answers marked
A, B, C, D, and E. Only one of these is correct. After making your choice, fill in the
appropriate circle on the response form.
7. Scoring: Each correct answer is worth 5 in Part A, 6 in Part B, and 8 in Part C.
There is no penalty for an incorrect answer.
Each unanswered question is worth 2, to a maximum of 10 unanswered questions.
8. Diagrams are not drawn to scale. They are intended as aids only.
9. When your supervisor tells you to begin, you will have sixty minutes of working time.
10. You may not write more than one of the Pascal, Cayley and Fermat Contests in any given
year.

Do not discuss the problems or solutions from this contest online for the next 48 hours.

The name, grade, school and location, and score range of some top-scoring students will be
published on our website, cemc.uwaterloo.ca. In addition, the name, grade, school and location,
and score of some top-scoring students may be shared with other mathematical organizations
for other recognition opportunities.
 Scoring: There is no penalty for an incorrect answer.
Each unanswered question is worth 2, to a maximum of 10 unanswered questions.

Part A: Each correct answer is worth 5.

4×3
1. The value of is
2+1
(A) 4 (B) 7 (C) 3 (D) 6 (E) 5

2. In the diagram, how many 1 × 1 squares are shaded in

the 6 × 6 grid?
(A) 29 (B) 30 (C) 31
(D) 32 (E) 33

3. In the diagram, the ratio of the number of shaded

triangles to the number of unshaded triangles is
(A) 5 : 2 (B) 5 : 3 (C) 8 : 5
(D) 5 : 8 (E) 2 : 5

4. Which of the following is closest in value to 7?

√ √ √ √ √
(A) 70 (B) 60 (C) 50 (D) 40 (E) 80

5. Kamal turned his computer on at 2 p.m. on Friday. He left his computer on for
exactly 30 consecutive hours. At what time did he turn his computer off?
(A) 4 p.m. on Saturday
(B) 6 p.m. on Saturday
(C) 8 p.m. on Sunday
(D) 6 p.m. on Sunday
(E) 8 p.m. on Saturday

6. At six different times on Canada Day in 2016, the

Attendance at the Pascal Zoo
number of people at the Pascal Zoo were counted. 800
Number of people

The graph to the right shows these results. During

600
which of the following periods did the number of
people at the zoo have the largest increase? 400

(A) 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. 200

(B) 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. 0
10:00 a.m.
9:00 a.m.

2:00 p.m.
11:00 a.m.

12:00 p.m.

1:00 p.m.

(C) 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

(D) 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.
(E) 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. Time of day
7. If 2x − 3 = 10, what is the value of 4x?
(A) 23 (B) 24 (C) 28 (D) 26 (E) 20

8. Three integers from the list 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 20 have a product of 80. What is the sum of
these three integers?
(A) 21 (B) 22 (C) 25 (D) 29 (E) 26

9. Wally makes a whole pizza and shares it with three friends. Jovin takes 31 of the
pizza, Anna takes 16 of the pizza, and Olivia takes 14 of the pizza. What fraction of
the pizza is left for Wally?
1 1 10 1 1
(A) 6 (B) 4 (C) 13 (D) 12 (E) 3

10. Which of the following expressions is equal to an odd integer for every integer n?
(A) 2017 − 3n (B) 2017 + n (C) 2017n (D) 2017 + n2 (E) 2017 + 2n

Part B: Each correct answer is worth 6.

11. Jeff and Ursula each run 30 km. Ursula runs at a constant speed of 10 km/h. Jeff
also runs at a constant speed. If Jeff’s time to complete the 30 km is 1 hour less than
Ursula’s time to complete the 30 km, at what speed does Jeff run?
(A) 6 km/h (B) 11 km/h (C) 12 km/h (D) 15 km/h (E) 22.5 km/h

12. A small square is drawn inside a larger square as shown.

The area of the shaded region and the area of the
unshaded region are each 18 cm2 . What is the side length
of the larger square?
(A) 3 cm (B) 4 cm (C) 6 cm
(D) 9 cm (E) 12 cm

13. Janet picked a number, added 7 to the number, multiplied the sum by 2, and then
subtracted 4. If the final result was 28, what number did Janet pick?
(A) 9 (B) 5 (C) 19 (D) 23 (E) 11

14. Tobias downloads m apps. Each app costs $2.00 plus 10% tax. He spends $52.80 in
total on these m apps. What is the value of m?
(A) 20 (B) 22 (C) 18 (D) 24 (E) 26

15. In the diagram, the side lengths of four squares are shown.
The area of the fifth square is k. What is the value of k? 1

(A) 64 (B) 49 (C) 36 3

(D) 25 (E) 16 k

8
4
16. A circular spinner is divided into six regions, as shown.
Four regions each have a central angle of x◦ . The
20°
remaining regions have central angles of 20◦ and 140◦ .
An arrow is attached to the centre of the circle. The x° x°
x° x°
arrow is spun once. What is the probability that the 140°
arrow stops on a shaded region?
2 7 1
(A) 3 (B) 8 (C) 2
5 7
(D) 12 (E) 12

17. Igor is shorter than Jie. Faye is taller than Goa. Jie is taller than Faye. Han is
shorter than Goa. Who is the tallest?
(A) Faye (B) Goa (C) Han (D) Igor (E) Jie

18. Given two different numbers on a number line, the

number to the right is greater than the number to the left. x x3 x2
The positions of x, x3 and x2 are marked on a number
line. Which of the following is a possible value of x?
1 3
(A) 5 (B) 2 (C) − 52
(D) − 43 (E) 2

19. In the diagram, M is the midpoint of Y Z, ∠XM Z = 30◦ ,

and ∠XY Z = 15◦ . The measure of ∠XZY is X
(A) 75◦ (B) 65◦ (C) 60◦
(D) 80◦ (E) 85◦
Y Z
M

20. A solid cube is made of white plastic and has dimensions n × n × n, where n is a
positive integer larger than 1. The six faces of the cube are completely covered with
gold paint. This cube is then cut into n3 cubes, each of which has dimensions 1×1×1.
Each of these 1 × 1 × 1 cubes has 0, 1, 2, or 3 gold faces. The number of 1 × 1 × 1
cubes with 0 gold faces is strictly greater than the number of 1 × 1 × 1 cubes with
exactly 1 gold face. What is the smallest possible value of n?
(A) 7 (B) 8 (C) 9 (D) 10 (E) 4

Part C: Each correct answer is worth 8.

21. Each of the numbers 1, 5, 6, 7, 13, 14, 17, 22, 26 is placed in a different circle below.
The numbers 13 and 17 are placed as shown.

13 17

Jen calculates the average of the numbers in the first three circles, the average of
the numbers in the middle three circles, and the average of the numbers in the last
three circles. These three averages are equal. What number is placed in the shaded
circle?
(A) 1 (B) 5 (C) 6 (D) 7 (E) 14
22. In the diagram, U V W X is a rectangle that lies flat on
a horizontal floor. A vertical semi-circular wall with Z
diameter XW is constructed. Point Z is the highest point
on this wall. If U V = 20 and V W = 30, the perimeter of
4U V Z is closest to X W
(A) 95 (B) 86 (C) 102
(D) 83 (E) 92

U V

23. An Anderson number is a positive integer k less than 10 000 with the property that
k 2 ends with the digit or digits of k. For example, 25 is an Anderson number because
625 ends with 25, but 75 is not an Anderson number because 5625 does not end with
75. If S is the sum of all even Anderson numbers, what is the sum of the digits of S?
(A) 17 (B) 18 (C) 11 (D) 33 (E) 24

24. A town has 2017 houses. Of these 2017 houses, 1820 have a dog, 1651 have a cat,
and 1182 have a turtle. If x is the largest possible number of houses that have a dog,
a cat, and a turtle, and y is the smallest possible number of houses that have a dog,
a cat, and a turtle, then x − y is
(A) 1182 (B) 638 (C) 563 (D) 619 (E) 466

25. Sam thinks of a 5-digit number. Sam’s friend Sally tries to guess his number. Sam
writes the number of matching digits beside each of Sally’s guesses. A digit is
considered “matching” when it is the correct digit in the correct position.

Guess Number of Matching Digits

51545 2
21531 1
71794 0
59135 1
58342 2
37348 2
71744 1

What is the sum of all of the possibilities for Sam’s number?

(A) 525 768 (B) 527 658 (C) 527 568 (D) 526 578 (E) 526 758
 (English)
Contest
Pascal
2017
The CENTRE for EDUCATION
in MATHEMATICS and COMPUTING
cemc.uwaterloo.ca

For students...
Thank you for writing the 2017 Pascal Contest! Each year, more than
235 000 students from more than 75 countries register to write the
CEMC’s Contests.

Encourage your teacher to register you for the Fryer Contest which
will be written in April.

Visit our website cemc.uwaterloo.ca to find

• More information about the Fryer Contest
• Free copies of past contests
• Math Circles videos and handouts that will help you learn more
mathematics and prepare for future contests
• Information about careers in and applications of mathematics and
computer science
For teachers...
Visit our website cemc.uwaterloo.ca to
• Register your students for the Fryer, Galois and Hypatia Contests
which will be written in April
• Look at our free online courseware for senior high school students
• Learn about our face-to-face workshops and our web resources
• Subscribe to our free Problem of the Week
• Investigate our online Master of Mathematics for Teachers
• Find your school’s contest results