The CENTRE for EDUCATION

in MATHEMATICS and COMPUTING

cemc.uwaterloo.ca

Pascal Contest
(Grade 9)
Wednesday, February 24, 2016
(in North America and South America)
Thursday, February 25, 2016
(outside of North America and South America)

Time: 60 minutes ©2015 University of Waterloo

Calculators are allowed, with the following restriction: you may not use a device
that has internet access, that can communicate with other devices, or that contains
previously stored information. For example, you may not use a smartphone or a
tablet.
Instructions
1. Do not open the Contest booklet until you are told to do so.
2. You may use rulers, compasses and paper for rough work.
3. Be sure that you understand the coding system for your response form. If you are not sure,
ask your teacher to clarify it. All coding must be done with a pencil, preferably HB. Fill in
circles completely.
4. On your response form, print your school name and city/town in the box in the upper right
corner.
5. Be certain that you code your name, age, grade, and the Contest you are writing
in the response form. Only those who do so can be counted as eligible students.
6. This is a multiple-choice test. Each question is followed by five possible answers marked
A, B, C, D, and E. Only one of these is correct. After making your choice, fill in the
appropriate circle on the response form.
7. Scoring: Each correct answer is worth 5 in Part A, 6 in Part B, and 8 in Part C.
There is no penalty for an incorrect answer.
Each unanswered question is worth 2, to a maximum of 10 unanswered questions.
8. Diagrams are not drawn to scale. They are intended as aids only.
9. When your supervisor tells you to begin, you will have sixty minutes of working time.
10. You may not write more than one of the Pascal, Cayley or Fermat Contest in any given
year.

Do not discuss the problems or solutions from this contest online for the next 48 hours.

The name, grade, school and location, and score range of some top-scoring students will be
published on our website, cemc.uwaterloo.ca. In addition, the name, grade, school and location,
and score of some top-scoring students may be shared with other mathematical organizations
for other recognition opportunities.
 Scoring: There is no penalty for an incorrect answer.
Each unanswered question is worth 2, to a maximum of 10 unanswered questions.

Part A: Each correct answer is worth 5.

1. The result of the addition shown is

3 0 0
(A) 15021 (B) 12231 (C) 12051
2 0 2 0
(D) 13231 (E) 12321 + 1 0 0 0 1

2. Which of the following has the largest value?

4
(A) 42 (B) 4 × 2 (C) 4 − 2 (D) (E) 4 + 2
2

3. In the diagram, the 5 × 6 grid is made out of thirty 1 × 1

squares. What is the total length of the six solid line
segments shown?
(A) 6 (B) 12 (C) 16
(D) 18 (E) 20

4. In the diagram, each of the five squares is 1 × 1. What

percentage of the total area of the five squares is shaded?
(A) 25% (B) 30% (C) 35%
(D) 40% (E) 45%

5. Numbers m and n are on the number line, as shown. The

value of n − m is
(A) 66 (B) 35 (C) 55
(D) 60 (E) 54 0 m 30 60 n

p q 4 5
6. If the symbol is defined by p × s − q × r, then the value of is
r s 2 3
(A) −3 (B) −2 (C) 2 (D) 3 (E) 14

7. Which of the following is equal to 2 m plus 3 cm plus 5 mm?

(A) 2.035 m (B) 2.35 m (C) 2.0305 m (D) 2.53 m (E) 2.053 m

8. If x = 3, y = 2x, and z = 3y, then the average of x, y and z is

(A) 6 (B) 7 (C) 8 (D) 9 (E) 10
9. A soccer team played three games. Each game ended in a win, loss, or tie. (If a game
finishes with both teams having scored the same number of goals, the game ends in
a tie.) In total, the team scored more goals than were scored against them. Which
of the following combinations of outcomes is not possible for this team?
(A) 2 wins, 0 losses, 1 tie
(B) 1 win, 2 losses, 0 ties
(C) 0 wins, 1 loss, 2 ties
(D) 1 win, 1 loss, 1 tie
(E) 1 win, 0 losses, 2 ties
10. Exactly three faces of a 2×2×2 cube are partially shaded,
as shown. (Each of the three faces not shown in the
diagram is not shaded.) What fraction of the total surface
area of the cube is shaded?
1 1 1
(A) 3 (B) 4 (C) 6
3 2
(D) 8 (E) 3

Part B: Each correct answer is worth 6.

11. An oblong number is the number of dots in a rectangular grid with one more row
than column. The first four oblong numbers are 2, 6, 12, and 20, and are represented
below:

1st 2nd 3rd 4th

What is the 7th oblong number?

(A) 42 (B) 49 (C) 56 (D) 64 (E) 72
12. In the diagram, the area of square QRST is 36. Also, Q
the length of P Q is one-half of the length of QR. What P R
is the perimeter of rectangle P RSU ?
(A) 24 (B) 30 (C) 90
(D) 45 (E) 48
U T S
13. Multiplying x by 10 gives the same result as adding 20 to x. The value of x is
9
(A) 20 (B) 20
9 (C) 11
20 (D) 20
11 (E) 2
14. In the diagram, P Q is perpendicular to QR, QR is
perpendicular to RS, and RS is perpendicular to ST . P Q
If P Q = 4, QR = 8, RS = 8, and ST = 3, then the
distance from P to T is T
(A) 16 (B) 12 (C) 17
(D) 15 (E) 13 R S
15. When two positive integers p and q are multiplied together, their product is 75. The
sum of all of the possible values of p is
(A) 96 (B) 48 (C) 109 (D) 115 (E) 124

16. An integer from 10 to 99 inclusive is randomly chosen so that each such integer is
equally likely to be chosen. The probability that at least one digit of the chosen
integer is a 6 is
(A) 51 1
(B) 10 (C) 19 (D) 19
90 (E) 1989

17. What is the tens digit of the smallest six-digit positive integer that is divisible by
each of 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15?
(A) 0 (B) 6 (C) 2 (D) 8 (E) 4

18. Each integer from 1 to 12 is to be placed around the

outside of a circle so that the positive difference between 3
any two integers next to each other is at most 2. The
integers 3, 4, x, and y are placed as shown. What is the
value of x + y?
4
(A) 17 (B) 18 (C) 19
(D) 20 (E) 21
x y

19. Chris received a mark of 50% on a recent test. Chris answered 13 of the first 20
questions correctly. Chris also answered 25% of the remaining questions on the test
correctly. If each question on the test was worth one mark, how many questions in
total were on the test?
(A) 23 (B) 38 (C) 32 (D) 24 (E) 40

20. In the diagram, points Q and R lie on P S and W

∠QW R = 38◦ . If ∠T QP = ∠T QW = x◦ ,
∠V RS = ∠V RW = y ◦ , and U is the point of 38˚
intersection of T Q extended and V R extended, T V
then the measure of ∠QU R is
x˚ y˚
(A) 71◦ (B) 45◦ (C) 76◦ x˚ y˚
P S
Q R
(D) 81◦ (E) 60◦

Part C: Each correct answer is worth 8.

21. Grid lines are drawn on three faces of a rectangular prism,
as shown. A squirrel walks from P to Q along the edges P
and grid lines in such a way that she is always getting
closer to Q and farther away from P . How many different
paths from P to Q can the squirrel take?
(A) 14 (B) 10 (C) 20 Q
(D) 12 (E) 16
22. There are n students in the math club at Scoins Secondary School. When Mrs. Fryer
tries to put the n students in groups of 4, there is one group with fewer than 4 students,
but all of the other groups are complete. When she tries to put the n students in
groups of 3, there are 3 more complete groups than there were with groups of 4, and
there is again exactly one group that is not complete. When she tries to put the
n students in groups of 2, there are 5 more complete groups than there were with
groups of 3, and there is again exactly one group that is not complete. The sum of
the digits of the integer equal to n2 − n is
(A) 11 (B) 12 (C) 20 (D) 13 (E) 10

23. In the diagram, 4P QR is isosceles with P Q = P R = 39

and 4SQR is equilateral with side length 30. The area P
of 4P QS is closest to
(A) 68 (B) 75 (C) 50
(D) 180 (E) 135 S

Q R

24. Ten very small rubber balls begin equally spaced inside a 55 m long tube. They
instantly begin to roll inside the tube at a constant velocity of 1 m/s. When a ball
reaches an end of the tube, it falls out of the tube. When two balls bump into each
other, they both instantly reverse directions but continue to roll at 1 m/s. Five
configurations giving the initial direction of movement of each ball are shown. All
gaps indicated in the diagram are the same length and are equal in length to the
distance from the ends of the tube to the nearest ball. For which configuration will
it take the least time for more than half of the balls to fall out of the tube?
(A)

(B)

(C)

(D)

(E)

25. A 0 or 1 is to be placed in each of the nine 1 × 1 squares

in the 3 × 3 grid shown so that each row contains at least
one 0 and at least one 1, and each column contains at
least one 0 and at least one 1. The number of ways in
which this can be done is
(A) 126 (B) 120 (C) 138
(D) 102 (E) 96