2018JP PDF

The University of Melbourne–Department of Mathematics and
Statistics
School Mathematics Competition, 2018
JUNIOR DIVISION
Time allowed: Two hours
These questions are designed to test your ability to analyse a problem and to express yourself
clearly and accurately. The following suggestions are made for your guidance:
(1) Considerable weight will be attached by the examiners to the method of presentation of
a solution. Candidates should state as clearly as they can the reasoning by which they
arrived at their results. In addition, more credit will be given for an elegant than for a
clumsy solution.
(2) The six questions are not of equal length or difficulty. Generally, the later questions
are more difficult than the earlier questions.
(3) It may be necessary to spend considerable time on a problem before any real progress is
made.
(4) You may need to do considerable rough work but you should then write out your final
solution neatly, stating your arguments carefully.
(5) Credit will be given for partial solutions; however a good answer to one question will
normally gain you more credit than sketchy attempts at several questions.
Textbooks, electronic calculators and computers are NOT allowed. Otherwise normal exami-
nation conditions apply.
1. Girl power. At this year’s Commonwealth Games, Shayna Jack, Emma McKeon, and
sisters Bronte and Cate Campbell broke the world record for the 4 × 100 metres freestyle by
more than half a second, swimming a new best time of 3:30.05 (three minutes, 30 seconds and
5 hundredths of a second). If Cate had swum 25% faster, the team would have finished in the
even faster time of 3:20.05. What was Cate’s time for her 100-metre leg of the relay?
2. Bad boy. Australian cricket vice-captain David W. is in the dressing room, using a piece of
sandpaper to roughen a cricket ball. He hears captain Steve S. approaching and quickly hides
the ball in a bag containing 99 untampered balls. Steve S. expects foul play and decides to
check the balls. He can only compare two balls at a time, and he can only observe whether two
balls are the same or different. In other words, if two balls are different he cannot tell which
one has been tampered with. Assuming a worst-case scenario (i.e., Steve S. does not have any
luck) but the best possible strategy (i.e., Steve S. is almost as smart as you are), what is the
maximum number of pairs of balls he may need to compare before he can identify which is the
tampered ball? Clearly justify your answer.
3. Dominoes. The popular game of dominoes originated during the

reign of Chinese Emperor Xiaozong, the 11th emperor of the Song 2 0 3 1 4
dynasty. In recent excavations around the city of Hangzhou—known 4 4 1 0 2
as Wulin during Song’s reign in the 12th century—archaeologists 5 5 1 4 2
found an ancient domino instruction manual. One of the diagrams
from the manual shows a 4 × 5 board covered with 10 dominoes, as 2 2 1 2 0
seen in the picture on the right (translated into Arabic numerals for
your convenience). Unfortunately, the outlines of the individual dominoes have completely
faded. Assuming that the 10 dominoes are all different, determine the outlines of each of the
10 pieces. (Recall that a domino is a 1 × 2 tile containing two numbers, such as 1 3 or 2 2 . All
dominoes being different means, for example, that only one of 0 2 , 20 , 2 0 and 02 may occur.)
4. Grace. From 30 March till 22 July, the

National Gallery of Australia is presenting
‘Cartier The Exhibition’, an exhibition of
over 300 pieces of jewellery designed by famous
Parisian jeweller Louis-François Cartier (1975–
1942). The pièce de résistance of the exhibition
is film star Grace Kelly’s diamond engagement
ring (she married Prince Rainier III of Monaco
9 7
in 1956, becoming Princess Grace of Monaco).
A photo (not to scale) of Grace Kelly’s ring
is shown on the right. The ring consists of
21 square diamonds, forming one larger square.
The side-lengths of two of the individual stones
are indicated in the photo. Find the total side-
length of Grace’s ring. (Partial marks are avail-
able for finding the side-lengths of some of the
individual stones.)
5. Year of the dog. To celebrate the ‘Year of the dog’, 2018
dogs have gathered around a very large circular table to enjoy a
nice meal of bones. The dogs are numbered from 1 to 2018, but
sit in a random order around the table. For example, the poodle
numbered 123 could have the shepherd numbered 18 to its left and
the labradoodle numbered 1973 to its right. Show that there must
be three consecutive dogs at the table the sum of whose numbers
is at least 3029. (To earn a bonus mark, can you show the same
for 3030?)
6. Blackbeard. Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard, is one of the most notorious
pirates to have ever lived. Known for his unusual fighting style, holding a cutlass in each
hand, he robbed over 40 merchant ships in the Caribbean between 1695 and 1718. One day, on
Treasure Island, he discovered a cave containing three locked treasure chests. A note pinned
to one of the chests told him that two chests contained treasure and one contained rocks. His
small barge could only carry one chest, so he had a difficult choice to make. His magic eye-patch
allowed him to see inside one chest of his choice. The magic eye-patch, however, was not totally
reliable, and in 25% of cases it would show a chest containing rocks as containing treasure, and
in 25% of cases it would show a chest containing treasure as containing rocks. Blackbeard
selected one of the chests, and his eye-patch showed that it contained rocks. Assuming the note
told the truth, what is the probability that this chest actually contained treasure?

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The University of Melbourne–Department of Mathematics and

3. Dominoes. The popular game of dominoes originated during the

4. Grace. From 30 March till 22 July, the

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