JMO mentoring scheme

October 2012 paper

Generally earlier questions are easier and later questions more difficult.
Some questions are devised to help you learn aspects of mathematics which you may not meet in school.
Hints are upside down at the bottom of the page; fold the page back to view them when needed.
1

How many 6-digit numbers which consist of all the digits 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 are divisible by all of 1, 2, 3,
4, 5 and 6?

What is the number of digits when 2531 822 is written in the normal decimal form?

This paper was published on 1 October 2012. In number format this would be written 01-10-2012.
What is the next date which would use eight different digits in number format?

The referee of a football match decides he wants to send off the captain of the team responsible for a
brawl on the field. The referee only knows the captain is one of Andrew, Gabriel or Paul. Paul claims
he is not the captain; Gabriel claims the captain is one of the other two; Andrew claims that Gabriel is
the captain. If only one of them is telling the truth, which of the following statements must be true?
(a) Gabriel is not the captain
(b) Andrew is telling the truth (c) Paul is telling the truth
(d) Andrew is the captain
(e) Gabriel is lying

Alice and Bob are riding on a merry-go-round at a fairground. Alice sits on a horse on the inner ring
which completes a revolution every 20 seconds. Bob sits on a horse on the outer ring which moves at a
different speed and takes 28 seconds to complete a revolution. At a certain moment they are next to
each other. After how many more seconds are they on opposite sides of the centre of the merry-goround.

The length of the longer side of a parallelogram is twice the length of a

shorter side and two of the internal angles measure 60. The length of the
shorter diagonal is 3. What is the area of the parallelogram?

The positive integers starting at 1 are written down on a graph at the points
(0, 0), (1, 0), (1, 1), (0, 1), (-1, 1), (-1, 0), (-1, -1), (0, -1) as shown in the
diagram and continuing at (1, -1), (2, -1), (2, 0), (2, 1), (2, 2), (1, 2), etc.,
forming a spiral of integer grid points round (0, 0). Find the coordinates of
the point where 2012 is written.

Two perpendicular diameters are drawn in a circle radius 1 m. This divides the
circle into four equal quadrants. A circle is drawn in one of the quadrants so
that it touches both diameters and also the 1 m radius circle. What is the radius
of this new circle?

How many positive (real) values of x are there such that x2(x - 3) = 3(1 - x) ?

[E.g. 56 = 15625 in normal decimal form.]

Real numbers include all integers, fractions and irrational numbers like 2 and p.

4
5
6
7
8
9

Who is the captain?

Find how long it is before Alice and Bob have both completed a whole number of revolutions.
Can you dissect and re-arrange the shapes? Use Pythagorass Rule. Dont try to get rid of square roots in your working.
What are the numbers at the top left corner of the spiral after you complete each whole turn round the centre?
Let the radius of the small circle be r and find a formula for the radius of the big circle. Use Pythagorass rule.
Try a table of values for each side of the equation. You might also try sketch graphs.