Introduction to the Next Ten Years

By the time the Purple Comet! Math Meet reached its tenth year in 2012,
the format of the contest was firmly established. It has a middle school level
where teams have 60 minutes to work on 20 problems and a high school level
where teams have 90 minutes to work on 30 problems. The contest runs each
year for a full ten-day period sometime between late March and the beginning
of May, depending on the dates of the major springtime holidays and the dates
of other popular mathematics contests. Adult team supervisors register at our
website and, beginning around February 1, supervisors sign up as many teams
as they want. Over 3,000 teams register each year, although not all end up
participating. Teams enter in one of four categories: Large School Teams (all
team members attend the same large school), Small School Teams (all team
members attend the same small school), Mixed School Teams (team members
come from more than one school), and Non-competitive Teams. Awards are
designated for the top teams for each level of the contest in each of the three
competitive categories. Awards are given for overall worldwide performance as
well as for the top teams in each country and for each state within the United
States. After final results are determined, every student who participates in
one of the competitive categories receives either an award certificate or a certi-
ficate of participation. The Non-competitive Team category was designed for
students who do not want the pressure of the competition, and do not want
their scores to be seen on our annual results report. Moreover, because there
are no rules about who may participate on a Non-competitive Team, anyone
who wishes to try their hand the problems can join a Non-competitive Team:
university students, teachers, parents, or even mentors who wish to work on
the problems with their students. Scores for Non-competitive Teams are only
reported to the teams’ supervisors.
Each year we write the 50 problems needed for the contest and have a team of
volunteer proofreaders who double check the problems to make sure that they
are clearly stated, the answers are correct, and the solutions are instructive
and concise. After the final editing is complete, many volunteers spend time
translating the problems into about two dozen languages.
From 2013 through 2022, contest participants saw a website that appeared to
run fairly smoothly. But not everything went perfectly behind the scenes. Our
xii Introduction to the Next Ten Years

long-time collaborator, Bennette Harris, had provided the web support when
the contest started, and he continued this support for the first ten years of the
contest as it grew in complexity. But by 2012 Harris could no longer spend
the time needed to maintain the web software that he had developed. For four
years the website ran into several problems due to software platforms changes,
and we then hired another University of Wisconsin – Whitewater (UWW)
faculty, Sobitha Samaranayaki. Accepting minimal compensation, he com-
pletely rewrote our website software and has been professionally maintaining
that software ever since.
When the contest was created by Titu Andreescu, Jonathan Kane, and
Bennette Harris in 2003, it was completely supported by UWW. But Titu
was only at the university for one year as a visiting scholar, while Bennette
and Jonathan retired from UWW in 2011 and 2012, respectively, so, in 2012,
our relationship with the University of Wisconsin – Whitewater ended. At
that point, AwesomeMath, run by Titu and Alina Andreescu, that had al-
ready been organizing a successful summer program for mathematics students
every year since 2006, became the sole sponsor of the Purple Comet! Math
Meet, a relationship that has continued through the present. This support
from AwesomeMath pays for our web server, the webmaster, hiring a team
of helpline support staff who work 24/7 throughout our contest answering
questions about the contest and assisting supervisors with registration and
administration tasks, as well as providing small thank you gifts for our volun-
teer proofreads and translators. The competition does receive some donations
from participating teams, but this only covers a small portion of the expenses.
Royalties from the sale of the two Purple Comet books provide only a nominal
monetary compensation that the contest organizers receive.
Nobody predicted back in 2003 that this mathematics contest would last for
twenty or more years, but the Purple Comet! Math Meet has taken its place
among the important international mathematics competitions, partly because
of its team format, but mostly because of how easy it is to participate; all a
team needs is an adult willing to serve as the team supervisor and an Internet
connection. For at least two years beginning in 2020, the entire world was hit
by the COVID-19 pandemic that killed several million people, caused severe
illness in many millions more, and considerably disrupted normal life for most
of the world. The vast majority of in-person events were canceled, postponed,
or forced to run in previously untested online formats. But the Purple Comet!
Math Meet had always been a completely online contest, and it went on as
scheduled, offering students from around the globe an activity that we hope
was fun and educational. This has always been our goal.

Titu Andreescu and Jonathan Kane, April 2022

Contents

Introduction to the First Ten Years: Kane i

Introduction to the First Ten Years: Andreescu vii

Introduction to the Next Ten Years xi

I Problems 1

1 2013 High School Problems 3

2 2013 Middle School Problems 9

3 2014 High School Problems 13

4 2014 Middle School Problems 19

5 2015 High School Problems 25

6 2015 Middle School Problems 33

7 2016 High School Problems 39

8 2016 Middle School Problems 47

9 2017 High School Problems 53

10 2017 Middle School Problems 59

11 2018 High School Problems 63

12 2018 Middle School Problems 69

13 2019 High School Problems 73

xiv Contents

14 2019 Middle School Problems 81

15 2020 High School Problems 87

16 2020 Middle School Problems 95

17 2021 High School Problems 101

18 2021 Middle School Problems 107

19 2022 High School Problems 113

20 2022 Middle School Problems 119

II Solutions 123

21 2013 High School Solutions 125

22 2013 Middle School Solutions 143

23 2014 High School Solutions 153

24 2014 Middle School Solutions 173

25 2015 High School Solutions 185

26 2015 Middle School Solutions 205

27 2016 High School Solutions 217

28 2016 Middle School Solutions 237

29 2017 High School Solutions 249

30 2017 Middle School Solutions 269

31 2018 High School Solutions 279

32 2018 Middle School Solutions 295

33 2019 High School Solutions 307

34 2019 Middle School Solutions 327

35 2020 High School Solutions 339

Contents xv

36 2020 Middle School Solutions 361

37 2021 High School Solutions 373

38 2021 Middle School Solutions 391

39 2022 High School Solutions 403

40 2022 Middle School Solutions 423

III Appendix 435

Translations 437
2020 High School Problem #23 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437
2020 High School Problem #25 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442
2020 Middle School Problem #15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446

Topics and Difficulty 451

xvi Contents
 Part I

Problems
Chapter 1

2013 High School Problems

Problem 1
Two years ago Tom was 25% shorter than Mary. Since then Tom has grown
20% taller, and Mary has grown 4 inches taller. Now Mary is 20% taller than
Tom. How many inches tall is Tom now?

Problem 2
The following diagram shows an eight-sided polygon ABCDEF GH with side
lengths 8, 15, 8, 8, 8, 6, 8, and 29 as shown. All of its angles are right angles.
Turn this eight-sided polygon into a six-sided polygon by connecting B to D
with an edge and E to G with an edge to form polygon ABDEGH. Find the
perimeter of ABDEGH.

Problem 3
In how many rearrangements of the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 do the
numbers form a hill, that is, the numbers form an increasing sequence at the
beginning up to a peak, and then form a decreasing sequence to the end such
as in 129876543 or 258976431?
4 Chapter 1

Problem 4
The greatest common divisor of n and 180 is 12. The least common multiple
of n and 180 is 720. Find n.

Problem 5
How many four-digit positive integers have exactly one digit equal to 1 and
exactly one digit equal to 3?

Problem 6
In four years Kay will be twice as old as Gordon. Four years after that Shaun
will be twice as old as Kay. Four years after that Shaun will be three times
as old as Gordon. How many years old is Shaun now?

Problem 7
Find the least six-digit palindrome that is a multiple of 45. Note that a
palindrome is a number that reads the same forward and backwards such as
1441 or 35253.

Problem 8
Naomi has three colors of paint which she uses to paint the pattern below.
She paints each region a solid color, and each of the three colors is used at
least once. If Naomi is willing to paint two adjacent regions with the same
color, how many color patterns could Naomi paint?

Problem 9
|5x2 − 25 | ≤ |x − 8| if and only if x is in the interval [a, b]. There are relatively
prime positive integers m and n so that b − a = m n . Find m + n.

Problem 10
The number N is the product of two primes. The sum of the positive divisors
of N that are less than N is 2014. Find N .
2013 High School Problems 5

Problem 11
After Jennifer walked r percent of the way from her home to the store, she
turned around and walked home, got on her bicycle, and bicycled to the store
and back home. Jennifer bicycles two and a half times faster than she walks.
Find the largest value of r so that returning home for her bicycle was not
slower than her walking all the way to and from the store without her bicycle.

Problem 12
How many four-digit positive integers have no adjacent equal even digits?
For example, count numbers such as 1164 and 2035 but not 6447 or 5866.

Problem 13
There are relatively prime positive integers m and n so that
m  
= log4 32log9 27 .
n
Find m + n.

Problem 14
How many ordered triples (a, b, c) of positive integers satisfy a ≤ b ≤ c and
a · b · c = 1000?

Problem 15
For what value of x does the following determinant have the value 2013?

5+x 8 2+x
1 1+x 3
2 1 2

Problem 16
The figure below shows a 90 × 90 square with each side divided into three
equal segments. Some of the endpoints of these segments are connected by
straight lines. Find the area of the shaded region.
6 Chapter 1

Problem 17
m
For positive integers m and n, the decimal representation for the fraction n
begins 0.711 followed by other digits. Find the least possible value for n.

Problem 18
Two concentric circles have radii 1 and 4. Six congruent circles form a ring
where each of the six circles is tangent to the two circles adjacent to it as
shown. The three lightly shaded circles are internally tangent to the circle
with radius 4 while the three darkly shaded circles are externally tangent to
the√circle with radius 1. The radius of the six congruent circles can be written
k+ m
n , where k, m, and n are integers with k and n relatively prime. Find
k + m + n.

Problem 19
There is a pile of eggs. Joan counted the eggs, but her count was off by 1 in
the 1’s place. Tom counted the eggs, but his count was off by 1 in the 10’s
place. Raoul counted the eggs, but his count was off by 1 in the 100’s place.
Sasha, Jose, Peter, and Morris all counted the eggs and got the correct count.
When these seven people added their counts together, the sum was 3162.
How many eggs were in the pile?

Problem 20
1 1



Let z be a complex number satisfying z + z z+ z + 1 = 1. Evaluate
  
100 2 100 2
3z + 100 + 1 z + 100 + 3 .
z z

Problem 21
Evaluate (2 − sec2 1◦ )(2 − sec2 2◦ )(2 − sec2 3◦ ) · · · (2 − sec2 89◦ ).
2013 High School Problems 7

Problem 22
Find the least three-digit number that is equal to the sum of its digits plus
twice the product of its digits.

Problem 23
The diagram below shows the regular hexagon BCEGHJ surrounded by the
rectangle ADF I. Let θ be the measure of the acute angle between the side
EG of the hexagon and the diagonal of the rectangle AF . There are relatively
prime positive integers m and n so that sin2 θ = m
n . Find m + n.

Problem 24
Find the remainder when 333333 is divided by 33.

Problem 25
In how many ways can you write 12 as an ordered sum of integers where the
smallest of those integers is equal to 2? For example, 2 + 10, 10 + 2, and
3 + 2 + 2 + 5 are three such ways.

Problem 26
The diagram below shows the first three figures of a sequence of figures. The
first figure shows an equilateral triangle ABC with side length 1. The leading
edge of the triangle going in a clockwise direction around A is labeled AB and
is darkened in on the figure. The second figure shows the same equilateral
triangle with a square with side length 1 attached to the leading clockwise
edge of the triangle.

The third figure shows the same triangle and square with a regular pentagon
with side length 1 attached to the leading clockwise edge of the square.
8 Chapter 1

The fourth figure in the sequence will be formed by attaching a regular

hexagon with side length 1 to the leading clockwise edge of the pentagon.
The hexagon will overlap the triangle. Continue this sequence through the
eighth figure. After attaching the last regular figure (a regular decagon), its
leading clockwise edge will form an angle of less than 180◦ with the side AC
of the equilateral triangle. The degree measure of that angle can be written
in the form m
n where m and n are relatively prime positive integers. Find m+n.

Problem 27
Suppose a, b, and c are real numbers that satisfy a + b + c = 5 and
1 1 1 1 3 3 3
a + b + c = 5 . Find the greatest possible value of a + b + c .

Problem 28
Let A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H be the eight vertices of a 30 × 30 × 30 cube as
shown. The two figures ACF H and BDEG are congruent regular tetrahedra.
Find the volume of the intersection of these two tetrahedra.

Problem 29
You can tile a 2 × 5 grid of squares using any combination of three types of
tiles: single unit squares, two side by side unit squares, and three unit squares
in the shape of an L. The diagram below shows the grid, the available tile
shapes, and one way to tile the grid. In how many ways can the grid be tiled?

Problem 30
Suppose x, y, and z are integers that satisfy the system of equations
x2 y + y 2 z + z 2 x = 2186
xy 2 + yz 2 + zx2 = 2188.
Evaluate x2 + y 2 + z 2 .