Weekly Contest #75

(Ended)

Standings

Q1.

An ant makes a sequence of moves on a cube where a move consists of walking from one vertex to an adjacent vertex along an edge of the cube. Initially the ant is at a vertex of the bottom face of the cube and chooses one of the three adjacent vertices to move to as its first move. For all moves after the first move, the ant does not return to its previous vertex, but chooses to move to one of the other two adjacent vertices. All choices are selected at random so that each of the possible moves is equally likely. The probability that after exactly $8$ moves that ant is at a vertex of the top face on the cube is $\frac{m}{n}$, where $m$ and $n$ are relatively prime positive integers. Find $m + n.$

Answer must be a floating-point or integer value and precision error less than 10^-6 is allowed.


Editorial
Tags: Combinatorics Probability

Q2.

For positive real numbers $s$, let $\tau(s)$ denote the set of all obtuse triangles that have area $s$ and two sides with lengths $4$ and $10$. The set of all $s$ for which $\tau(s)$ is nonempty, but all triangles in $\tau(s)$ are congruent, is an interval $[a,b)$. Find $a^2+b^2$.

Answer must be a floating-point or integer value and precision error less than 10^-6 is allowed.


Editorial
Tags: Algebra Geometry

Q3.

Find the number of permutations $x_1, x_2, x_3, x_4, x_5$ of numbers $1, 2, 3, 4, 5$ such that the sum of five products\[x_1x_2x_3 + x_2x_3x_4 + x_3x_4x_5 + x_4x_5x_1 + x_5x_1x_2\]is divisible by $3$.

Answer must be a floating-point or integer value and precision error less than 10^-6 is allowed.


Editorial
Tags: Algebra Combinatorics

Q4.

Equilateral triangle $ABC$ has side length $840$. Point $D$ lies on the same side of line $BC$ as $A$ such that $\overline{BD} \perp \overline{BC}$. The line $\ell$ through $D$ parallel to line $BC$ intersects sides $\overline{AB}$ and $\overline{AC}$ at points $E$ and $F$, respectively. Point $G$ lies on $\ell$ such that $F$ is between $E$ and $G$, $\triangle AFG$ is isosceles, and the ratio of the area of $\triangle AFG$ to the area of $\triangle BED$ is $8:9$. Find $AF$.[asy] pair A,B,C,D,E,F,G; B=origin; A=5*dir(60); C=(5,0); E=0.6*A+0.4*B; F=0.6*A+0.4*C; G=rotate(240,F)*A; D=extension(E,F,B,dir(90)); draw(D--G--A,grey); draw(B--0.5*A+rotate(60,B)*A*0.5,grey); draw(A--B--C--cycle,linewidth(1.5)); dot(A^^B^^C^^D^^E^^F^^G); label("$A$",A,dir(90)); label("$B$",B,dir(225)); label("$C$",C,dir(-45)); label("$D$",D,dir(180)); label("$E$",E,dir(-45)); label("$F$",F,dir(225)); label("$G$",G,dir(0)); label("$\ell$",midpoint(E--F),dir(90)); [/asy]

Answer must be a floating-point or integer value and precision error less than 10^-6 is allowed.


Editorial
Tags: Algebra Geometry

Q5.

Find the arithmetic mean of all the three-digit palindromes. (Recall that a palindrome is a number that reads the same forward and backward, such as $777$ or $383$.)

Answer must be a floating-point or integer value and precision error less than 10^-6 is allowed.


Editorial
Tags: Algebra