ΒΆ 2015 AMC 12A Problems and Solutions
Problem Set Workbook
Access the downloadable workbook for 2015 AMC 12A problems here.
Discussion Forum
Engage in discussion about the 2015 AMC 12A math contest by visiting Random Math AMC 12A 2015 Forum
Individual Problems and Solutions
For problems and detailed solutions to each of the 2015 AMC 12A problems, please refer below:
Problem 1: What is the value of ?
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Problem 2: Two of the three sides of a triangle are and . Which of the following numbers is not a possible perimeter of the triangle?
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Problem 3: Mr. Patrick teaches math to students. He was grading tests and found that when he graded everyone's test except Payton's, the average grade for the class was . After he graded Payton's test, the class average became . What was Payton's score on the test?
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Problem 4: The sum of two positive numbers is times their difference. What is the ratio of the larger number to the smaller?
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Problem 5: Amelia needs to estimate the quantity , where , and are large positive integers. She rounds each of the integers so that the calculation will be easier to do mentally. In which of these situations will her answer necessarily be greater than the exact value of ?
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A. She rounds all three numbers up.
B. She rounds and up, and she rounds down.
C. She rounds and up, and she rounds down.
D. She rounds up, and she rounds and down.
E. She rounds up, and she rounds and down.
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Problem 6: Two years ago Pete was three times as old as his cousin Claire. Two years before that, Pete was four times as old as Claire. In how many years will the ratio of their ages be ?
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Problem 7: Two right circular cylinders have the same volume. The radius of the second cylinder is more than the radius of the first. What is the relationship between the heights of the two cylinders?
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A. The second height is less than the first.
B. The first height is more than the second.
C. The second height is less than the first.
D. The first height is more than the second.
E. The second height is of the first.
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Problem 8: The ratio of the length to the width of a rectangle is . If the rectangle has diagonal of length , then the area may be expressed as for some constant . What is ?
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Problem 9: A box contains red marbles, green marbles, and yellow marbles. Carol takes marbles from the box at random; then Claudia takes of the remaining marbles at random; and then Cheryl takes the last marbles. What is the probability that Cheryl gets marbles of the same color?
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Problem 10: Integers and with satisfy . What is ?
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Problem 11: On a sheet of paper, Isabella draws a circle of radius , a circle of radius , and all possible lines simultaneously tangent to both circles. Isabella notices that she has drawn exactly lines. How many different values of are possible?
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Problem 12: The parabolas and intersect the coordinate axes in exactly four points, and these four points are the vertices of a kite of area . What is ?
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Problem 13: A league with teams holds a round-robin tournament, with each team playing every other team exactly once. Games either end with one team victorious or else end in a draw. A team scores points for every game it wins and point for every game it draws. Which of the following is not a true statement about the list of scores?
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A. There must be an even number of odd scores.
B. There must be an even number of even scores.
C. There cannot be two scores of .
D. The sum of the scores must be at least .
E. The highest score must be at least .
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Problem 14: What is the value of for which ?
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Problem 15: What is the minimum number of digits to the right of the decimal point needed to express the fraction as a decimal?
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Problem 16: Tetrahedron has , and . What is the volume of the tetrahedron?
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Problem 17: Eight people are sitting around a circular table, each holding a fair coin. All eight people flip their coins and those who flip heads stand while those who flip tails remain seated. What is the probability that no two adjacent people will stand?
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Problem 18: The zeros of the function are integers. What is the sum of the possible values of ?
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Problem 19: For some positive integers , there is a quadrilateral with positive integer side lengths, perimeter , right angles at and , and . How many different values of are possible?
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Problem 20: Isosceles triangles and are not congruent but have the same area and the same perimeter. The sides of have lengths of 5,5 , and 8 , while those of have lengths , and . Which of the following numbers is closest to ?
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Problem 21: A circle of radius passes through both foci of, and exactly four points on, the ellipse with equation . The set of all possible values of is an interval . What is ?
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Problem 22: For each positive integer , let be the number of sequences of length consisting solely of the letters and , with no more than three s in a row and no more than three s in a row. What is the remainder when is divided by ?
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Problem 23: Let be a square of side length . Two points are chosen independently at random on the sides of . The probability that the straight-line distance between the points is at least is , where , and are positive integers and . What is ?
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Problem 24: Rational numbers and are chosen at random among all rational numbers in the interval that can be written as fractions where and are integers with . What is the probability that
is a real number?
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Problem 25: A collection of circles in the upper half-plane, all tangent to the -axis, is constructed in layers as follows. Layer consists of two circles of radii and that are externally tangent. For , the circles in are ordered according to their points of tangency with the -axis. For every pair of consecutive circles in this order, a new circle is constructed externally tangent to each of the two circles in the pair. Laver consists of the circles constructed in this way. Let , and for every circle denote by its radius. What is
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The problems on this page are the property of the MAA's American Mathematics Competitions