Solutions Pamphlet

MAA American Mathematics Competitions

19th Annual

AMC 10B
American Mathematics Competition 10B
Thursday, February 15, 2018

This Pamphlet gives at least one solution for each problem on this year’s competition
and shows that all problems can be solved without the use of a calculator. When more
than one solution is provided, this is done to illustrate a significant contrast in methods,
e.g., algebraic versus geometric, computational versus conceptual, elementary versus
advanced. These solutions are by no means the only ones possible, nor are they superior
to others the reader may devise.
We hope that teachers will inform their students about these solutions, both as
illustrations of the kinds of ingenuity needed to solve nonroutine problems and as
examples of good mathematical exposition. However, the publication, reproduction, or
communication of the problems or solutions for this contest during the period when students
are eligible to participate seriously jeopardizes the integrity of the results. Dissemination
at any time via copier, telephone, email, internet, or media of any type is a violation of
the competition rules.
Correspondence about the problems/solutions for this AMC 10 and orders for any
publications should be addressed to:
MAA American Mathematics Competitions
Attn: Publications, PO Box 471, Annapolis Junction, MD 20701
Phone 800.527.3690 | Fax 240.396.5647 | amcinfo@[Link]
The problems and solutions for this AMC 10 were prepared by
MAA’s Subcommittee on the AMC10/AMC12 Exams, under the direction of the
co-chairs Jerrold W. Grossman and Carl Yerger.
© 2018 Mathematical Association of America
2018 AMC 10B Solutions 2

1. Answer (A): The total area of cornbread is 20 · 18 = 360 in2 .

Because each piece of cornbread has area 2·2 = 4 in2 , the pan contains
360 ÷ 4 = 90 pieces of cornbread.

OR

When cut, there are 20 ÷ 2 = 10 pieces of cornbread along a long

side of the pan and 18 ÷ 2 = 9 pieces along a short side, so there are
10 · 9 = 90 pieces.

2. Answer (D): Sam covered 21 · 60 = 30 miles during the first 30

minutes and 12 · 65 = 32.5 miles during the second 30 minutes, so he
needed to cover 96−30−32.5 = 33.5 miles during the last 30 minutes.
Thus his average speed during the last 30 minutes was
33.5 miles
1 = 67 mph.
2 hour

3. Answer (B): Both the multiplications and the addition can be

performed in either order, so each possible value can be obtained by
putting the 1 in the first position and one of the other three numbers
in the second position. Therefore the only possible values are
(1 × 2) + (3 × 4) = 14,
(1 × 3) + (2 × 4) = 11,
and (1 × 4) + (2 × 3) = 10,
so just 3 different values can be obtained.

4. Answer (B): Without loss of generality, assume that X ≤ Y ≤ Z.

Then the geometric description of the problem can be translated into
the system of equations, XY = 24, XZ = 48, and Y Z = 72. Dividing
the second equation by the first yields YZ = 2, so Z = 2Y . Then
72 = Y Z = 2Y 2 , so Y 2 = 36. Because Y is positive, Y = 6. It
follows that X = 24 ÷ 6 = 4 and Z = 72 ÷ 6 = 12, so X + Y + Z = 22.

OR

With X, Y , and Z as above, multiply the three equations to give

X 2 Y 2 Z 2 = 24 · 48 · 72 = 24 · 24 · 2 · 24 · 3 = 242 · 144 = (24 · 12)2 .
Therefore XY Z = 24 · 12, and dividing successively by the three
equations gives Z = 12, Y = 6, and X = 4, so X + Y + Z = 22.
2018 AMC 10B Solutions 3

5. Answer (D): The number of qualifying subsets equals the difference

between the total number of subsets of {2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9} and the
number of such subsets containing no prime numbers, which is the
number of subsets of {4, 6, 8, 9}. A set with n elements has 2n subsets,
so the requested number is 28 − 24 = 256 − 16 = 240.

OR

A subset meeting the condition must be the union of a nonempty

subset of {2, 3, 5, 7} and a subset of {4, 6, 8, 9}. There are 24 − 1 = 15
of the former and 24 = 16 of the latter, which gives 15 · 16 = 240
choices in all.

6. Answer (D): Three draws will be required if and only if the first
two chips drawn have a sum of 4 or less. The draws (1, 2), (2, 1),
(1, 3), and (3, 1) are the only draws meeting this condition. There
are 5 · 4 = 20 possible two-chip draws, so the requested probability is
4 1
20 = 5 . (Note that all 20 possible two-chip draws are considered in
determining the denominator, even though some draws will end after
the first chip is drawn.)

7. Answer (D): Suppose without loss of generality that each small

semicircle has radius 1; then the large semicircle has radius N . The
area of each small semicircle is π2 , and the area of the large semicircle
is N 2 · π2 . The combined area A of the N small semicircles is N · π2 , and
the area B inside the large semicircle but outside the small semicircles
is
π π
π
N2 · − N · = N2 − N · .
2 2 2


Thus the ratio A : B of the areas is N : N 2 − N , which is 1 : (N −1).
Because this ratio is given to be 1 : 18, it follows that N − 1 = 18 and
N = 19.

8. Answer (C): In the staircase with n steps, the number of vertical

toothpicks is

n(n + 1)
1 + 2 + 3 + ··· + n + n = + n.
2
There are an equal number of horizontal toothpicks, for a total of
n(n + 1) + 2n toothpicks. Solving n(n + 1) + 2n = 180 with n > 0
yields n = 12.
2018 AMC 10B Solutions 4

OR

By inspection, the number of toothpicks for staircases consisting of

1, 2, and 3 steps are 4, 10, and 18, respectively. The n-step staircase
is obtained from the (n − 1)-step staircase by adding n + 1 horizontal
toothpicks and n + 1 vertical toothpicks. With this observation, the
pattern can be continued so that 28, 40, 54, 70, 88, 108, 130, 154, and
180 are the numbers of toothpicks used to construct staircases con-
sisting of 4 through 12 steps, respectively. Therefore 180 toothpicks
are needed for the 12-step staircase.

9. Answer (D): Without loss of generality, one can assume that the
numbers on opposite faces of each die add up to 7. In other words,
the 1 is opposite the 6, the 2 is opposite the 5, and the 3 is opposite
the 4. (In fact, standard dice are numbered in this way.) The top
faces give a sum of 10 if and only if the bottom faces give a sum of
7 · 7 − 10 = 39. By symmetry, the probability that the top faces give a
sum of 39 is also p. The distribution of the outcomes of the dice rolls
has the bell-shaped graph shown below, so no other outcome has the
same probability as 10 and 39.

0.08
0.07
0.06
probability

0.05
0.04
0.03
0.02
0.01
0
10 20 30 40
sum on dice

10. Answer (E): The volume of the rectangular pyramid with base
BCHE and apex M equals the volume of the given rectangular par-
allelepiped, which is 6, minus the combined volume of triangular prism
AEHDCB, tetrahedron BEF M , and tetrahedron CGHM . Tetra-
hedra BEF M and CGHM each have three right angles at F and G,
respectively, and the edges of the tetrahedra emanating from F and
G have lengths 2, 3, and 21 , so the volume of each of these tetrahedra
2018 AMC 10B Solutions 5

is 16 · (2 · 3 · 12 ) = 12 . The volume of the triangluar prism AEHDCB

is 3 because it is half the volume of the rectangular parallelepiped.
Therefore the requested volume is 6 − 3 − 12 − 12 = 2.

OR

Let P and Q be the midpoints of √BC and EH, respectively. By

the Pythagorean Theorem P Q = 13. Let R be the foot of the
perpendicular from M to P Q. Then 4P M Q ∼ 4P RM , so
3 MQ RM RM 6
√ = = = and RM = √ .
13 PQ PM 2 13
The requested volume of the pyramid is 31 times the area of the base
times the height, which is
1 √  6
· 13 · 1 · √ = 2.
3 13

H G
Q M

E F 2

D R C

P 1

A 3 B

11. Answer (C): If p = 3, then p2 + 26 = 35 = 5 · 7. If p is a prime

number other than 3, then p = 3k ± 1 for some positive integer k. In
that case

p2 + 26 = (3k ± 1)2 + 26 = 9k 2 ± 6k + 27 = 3(3k 2 ± 2k + 9)

is a multiple of 3 and is not prime. The smallest counterexamples for

the other choices are 52 + 16 = 41, 72 + 24 = 73, 52 + 46 = 71, and
192 + 96 = 457.

12. Answer (C): Let O be the center of the circle. Triangle ABC is
a right triangle, and O is the midpoint of the hypotenuse AB. Then
2018 AMC 10B Solutions 6

OC is a radius, and it is also one of the medians of the triangle. The

centroid is located one third of the way along the median from O to C,
so the centroid traces out a circle with center O and radius 13 · 12 = 4
(except for the two missing points corresponding to C = A or C = B).
The area of this smaller circle is then π · 42 = 16π ≈ 16 · 3.14 ≈ 50.

13. Answer (C): The numbers in the given sequence are of the form
10n + 1 for n = 2, 3, . . . , 2019. If n is even, say n = 2k for some
positive integer k, then 10n + 1 = 100k + 1 ≡ (−1)k + 1 (mod 101).
Thus 10n + 1 is divisible by 101 if and only if k is odd, which means
n = 2, 6, 10, . . . , 2018. There are 41 (2018 − 2) + 1 = 505 such values.
On the other hand, if n is odd, say n = 2k + 1 for some positive
integer k, then

10n + 1 = 10 · 10n−1 + 1 = 10 · 100k + 1 ≡ 10 · (−1)k + 1 (mod 101),

which is congruent to 9 or 11, and 10n + 1 is not divisible by 101 in

this case.

14. Answer (D): The list has 2018 − 10 = 2008 entries that are not
equal to the mode. Because the mode is unique, each of  these
 2008
entries can occur at most 9 times. There must be at least 2008
9 = 224
distinct values in the list that are different from the mode, because
if there were fewer than this many such values, then the size of the
list would be at most 9 · ( 20089 − 1) + 10 = 2017 < 2018. (The
ceiling function notation dxe represents the least integer greater than
or equal to x.) Therefore the least possible number of distinct values
that can occur in the list is 225. One list satisfying the conditions of
the problem contains 9 instances of each of the numbers 1 through 223,
10 instances of the number 224, and one instance of 225.

15. Answer (A): The figure shows that the distance AO from a corner
of the wrapping paper to the center is
w w
+ h + = w + h.
2 2
The side of the wrapping paper, AB in the figure, √ is the hypotenuse
√
of a 45 – 45 – 90◦ right triangle, so its length is 2 · AO = 2(w + h).
Therefore the area of the wrapping paper is
√ 2
2(w + h) = 2(w + h)2 .
2018 AMC 10B Solutions 7
A B
w
2
h
w
2

w w

OR

The area of the wrapping paper, excluding the four small triangles
indicated by the dashed lines, is equal to the surface area of the box,
which is 2w2 + 4wh. The four triangles are isosceles right triangles
with leg length h, so their combined area is 4 · 12 h2 = 2h2 . Thus the
total area of the wrapping paper is 2w2 + 4wh + 2h2 = 2(w + h)2 .

16. Answer (E): Let n be an integer. Because n3 −n = (n−1)n(n+1),

it follows that n3 − n has at least one prime factor of 2 and one prime
factor of 3 and therefore is divisible by 6. Thus n3 ≡ n (mod 6).
Then

a31 + a32 + · · · + a32018 ≡ a1 + a2 + · · · + a2018 ≡ 20182018 (mod 6).

Because 2018 ≡ 2 (mod 6), the powers of 2018 modulo 6 are alter-
nately 2, 4, 2, 4, . . . , so 20182018 ≡ 4 (mod 6). Therefore the remain-
der when a31 + a32 + · · · + a32018 is divided by 6 is 4.

17. Answer (B): Because AP < 4 = 21 P Q, it follows that A is closer

to P than it is to Q and that A is between points P and B. Because
AP = BQ, AH = BC, and angles AP H and BQC are right angles,
4AP H ∼ = 4BQC. Thus P H = QC, and P QCH is a rectangle.
Because CD = HG, it follows that HCDG is also a rectangle. Thus
GDRS is a rectangle and DR = GS, and it follows that 4ERD ∼ =
4F SG. Therefore segment EF is centered in RS just as congruent
segment AB is centered in P Q. Therefore 4ERD ∼ = 4BQC, and
CD is also centered in QR. Let 2x be the side length AB = BC =
2018 AMC 10B Solutions 8

CD = DE = EF = F G = GH = HA of the regular octagon; then

AP = BQ = 4−x and QC = RD = 3−x. Applying the Pythagorean
Theorem to 4BQC yields (4−x)2 +(3−x)2√= (2x)2 , which simplifies
to 2x2 + 14x − 25 = 0. Thus x = 12 · (−7 ± 3 11), and because x > 0,
√
it follows that 2x = −7 + 3 11. Hence k + m + n = −7 + 3 + 11 = 7.

S 4–x F 2x E 4–x R

3–x 2x 2x 3–x
G D

2x 2x

H C
3–x 2x 2x 3–x

P 4–x A 2x B 4–x Q

18. Answer (D): Let X, Y , and Z denote the three different families
in some order. Then the only possible arrangements are to have the
second row be members of XY Z and the third row be members of
ZXY , or to have the second row be members of XY Z and the third
row be members of Y ZX. Note that these are not the same, because
in the first case one sibling pair occupy the right-most seat in the
second row and the left-most seat in the third row, whereas in the
second case this does not happen. (Having members of XY X in
the second row does not work because then the third row must be
members of ZY Z to avoid consecutive members of Z; but in this case
one of the Y siblings would be seated directly in front of the other Y
sibling.) In each of these 2 cases there are 3! = 6 ways to assign the
families to the letters and 23 = 8 ways to position the boy and girl
within the seats assigned to the families. Therefore the total number
of seating arrangements is 2 · 6 · 8 = 96.

19. Answer (E): Let Chloe be n years old today, so she is n − 1 years
older than Zoe. For integers y ≥ 0, Chloe’s age will be a multiple of
Zoe’s age y years from now if and only if
n+y n−1
=1+
1+y 1+y
2018 AMC 10B Solutions 9

is an integer, that is, 1 + y is a divisor of n − 1. Thus n − 1 has

exactly 9 positive integer divisors, so the prime factorization of n − 1
has one of the two forms p2 q 2 or p8 . There are no two-digit integers
of the form p8 , and the only one of the form p2 q 2 is 22 · 32 = 36.
Therefore Chloe is 37 years old today, and Joey is 38. His age will be
a multiple of Zoe’s age in y years if and only if 1 + y is a divisor of
38 − 1 = 37. The nonnegative integer solutions for y are 0 and 36, so
the only other time Joey’s age will be a multiple of Zoe’s age will be
when he is 38 + 36 = 74 years old. The requested sum is 7 + 4 = 11.

20. Answer (B): Applying the recursion for several steps leads to the
conjecture that


 n + 2 if n ≡ 0 (mod 6),

n if n ≡ 1 (mod 6),




n − 1 if n ≡ 2 (mod 6),
f (n) =


 n if n ≡ 3 (mod 6),
n + 2 if n ≡ 4 (mod 6),





n + 3 if n ≡ 5 (mod 6).


The conjecture can be verified using the strong form of mathematical

induction with two base cases and six inductive steps. For example,
if n ≡ 2 (mod 6), then n = 6k + 2 for some nonnegative integer k and
f (n) = f (6k + 2)
= f (6k + 1) − f (6k) + 6k + 2
= (6k + 1) − (6k + 2) + 6k + 2
= 6k + 1
= n − 1.
Therefore f (2018) = f (6 · 336 + 2) = 2018 − 1 = 2017.

OR

Note that
f (n) = f (n − 1) − f (n − 2) + n
= [f (n − 2) − f (n − 3) + (n − 1)] − f (n − 2) + n
= −[f (n − 4) − f (n − 5) + (n − 3)] + 2n − 1
= −[f (n − 5) − f (n − 6) + (n − 4)] + f (n − 5) + n + 2
= f (n − 6) + 6.
It follows that f (2018) = f (2) + 2016 = 2017.
2018 AMC 10B Solutions 10

21. Answer (C): Let d be the next divisor of n after 323. Then
gcd(d, 323) 6= 1, because otherwise n ≥ 323d > 3232 > 1002 = 10000,
contrary to the fact that n is a 4-digit number. Therefore d − 323 ≥
gcd(d, 323) > 1. The prime factorization of 323 is 17 · 19. Thus the
next divisor of n is at least 323 + 17 = 340 = 17 · 20. Indeed, 340 will
be the next number in Mary’s list when n = 17 · 19 · 20 = 6460.

22. Answer (C): The set of all possible ordered pairs (x, y) occupies
the unit square 0 ≤ x ≤ 1, 0 ≤ y ≤ 1 in the Cartesian plane. The
numbers x, y, and 1 are the side lengths of a triangle if and only if
x + y > 1, which means that (x, y) lies above the line y = 1 − x. By
a generalization of the Pythagorean Theorem, the triangle is obtuse
if and only if, in addition, x2 + y 2 < 12 , which means that (x, y)
lies inside the circle of radius 1 centered at the origin. Within the
unit square, the region inside the circle of radius 1 centered at the
origin has area π4 , and the region below the line y = 1 − x has area 12 .
Therefore the ordered pairs that meet the required conditions occupy
a region with area π4 − 12 = π−24 . The area of the unit square is 1, so
the required probability is also π−2 1.14
4 ≈ 4 = 0.285, which is closest
to 0.29.
y

(1, 1)

x
(0, 0)

23. Answer (B): Recall that a·b = gcd(a, b)·lcm(a, b). Let x = lcm(a, b)
and y = gcd(a, b). The given equation is then xy + 63 = 20x + 12y,
which can be rewritten as

(x − 12)(y − 20) = 240 − 63 = 177 = 3 · 59 = 1 · 177.

Because x and y are integers, one of the following must be true:

2018 AMC 10B Solutions 11

• x − 12 = 1 and y − 20 = 177,
• x − 12 = 177 and y − 20 = 1,
• x − 12 = 3 and y − 20 = 59,
• x − 12 = 59 and y − 20 = 3.

Therefore (x, y) must be (13, 197), (189, 21), (15, 79), or (71, 23). Be-
cause x must be a multiple of y, only (x, y) = (189, 21) is possible.
Therefore gcd(a, b) = 21 = 7 · 3, and lcm(a, b) = 189 = 7 · 33 . Both a
and b are divisible by 7 but not by 72 ; one of a and b is divisible by 3
but not 32 , and the other is divisible by 33 but not 34 ; and neither is
divisible by any other prime. Therefore one of them is 7 · 3 = 21 and
the other is 7 · 33 = 189. There are 2 ordered pairs, (a, b) = (21, 189)
and (a, b) = (189, 21).

24. Answer (C): Let O be the center of the regular hexagon. Points
B, O, E are collinear and BE = BO + OE = 2. Trapezoid F ABE
is isosceles, and XZ is its midline. Hence XZ = 23 and analogously
XY = ZY = 32 .

F Z E

U5
U6

A O U4 D

U1

X U2 U3 Y

B C

Denote by U1 the intersection of AC and XZ and by U2 the intersec-

tion of AC and XY . It is easy to see that 4AXU1 and 4U2 XU1 are
congruent 30 – 60 – 90◦ right triangles.
By symmetry the area of the convex hexagon enclosed by the inter-
section of 4ACE and 4XY Z, shaded in the figure, is equal to the
area of 4XY Z minus 3 times the area of 4U2 XU1 . The hypotenuse
2018 AMC 10B Solutions 12

of 4U2 XU1 is XU2 = AX = 12 , so the area of 4U2 XU1 is

√  2
1 3 1 1√
· · = 3.
2 4 2 32

The area of the equilateral triangle XY Z with side length 23 is equal

√
2 √
to 41 3 · 32 = 169
3. Hence the area of the shaded hexagon is

9√ 1√ √ 15 √
 
3 1
3−3· 3=3 3 − = 3.
16 32 16 32 32

OR

Let U1 and U2 be as above, and continue labeling the vertices of

the shaded hexagon counterclockwise with U3 , U4 , U5 , and U6 as
shown. The area of 4ACE is half the area of hexagon ABCDEF .
Triangle U2 U4 U6 is the midpoint triangle of 4ACE, so its area is 41
of the area of 4ACE, and thus 81 of the area of ABCDEF . Each of
4U2 U3 U4 , 4U4 U5 U6 , and 4U6 U1 U2 is congruent to half of 4U2 U4 U6 ,
so the total shaded area is 52 times the area of 4U2 U4 U6 and therefore
√
5 1 5
2 · 8 = 16 of the area of ABCDEF . The area of ABCDEF is 6· 43 ·12 ,
15
√
so the requested area is 32 3.

25. Answer (C): Let {x} = x − bxc denote the fractional part of x.
Then 0 ≤ {x} < 1. The given equation is equivalent to x2 =
10,000{x}, that is,
x2
= {x}.
10,000
Therefore if x satisfies the equation, then

x2
0≤ < 1.
10,000

This implies that x2 < 10,000, so −100 < x < 100. The figure shows
a sketch of the graphs of

x2
f (x) = and g(x) = {x}
10,000
for −100 < x < 100 on the same coordinate axes. The graph of g
consists of the 200 half-open line segments with slope 1 connecting
the points (k, 0) and (k + 1, 1) for k = −100, −99, . . . , 98, 99. (The
2018 AMC 10B Solutions 13

endpoints of these intervals that lie on the x-axis are part of the graph,
but the endpoints with y-coordinate 1 are not.) It is clear that there is
one intersection point for x lying in each of the intervals [−100, −99),
[−99, −98), [−98, −97), . . . , [−1, 0), [0, 1), [1, 2), . . . , [97, 98), [98, 99)
but no others. Thus the equation has 199 solutions.

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

x
100 50 50 100

OR

The solutions to the equation correspond to points of intersection of

the graphs y = 10000bxc and y = 10000x−x2 . There will be a point of
intersection any time the parabola intersects the half-open horizontal
segment from the point (a, 10000a) to the point (a+1, 10000a), where
a is an integer. This occurs for every integer value of a for which

10000a − a2 ≤ 10000a < 10000(a + 1) − (a + 1)2 .

This is equivalent to (a + 1)2 < 10000, which occurs if and only if

−101 < a < 99. Thus points of intersection occur on the intervals
[a, a + 1) for a = −100, −99, −98, . . . , −1, 0, 1, . . . , 97, 98, resulting in
199 points of intersection.
2018 AMC 10B Solutions 14

Problems and solutions were contributed by Risto Atanasov, Chris

Bolognese, Ivan Borsenco, Thomas Butts, Barbara Currier, Steven
Davis, Steve Dunbar, Marta Eso, Zuming Feng, Jerrold Grossman,
Chris Jeuell, Jonathan Kane, Joe Kennedy, Michael Khoury, Norbert
Kuenzi, Hugh Montgomery, Mohamed Omar, Albert Otto, Joachim
Rebholz, David Wells, and Carl Yerger.
 The
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