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SAMO Extracts For SP Problem Solving Questions Solutions

The document contains extracts from '1 000 Mathematics Olympiad Problems' by Prof. Poobhalan Pillay, presenting a variety of mathematical problems and their solutions. Topics covered include percentage increase, classroom arrangements, ratios, geometry, probability, and combinatorics. The document emphasizes problem-solving techniques and provides answers for each question.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
97 views28 pages

SAMO Extracts For SP Problem Solving Questions Solutions

The document contains extracts from '1 000 Mathematics Olympiad Problems' by Prof. Poobhalan Pillay, presenting a variety of mathematical problems and their solutions. Topics covered include percentage increase, classroom arrangements, ratios, geometry, probability, and combinatorics. The document emphasizes problem-solving techniques and provides answers for each question.

Uploaded by

fezekankomo8
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Extracts from 1 000 Mathematics Olympiad Problems

by Prof. Poobhalan Pillay

1. Themba and James sell cakes at school socials. At the first social, they sold
50 cakes, and at the second social they sold 58 cakes. What was the percentage
increase in their sales?

2. The desks in a classroom are lined up in straight rows. Vusani's desk is in the third
row from the front and the fourth row from the back of the classroom. His desk is
also the fourth from the left and the sixth from the right. How many desks are
there in the classroom?

3. Pieter and Jacob share a packet of sweets in the ratio 7 : 5. Pieter gets 14 sweets
more than Jacob. How many sweets were there in the packet?

4. ABCDEF is the figure alongside (not drawn to


scale and angles are right angles).
What is the perimeter of the figure?

4 5 19 32 33 35 37
5. A fraction that lies between & = is: ; ; ; ;
7 8 56 56 56 56 56

6. Mary has three types of toys: teddy bears, cars and jets.
• All her toys except 21 are jets.
• All her toys except 23 are teddy bears.
• All her toys except 26 are cars.
How many jets does she have?

7. A bead worker is threading beads onto a straight wire; he has four green beads
and two red beads and will use them all. How many different arrangements can
he make?

8. Calculate: (2 + 4 + 6…+ 50) − (1 + 3 + 5 +…+ 49)

This material is copyright protected and may not be photocopied or shared in any way.
9.
A bathroom floor is covered with square
tiles.
The floor is 5 tiles wide and 8 tiles long.
If one of the floor tiles is chosen at random,
what is the probability that it is at the edge
of the floor?

1 1 ⎞⎛ 1 ⎞ ⎛ 1 ⎞
10. Calculate ⎛⎜ 1 − ⎞⎛
⎟⎜1 − ⎟⎜1 − ⎟ . . . ⎜1 − ⎟
⎝ 3 ⎠⎝ 4 ⎠⎝ 5⎠ ⎝ 100 ⎠

11. A petrol tank weighs 34kg when empty and 58kg when full. Calculate its weight
when it is two-thirds full?

12. A set of 12 numbers has average 18, but the smallest and largest have average 28.
What is the average of the others?

13. Four teams play in a knockout tournament (which means that two pairs compete,
and the two winners then play each other). Team A beat team D, and team B beat
team A. Who beat team C?

14. In the sequence 5, 11, 17… how many terms are smaller than 1000?

15. M is the midpoint of AB and joined


to the third vertex of Δ ABC, with
MC = AM = MB.
ˆ .
Calculate ACB

16. The positive integers are written in a long sequence 12345678910111213…


When the sequence contains 100 digits, how many of these are 1’s?

17. How many factors does 11 x 13 x 17 x 19 have?

18. I have five books, one of each colour. In how many ways can I place them in a row?

This material is copyright protected and may not be photocopied or shared in any way.
19. Five identical rectangles are placed to form a new
rectangle.
The width of the new rectangle is 15cm.
What is the area of the big rectangle (in square cm)?

20. The long sides of a rectangle are divided into four


equal parts and a short side, into three equal parts.
One point on the other short side is joined to all
the others.
What fraction of the area of the large rectangle is
the area of the shaded region?

21.

Which two of the shapes can be joined


to form a rectangle?
(No gaps or overlapping allowed).

22. The largest number in the following list is


3 1 3 7
3; ; ( 0,2 ) ; ; 0,625
2 4 16

23. Barbie’s bag is half full with 30 tennis balls in it. If she takes half of the balls from
Ken’s bag, then her bag is two-thirds full. How many tennis balls were there
originally in Ken’s bag?

24.
All 28 sides of the polygon alongside are equal in
length and adjacent sides are perpendicular to
each other. If the perimeter of the polygon is 56cm,
calculate the area of the polygon.
P47 L4

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25. A flag is made up of three strips of equal
width. Each strip is divided into equal parts
with alternating black and white colours, as
shown.
What fraction of the flag is black in colour?

26. On a die the numbers on opposite


faces add up to 7. The die in the
diagram is rolled edge over edge
along the path until it rests on the
square labelled X.
In that position, what is the number
on top?

27. Children at a school fun day had to guess the number of marbles in a jar. Prizes
were awarded on how close the guesses were. The first prize went to Emily who
guessed 125 marbles, second prize to Cassandra who guessed 140, third prize to
Sigrid who guessed 142, and fourth prize to Rina who guessed 121. How many
marbles were in the jar?

28. If m and n are positive integers and n2 = 756m , what is the smallest possible value
of m?

29. What is the smallest number that leaves a remainder of 3 when divided by 10 and
leaves a remainder of 4 when divided by 13?

30. A block of eight flats with a stairway in the middle


is situated on the top floor of a building.
The positions of the flats are shown on the sketch alongside.
There are windows on all sides of the building which afford
good views.
Twice as many people have a southward view as there
are people who can look eastward.
Those with a westward view number only one third of
those who can look south, while the few who have a
northward view number only half of those who can look east.
Altogether 20 people live in the eight flats.
How many occupy each flat, given that no flat is vacant?
Show the number of occupants on a sketch.

This material is copyright protected and may not be photocopied or shared in any way.
31. A child’s age, increased by 3, gives a perfect square, and when decreased by 3 the
age is the (positive) square root of that perfect square. How old is the child?

32. In the diagram, the sides of the


triangle are divided into three equal
parts to produce smaller congruent
triangles as shown. This process is
repeated for the smaller triangle on
the bottom right. If the area of the
largest triangle is 81, what is the total
area of the shaded triangles?

33. A bag contains 65 marbles of the same size. There are 20 red ones, 20 green ones,
20 blue ones, and another 5 that are either yellow or white. Lindiwe removes
marbles from the bag without looking. What is the smallest number of marbles
that she must remove to ensure that she has 10 of the same colour?

34. The product of the ages of a group of children whose ages are all between 12 and
20 is 10 584 000. How many children are there in the group?

35. In the figure, squares ABDC and EFGD have unequal areas.
ˆ = 70°, find ADG
If CE = CD and DEC ˆ .

This material is copyright protected and may not be photocopied or shared in any way.
ANSWERS
7
1. 16% P3 20. P39
12
2. 54 P5 21. 2 and 4 P40

3. 84 P6 22. 0,625 P43

4. 90 P7 23 20 P44
33
5. P8 24. 100cm2 P47
56
5
6. 14 P10 25. P48
9
7. 15 P12 26. 3 P49

8. 25 P17 27. 132 P50

9. 55% P19 28. 21 P51


1
10. P24 29. 43 P77
50
11. 50 kg P25 Option 1 Option 2

12. 16 P26 1 1 1 1 1 1
30. P83
13. B P27 1 4 2 3

14. 166 P28 2 9 1 1 9 2

15. 90° P29 31. 6 P88

16. 16 P31 32. 12 P96

17. 16 P32 33. 33 P97

18. 120 P35 34. 6 P112

19. 270 P38 35. 110° P129

These resources have all been extracted from the following book:
1 000 Mathematics Olympiad Problems by Prof. Poobhalan Pillay
https://www.samf.ac.za/en/shop
The eBook @ R400 (VAT inclusive) and the hard copy @ R600 (shipping and VAT included).

This material is copyright protected and may not be photocopied or shared in any way.
Extracts from 1 000 Mathematics Olympiad Problems
by Prof. Poobhalan Pillay
Solutions

1. Themba and James sell cakes at school socials. At the first social, they sold
50 cakes, and at the second social they sold 58 cakes. What was the percentage
increase in their sales?

Answer
% increase
change in price
=
original price
8 2
= ×
50 2
16
=
100
= 16%

2. The desks in a classroom are lined up in straight rows. Vusani's desk is in the third
row from the front and the fourth row from the back of the classroom. His desk is
also the fourth from the left and the sixth from the right. How many desks are
there in the classroom?

Answer

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1
2
3 V
4
5
6

6 × 9 = 54

∴ there are 54 desks in the classroom.

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3. Pieter and Jacob share a packet of sweets in the ratio 7 : 5. Pieter gets 14 sweets
more than Jacob. How many sweets were there in the packet?

Answer
7: 5 (difference of 2)
14 : 10 (difference of 4)
21 : 15 (difference of 6)
28 : 20 (difference of 8)
35 : 25 (difference of 10)
42 :30 (difference of 12)
49 : 35 (difference of 14)

The total number of sweets in the packet is 49 + 35 =


84 .

4. ABCDEF is the figure alongside (not drawn to


scale and angles are right angles).
What is the perimeter of the figure?

Answer
The perimeter of AFGB
= 2 × 25 + 2 × 20

= 50 + 40

= 90
The perimeter of the given figure ABCDEF
is exactly the same as the perimeter of
rectangle AFGB.
∴ the perimeter of ABCDEF = 90.

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4 5 19 32 33 35 37
5. A fraction that lies between & = is: ; ; ; ;
7 8 56 56 56 56 56
Answer
The LCM of 7 and 8 is 56.
4 × 8 32 5 × 7 35
= and =
7 × 8 56 8 × 7 56

32 33 35
< <
56 56 56
4 33 5
∴ < <
7 56 8

6. Mary has three types of toys: teddy bears, cars and jets.
• All her toys except 21 are jets.
• All her toys except 23 are teddy bears.
• All her toys except 26 are cars.
How many jets does she have?

Answer
• All her toys except 21 are jets. (teddy bears and cars total 21 toys)
• All her toys except 23 are teddy bears. (cars and jets total 23 toys)
• All her toys except 26 are cars. (teddy bears and jets total 26 toys)

If we add the numbers 21, 23 and 26, we are counting all Mary’s toys exactly twice.
21 + 23 + 26 70
So, she has = = 35 toys, which means that she has 35 – 21 = 14 jets.
2 2

(This also means that she has 35 – 23 = 12 teddy bears and 35 – 26 = 9 cars.)

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7. A bead worker is threading beads onto a straight wire; he has four green beads
and two red beads and will use them all. How many different arrangements can
he make?

Answer
1 R R G G G G
2 R G R G G G
3 R G G R G G
4 R G G G R G
5 R G G G G R
6 G R R G G G
7 G R G R G G
8 G R G G R G
9 G R G G G R
10 G G R R G G
11 G G R G R G
12 G G R G G R
13 G G G R R G
14 G G G R G R
15 G G G G R R

There are a total of 15 different arrangements.

8. Calculate: (2 + 4 + 6…+ 50) − (1 + 3 + 5 +…+ 49)

Answer
There are 25 numbers in each set of brackets.
The corresponding sets of numbers differ by 1 in each case:
• 2–1=1
• 4–3=1
• 6–5=1
• .
.
.
• 50 – 49 = 1

∴ ( 2 + 4 + 6 …+ 50 ) − (1 + 3 + 5 + …+ 49 ) = 25 (1 ) = 25

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9.
A bathroom floor is covered with square tiles.
The floor is 5 tiles wide and 8 tiles long.
If one of the floor tiles is chosen at random,
what is the probability that it is at the edge of the
floor?

Answer
The total number of tiles = 8 × 5 = 40 .
The total number of inner tiles = 6 × 3 = 18
∴ the total number of tiles at the edge is 40 – 18 = 22.
22 11
∴ the probability that a tile chosen at random is at the edge
= =
40 20

 1  1  1  1 
10. Calculate  1 −   1 −   1 −  . . .  1 − 
 3  4  5  100 

Answer

 1  1  1  1 
1 − 1 − 1 −  . . . 1 − 
 3  4  5  100 
 3 − 1  4 − 1  5 − 1   100 − 1 
=   ... 
 3  4  5   100 

 2  3  4   99 
=     . . .  
 3  4  5   100 
2
=
100
1
=
50

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11. A petrol tank weighs 34kg when empty and 58kg when full.
Calculate its weight when it is two-thirds full?

Answer
Total weight = Weight of petrol tank + weight of petrol
The petrol in the tank, when it is full, weighs 58 kg – 34 kg = 24 kg.
2
When the tank is two-thirds full the petrol will weigh × 24 =
16 kg.
3
The petrol tank will weigh 34 kg + 16 kg = 50 kg when it is full.

12. A set of 12 numbers has average 18, but the smallest and largest have average 28.
What is the average of the others?

Answer
The sum of the 12 numbers
= 12 × 18

= 12 × 10 + 12 × 8

= 120 + 96

= 216

The sum of the smallest and largest numbers is 2(28) = 56.


The sum of the other ten numbers is 216 – 56 = 160.
160
The average of the other ten numbers is = 16 .
10

13. Four teams play in a knockout tournament (which means that two pairs compete,
and the two winners then play each other). Team A beat team D, and team B beat
team A. Who beat team C?

Answer
A played twice, so A played in the final.
A beat D but lost to B, so A played D in the first round and B in the final.
B played C in the first round and beat C because B won the final round.
So, B beat C.

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14. In the sequence 5, 11, 17… how many terms are smaller than 1000?

Answer
Look rather at 6, 12, 18, …
Each of these numbers is one more than a multiple of 6.
6 × 100 =
600

6 × 50 =
300
6 × 10 =
60

6×6 =36

6 × 166 996 and =


∴= 6 × 167 1 002

The 166th term is 996 – 1 = 995


The 167th term is 1 002 – 1 = 1 001
So, 166 terms are smaller than 1 000.

15. M is the midpoint of AB and joined


to the third vertex of ∆ ABC, with
MC = AM = MB.
ˆ .
Calculate ACB

Let  = x and B̂ = y
ˆ =
∴ A CM ˆ = y ( ∠ s opp equal sides are equal)
x and BCM

ˆ = 180°
Aˆ + Bˆ + A CB ( ∠ sum in ∆ ABC)
∴ 2x + 2y = 180°

∴ x + y = 90°
ˆ =°
∴ A CB 90

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16. The positive integers are written in a long sequence 12345678910111213…
When the sequence contains 100 digits, how many of these are 1’s?

Answer

Read this carefully … it is easy to misread this question and work with the first 100
numbers instead of the first 100 digits.

1 2 3 5 5 6 7 8 9 10 two 1s & 11 digits

11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 ten 1s & 20 digits

21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 one 1 & 20 digits

31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 one 1 & 20 digits

41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 40 one 1 & 20 digits

So far, the digit total is 11 + 20 + 20 + 20 + 20 = 91 digits, so we need 9 more digits.

51 52 53 54 5 one 1 and 9 digits

In total, there are 2 + 10 + 1 + 1+ 1 + 1 = 16 ones.


So, there are 16 ones when the sequence contains 100 digits.

17. How many factors does 11 x 13 x 17 x 19 have?

Answer

Factors:
1 1 factor

11 ; 13 ; 17 ; 19 4 factors

11 × 13 ; 11 × 17 ; 11 × 19 ; 13 x 17 ; 13 × 19 ; 17 × 19 6 factors

11 × 13 × 17 ; 11 × 13 × 19 ; 11 × 17 × 19 ; 13 × 17 × 19 4 factors

11 × 13 × 17 × 19 1 factor

16 factors

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18. I have five books, one of each colour. In how many ways can I place them in a row?

Answer
Let’s start with two colours, red and blue.
BR RB
Note: 2 × 1 = 2
Now let’s arrange three colours, blue, green and red.

BGR BRG
GBR GRB
RBG RGB

Note: 3 × 2 × 1 = 6

Now let’s arrange four colours, blue, green, purple and red.
BGPR BGRP BPGR BPRG BRGP BRPG

GBPR GBRP GPBR GPRB GRBP GRPB

PBGR PBRG PGBR PGRB PRBG PRGB

RBGP RBPG RGBP RGPB RPBG RPGB

Note: 4 × 3 × 2 × 1 = 24

Now let’s arrange 5 colours.

There are 5 ways of choosing the first colour.


For each choice of 5 colours, there are 4 ways of choosing the second colour.
20 ways of choosing the first two colours.
So there are 5 × 4 =
For each choice of these 20 ways, there are 3 ways of choosing the third colour.
So there are 20 × 3 =60 ways of choosing the first three colours.

For each choice of these 60 ways, there are 2 ways of choosing the fourth colour.
So there are 60 × 2 =120 ways of choosing the first four colours.

There is now only one way to choose the fifth colour.


We can conclude that there are 5 × 4 × 3 × 2 × 1 =120 ways of choosing all five colours.

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19. Five identical rectangles are placed to form a new rectangle.
The width of the new rectangle is 15cm.
What is the area of the big rectangle (in square cm)?

Answer
The length and breadth add up to 15, so possible combinations include:

1 and 14, 2 and 13, 3 and 12, 4 and 11, 5 and 10, 6 and 9, 7 and 8.

We know from the sketch that 2 × length = 3 × breadth

Option 1 Option 2

2 × 14 ≠ 3 × 1 2 × length = 3 × breadth
2 × 13 ≠ 3 × 2 length 3
∴ =
2 × 12 ≠ 3 × 3 breadth 2
14 3

2 × 11 ≠ 3 × 4 1 2
2 × 10 ≠ 3 × 5 13 3

2 2
2× 9 =3× 6
12 3

3 2
11 3

4 2
10 3

5 2
9 3
=
6 2

Area = length × breadth or Area = 5 × length × breadth


= 18 × 15 =9 × 6
= 20 × 15 – 2 × 15 = 45 × 6
= 300 – 30 = 40 × 6 + 5 × 6
= 270 = 240 + 30
= 270

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20. The long sides of a rectangle are divided into four
parts and a short side, into three equal parts.
One point on the other short side is joined to all
the others. What fraction of the area of the large
rectangle is the area of the shaded region?

Answer
If you place the point on the left in the middle of the line, you can use numbers.
At a more advanced level, place the point anywhere on the line and then show that
the 4 triangles above the dashed line are all equal in area, as are 4 triangles below
the dashed line, in which case you could make these areas all equal to b .

The total shaded area Re-shading can also be helpful

 1  1
= 4   + 2 
 16   6 
1 1
= +
4 3
3+4
=
12
7
=
12

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21.

Which two of the shapes can be joined


to form a rectangle?
(No gaps or overlapping allowed).

Answer

Move shape  to the left of shape  and slide them towards each other.

22. The largest number in the following list is


3 1 3 7
3; ; ( 0,2 ) ; ; 0,625
2 4 16

Answer
3 3 1
• = <
23 8 2
1 1
• <
4 2
1
• ( 0,2
= )3 0,008 <
2
7 1
• <
16 2
• 0,625 > 0,5

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23. Barbie’s bag is half full with 30 tennis balls in it. If she takes half of the balls from
Ken’s bag, then her bag is two-thirds full. How many tennis balls were there
originally in Ken’s bag?

Answer

Barbie’s bag is half full when it has 30 balls.


∴ her bag is full when it has 60 balls.
2
When her bag is two-thirds full, it has × 60 =
40 balls.
3
∴ she got 10 balls from Ken’s bag, which halved the number of balls in his bag.
∴ Ken’s bag originally had 20 balls.

24.
All 28 sides of the polygon alongside are equal in
length and adjacent sides are perpendicular to
each other. If the perimeter of the polygon is 56cm,
calculate the area of the polygon.

Answer
 56 
Each side has length 2 cm .  = 2
 28 

The polygon contains 1 + 3 + 5+ 7 + 5 + 3 + 1 = 25 squares.


The area of the polygon

= 25 × 4

= 100 cm2
P4
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25. A flag is made up of three strips of equal
width. Each strip is divided into equal parts
with alternating black and white colours, as
shown.
What fraction of the flag is black in colour?

Answer
Each row makes up one-third of the flag.
In the top row one-third of the flag is black.
In the middle row two-thirds of the row is black.
In the bottom one-third of the row is black.

The fraction of the flag that is shaded Re-arrange the shading:


1 1 2 1 1 1
= × + × + ×
2 3 3 3 2 3
1 2 1
= + +
6 9 6
3+4 +3
=
18
10
=
18
5
=
9

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26. On a die the numbers on opposite
faces add up to 7. The die in the
diagram is rolled edge over edge
along the path until it rests on the
square labelled X.
In that position, what is the number
on top?
Answer
Numbers on opposite faces add up to 7, so the numbers opposite each other are:
1 and 6, 2 and 5, 3 and 4

1st move: 3 down and 4 up (2 is on the right)


2nd move: 2 down and 5 up (4 is on the right)
3rd move: 6 down and 1 up (4 is still on the right)
4th move: 4 goes down and 3 is on top
So, X is 4 and the number on top is 3.

27. Children at a school fun day had to guess the number of marbles in a jar. Prizes
were awarded on how close the guesses were. The first prize went to Emily who
guessed 125 marbles, second prize to Cassandra who guessed 140, third prize to
Sigrid who guessed 142, and fourth prize to Rina who guessed 121.

How many marbles were in the jar?

Answer
• The number must be closer to 125 than it is to 140, so it must be less than 133.
• The number must be further from 121 than it is from 142, so it must be more
than 131.

There are 132 marbles in the jar

This material is copyright protected and may not be photocopied or shared in any way.
28. If m and n are positive integers and n2 = 756m , what is the smallest possible value
of m?

Answer
756 = 2 × 2 × 3 × 3 × 3 × 7 2 756
2 378
∴ m=
21 3 189
3 63
3 21
7 7
1

29. What is the smallest number that leaves a remainder of 3 when divided by 10 and
leaves a remainder of 4 when divided by 13?

Answer
Numbers that leave a remainder of 3 when divided by 10
• 3 ; 13 ; 23 ; 33 ; 43 ; …
Numbers that leave a remainder of 4 when divided by 13
• 4 ; 17 ; 30 ; 43 ; …

∴ 43 is the smallest number that leaves a remainder of 3 when divided by 10 and


a remainder of 4 when divided by 13.

This material is copyright protected and may not be photocopied or shared in any way.
30. A block of eight flats with a stairway in the middle
is situated on the top floor of a building.
The positions of the flats are shown on the sketch alongside.
There are windows on all sides of the building which afford
good views.
Twice as many people have a southward view as there
are people who can look eastward.
Those with a westward view number only one third of
those who can look south, while the few who have a
northward view number only half of those who can look east.
Altogether 20 people live in the eight flats.
How many occupy each flat, given that no flat is vacant?
Show the number of occupants on a sketch.

Answer
Each view is at least 3 since no flat is vacant.
Twice as many people look South as East.
1
The number of people who look West is of the people who look South, so three
3
times as many people look South as West.
South is a multiple of 3 as well as 2, so it is a multiple of 6.
So, South = 6, 12 or 18.
South cannot be 6, for then West is 2.
South cannot be 18 since the rest would then number 2.
1 1 1
Therefore South = 12, West = 4 , East = × 12 =6 , North = × 6 = 3
× 12 =
3 2 2
So there is exactly one in each of the Northern flats.
Second row = 20 – (12 + 3) = 5
From left to right in the 2nd row, we have (W,E) = ( 1,4) or (4,1) or (2,3) or (3,2)
Since West = 4 and (4,1) and (3,2) are eliminated.

Both (1,4) and (2,3) lead to solutions.

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31. A child’s age, increased by 3, gives a perfect square, and when decreased by 3 the
age is the (positive) square root of that perfect square. How old is the child?

Answer

The perfect square can only be 4 or 9, so the child’s age can only be 1 or 6.
1 cannot be decreased, to the child’s age is 6. (Check: 6 – 3 = 9 )

32. In the diagram, the sides of the triangle are divided into three equal parts to
produce smaller congruent triangles as shown. This process is repeated for the
smaller triangle on the bottom right. If the area of the largest triangle is 81, what
is the total area of the shaded triangles?

Answer
The total area of the shaded triangles
1 3 1
= × 81 + × × 81
9 9 9
= 9+3

= 12

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33. A bag contains 65 marbles of the same size. There are 20 red ones, 20 green ones,
20 blue ones, and another 5 that are either yellow or white. Lindiwe removes
marbles from the bag without looking. What is the smallest number of marbles
that she must remove to ensure that she has 10 of the same colour?

Answer
20 red
20 green
20 blue
5 either yellow or white

Worst possible scenario:


• 5 yellow or white marbles are removed
• then Lindiwe consistently removes one marble of each colour until she has
removed 9 of each colour
At this stage she has removed a total of 5 + 27 = 32 marbles.
The next marble, regardless of its colour, will give her a tenth marble that is either
red, green or blue.
∴ the smallest number of marbles Lindiwe can remove to ensure that she removes

10 of the same colour is 33.

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34. The product of the ages of a group of children whose ages are all between 12 and
20 is 10 584 000. How many children are there in the group?

Answer 2 10 584 000


10 584 000 = 26 × 53 × 33 × 72 2 5 292 000
2 2 646 000
5× 3 =15 2 1 323 000
5× 3 =15 2 661 500
5× 3 =15 2 330 750
2×7 =
14 5 165 375
2×7 =
14 5 33 075
2×2×2×2 =16 5 6 615
3 1 323
3 441
There are 6 children aged: 3 147
7 49
14 ; 14 ; 15 ; 15 ; 15 ; 16 7 7
1

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35. In the figure, squares ABDC and EFGD have unequal areas.
If CE = CD and DECˆ = 70°, find ADG
ˆ .

Answer
ˆ = 70°
CDE ( ∠ s opp equal sides)
ˆ = 90°
BDC ( ∠ in square ABDC)
ˆ = 90°
EDG ( ∠ in square DEFG)
ˆ= 360° − 250° (rev )
∴ BDG
= 110°

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ANSWERS
7
1. 16% Problem3 20. Problem 39
12
2. 54 Problem 5 21.  and  Problem 40

3. 84 Problem 6 22. 0,625 Problem 43

4. 90 Problem 7 23 20 Problem 44
33
5. Problem 8 24. 100cm2 Problem 47
56
5
6. 14 Problem 10 25. Problem 48
9
7. 15 Problem 12 26. 3 Problem 49

8. 25 Problem 17 27. 132 Problem 50

9. 55% Problem 19 28. 21 Problem 51


1
10. Problem 24 29. 43 Problem 77
50
11. 50 kg Problem 25 Option 1 Option 2

12. 16 Problem 26 1 1 1 1 1 1
30. Problem 83
13. B Problem 27 1 4 2 3

14. 166 Problem 28 2 9 1 1 9 2

15. 90° Problem 29 31. 6 Problem 88

16. 16 Problem 31 32. 12 Problem 96

17. 16 Problem 32 33. 33 Problem 97

18. 120 Problem 35 34. 6 Problem 112

19. 270 Problem 38 35. 110° Problem 129

These resources have all been extracted from the following book:
1 000 Mathematics Olympiad Problems by Prof. Poobhalan Pillay
https://www.samf.ac.za/en/shop
The eBook @ R400 (VAT inclusive) and the hard copy @ R600 (shipping and VAT included).

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