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Team Round Solutions

The document contains solutions to 12 math problems from the Harvard-MIT Math Tournament on March 3, 2001. The solutions are summarized as follows: 1) The number of digits in the base two representation of 10! is 21. 2) A sports car weaving through highway traffic at a steady speed passes two cars between each truck it passes. Its speed is 90 mph. 3) The 18th digit after the decimal point of 10000/9899 is 5. The document provides detailed step-by-step solutions for each of the 12 problems.

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103 views

Team Round Solutions

The document contains solutions to 12 math problems from the Harvard-MIT Math Tournament on March 3, 2001. The solutions are summarized as follows: 1) The number of digits in the base two representation of 10! is 21. 2) A sports car weaving through highway traffic at a steady speed passes two cars between each truck it passes. Its speed is 90 mph. 3) The 18th digit after the decimal point of 10000/9899 is 5. The document provides detailed step-by-step solutions for each of the 12 problems.

Uploaded by

hungkg
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Team Round Solutions

Harvard-MIT Math Tournament


March 3, 2001
1. How many digits are in the base two representation of 10! (factorial)?
Solution: We write 10! = 2
8
3
4
5
2
7. The number of digits (base 2) of 10! is equal to
[log
2
10!] = 8 +log
2
(3
4
5
2
7). Since 2
1
3 < 3
2
5
2
7 < 2
1
4, the number of digits is 8 + 13 =
21 .
2. On a certain unidirectional highway, trucks move steadily at 60 miles per hour spaced
1/4 of a mile apart. Cars move steadily at 75 miles per hour spaced 3 seconds apart. A lone
sports car weaving through trac at a steady forward speed passes two cars between each
truck it passes. How quickly is it moving in miles per hour?
Solution: The cars are 1/8 of a mile apart. Consider the reference frame in which the
trucks move at 0 velocity (and the cars move at 15). Call the speed of the sports car in this
reference frame v. The amount of time for the sports car to move from one truck to the
next is
1/4 miles
v
, and the amount of time for two regular cars to pass the truck is
1/8 miles
15mph
.
Equating these, we get v = 30, and v + 60 = 90 mph.
3. What is the 18th digit after the decimal point of
10000
9899
?
Solution:
10000
9899
satises 100(x 1) = 1.01x, so each pair of adjacent digits is generated
by adding the previous two pairs of digits. So the decimal is 1.01020305081321345590 . . . ,
and the 18th digit is 5 .
4. P is a polynomial. When P is divided by x 1, the remainder is 4. When P is
divided by x 2, the remainder is 1. When P is divided by x 3, the remainder is 4.
Determine the remainder when P is divided by x
3
6x
2
+ 11x 6.
Solution: The remainder polynomial is simply the order two polynomial that goes
through the points (1, 4), (2, 1), and (3, 4): x
2
5 .
5. Find all x between

2
and

2
such that 1 sin
4
x cos
2
x =
1
16
.
Solution: 1 sin
4
x cos
2
x =
1
16
(16 16 cos
2
x) sin
4
x 1 = 0 16 sin
4
x
16 sin
2
x + 1 = 0. Use the quadratic formula in sin x to obtain sin
2
x =
1
2

3
4
. Since
cos 2x = 1 2 sin
2
x =

3
2
, we get x =

12
,
5
12
.
6. What is the radius of the smallest sphere in which 4 spheres of radius 1 will t?
Solution: The centers of the smaller spheres lie on a tetrahedron. Let the points of the
tetrahedron be (1, 1, 1), (1, 1, 1), (1, 1, 1), and (1, 1, 1). These points have distance

(3) from the center, and

(2) from each other, so the radius of the smallest sphere in


which 4 spheres of radius

(2) will t is

(2) +

(3). Scale this to the correct answer by


dividing by

(2):
2+

6
2
.
7. The Fibonacci numbers are dened by F
1
= F
2
= 1 and F
n+2
= F
n+1
+F
n
for n 1.
The Lucas numbers are dened by L
1
= 1, L
2
= 2, and L
n+2
= L
n+1
+ L
n
for n 1.
Calculate
15

n=1
F
2n
F
n
13

n=1
L
n
.
Solution: It is easy to show that L
n
=
F
2n
F
n
, so the product above is L
1
4L
1
5 = 843
1364 = 1149852 .
8. Express
sin 10+sin 20+sin 30+sin 40+sin 50+sin 60+sin 70+sin 80
cos 5 cos 10 cos 20
without using trigonometric func-
tions.
Solution: We will use the identities cos a + cos b = 2 cos
a+b
2
cos
ab
2
and sin a + sin b =
2 sin
a+b
2
cos
a+b
2
. The numerator is (sin 10+sin 80)+(sin 20+sin 70)+(sin 30+sin 60)+(sin 40+
sin 60) = 2 sin 45 (cos 35 + cos 25 + cos 15 + cos 35) = 2 sin 45 ((cos 35 + cos 5) + (cos 25 + cos 15)) =
4 sin 45 cos 20 (cos 15 + cos 5) = 8 sin 45 cos 20 cos 10 cos 5, so the fraction equals 8 sin 45 = 4

2 .
9. Compute

i=1
ai
a
i
for a > 1.
Solution: The sum S = a+ax+ax
2
+ax
3
+ for x < 1 can be determined by realizing
that xS = ax +ax
2
+ax
3
+ and (1 x)S = a, so S =
a
1x
. Using this, we have

i=1
ai
a
i
=
a

i=1
i
a
i
= a

1
a
+
2
a
2
+
3
a
3
+

= a

1
a
+
1
a
2
+
1
a
3
+

1
a
2
+
1
a
3
+
1
a
4
+

=
a

1
1a
+
1
a
1
1a
+
1
a
2
1
1a
+

=
a
1a

1 +
1
a
+
1
a
2
+

a
1a

2
.
10. Dene a monic irreducible polynomial with integral coecients to be a polynomial
with leading coecient 1 that cannot be factored, and the prime factorization of a polynomial
with leading coecient 1 as the factorization into monic irreducible polynomials. How many
not necessarily distinct monic irreducible polynomials are there in the prime factorization of
(x
8
+x
4
+ 1)(x
8
+x + 1) (for instance, (x + 1)
2
has two prime factors)?
Solution: x
8
+x
4
+1 = (x
8
+2x
4
+1)x
4
= (x
4
+1)
2
(x
2
)
2
= (x
4
x
2
+1)(x
4
+x
2
+1) =
(x
4
x
2
+1)(x
2
+x+1)(x
2
x+1), and x
8
+x+1 = (x
2
+x+1)(x
6
x
5
+x
3
x
2
+1). If an integer
polynomial f(x) = a
n
x
n
+ +a
0
(modp), where p does not divide a
n
, has no zeros, then f
has no rational roots. Taking p = 2, we nd x
6
x
5
+x
3
x
2
+ 1 is irreducible. The prime
factorization of our polynomial is thus (x
4
x
2
+1)(x
2
x+1)(x
2
+x+1)
2
(x
6
x
5
+x
3
x
2
+1),
so the answer is 5 .
11. Dene a? = (a 1)/(a + 1) for a = 1. Determine all real values N for which
(N?)? = tan 15.
Solution:Let x = N?. Then (x 1) cos 15 = (x + 1) sin 15. Squaring and rearranging
terms, and using the fact that cos
2
15 sin
2
15 = cos 30 =

3
2
, we have 3x
2
4

3x + 3 = 0.
Solving, we nd that x =

3 or

3
3
. However, we may reject the second root because it
yields a negative value for (N?)?. Therefore x =

3 and N =
1+x
1x
=
1+

3
1

3
= 2

3 .
12. All subscripts in this problem are to be considered modulo 6, that means for example
that
7
is the same as
1
. Let
1
, . . .
6
be circles of radius r, whose centers lie on a regular
hexagon of side length 1. Let P
i
be the intersection of
i
and
i+1
that lies further from the
center of the hexagon, for i = 1, . . . 6. Let Q
i
, i = 1 . . . 6, lie on
i
such that Q
i
, P
i
, Q
i+1
are colinear. Find the number of possible values of r.
Solution: Consider two consecutive circles
i
and
i+1
. Let Q
i
, Q

i
be two points on
i
and Q
i+1
, Q

i+1
on
i+1
such that Q
i
, P
i
and Q
i+1
are colinear and also Q

i
, P
i
and Q

i+1
.
Then Q
i
Q

i
= 2Q
i
P
i
Q

i
= 2Q
i+1
P
i
Q

i+1
= Q
i+1
Q

i+1
. Refer to the center of
i
as O
i
.
The previous result shows that the lines O
i
Q
i
and O
i+1
Q
i+1
meet at the same angle as the
lines O
i
Q

i
and O
i+1
Q

i+1
, call this angle
i
.
i
is a function solely of the circles
i
and
i+1
and the distance between them (we have just showed that any two points Q
i
and Q

i
on
i
give the same value of
i
, so
i
cant depend on this.) Now, the geometry of
i
and
i+1
is the same for every i, so
i
is simply a constant which depends only on r. We know
6 = 0 mod 2 because Q
7
= Q
1
.
We now compute . It suces to do the computaiton for some specic choice of Q
i
.
Take Q
i
to be the intersection of O
i
O
i+1
and
i
which is further from O
i+1
. We are to
compute the angle between O
i
Q
i
and O
i+1
Q
i+1
which is the same as O
i
O
i+1
Q
i+1
. Note the
triangle O
i
P
i
O
i+1
is isosceles, call the base angle . We have O
i
O
i+1
Q
i+1
= O
i
O
i+1
P
i
+
P
i
O
i+1
Q
i+1
= + ( 2O
i+1
P
i
Q
i+1
) = + ( 2( Q
i
O
i+1
P
i
P
i
Q
i
O
i+1
)) =
+ 2( + (1/2)P
i
O
i
O
i+1
) = + 2( + (1/2)) = 4 .
So we get 6(4) = 0 mod 2. Noting that must be acute, = /12, /6, /4, /3 or 5/12.
r is uniquely determined as (1/2) sec so there are 5 possible values of r.

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