Problems

Sara makes a staircase out of toothpicks as shown: This is a $3$ -step staircase and uses $18$ toothpicks. How many steps would be in a staircase that used $180$ toothpicks?

A function $f$ is defined recursively by $f(1)=f(2)=1$ and $$f(n)=f(n-1)-f(n-2)+n$$ for all integers $n \geq 3$ . What is $f(2018)$ ?

What is the value of $(2(2(2(2(2(2+1)+1)+1)+1)+1)+1)$ ?

Pablo buys popsicles for his friends. The store sells single popsicles for $\$1$ each, $3$ -popsicle boxes for $\$2$ each, and $5$ -popsicle boxes for $\$3$ . What is the greatest number of popsicles that Pablo can buy with $\$8$ ?

The sum of two nonzero real numbers is $4$ times their product. What is the sum of the reciprocals of the two numbers?

Minnie rides on a flat road at $20$ kilometers per hour (kph), downhill at $30$ kph, and uphill at $5$ kph. Penny rides on a flat road at $30$ kph, downhill at $40$ kph, and uphill at $10$ kph. Minnie goes from town $A$ to town $B$ , a distance of $10$ km all uphill, then from town $B$ to town $C$ , a distance of $15$ …

Every week Roger pays for a movie ticket and a soda out of his allowance. Last week, Roger's allowance was $A$ dollars. The cost of his movie ticket was $20\%$ of the difference between $A$ and the cost of his soda, while the cost of his soda was $5\%$ of the difference between $A$ and the cost of his movie ticket. To …

For certain real numbers $a$ , $b$ , and $c$ , the polynomial $$g(x) = x^3 + ax^2 + x + 10$$ has three distinct roots, and each root of $g(x)$ is also a root of the polynomial $$f(x) = x^4 + x^3 + bx^2 + 100x + c.$$ What is $f(1)$ ?

Sofia ran $5$ laps around the $400$ -meter track at her school. For each lap, she ran the first $100$ meters at an average speed of $4$ meters per second and the remaining $300$ meters at an average speed of $5$ meters per second. How much time did Sofia take running the $5$ laps?

Real numbers $x$ , $y$ , and $z$ satisfy the inequalities $0<x<1$ , $-1<y<0$ , and $1<z<2$ . Which of the following numbers is necessarily positive?

Suppose that $x$ and $y$ are nonzero real numbers such that $\frac{3x+y}{x-3y}=-2$ . What is the value of $\frac{x+3y}{3x-y}$ ?

Camilla had twice as many blueberry jelly beans as cherry jelly beans. After eating $10$ pieces of each kind, she now has three times as many blueberry jelly beans as cherry jelly beans. How many blueberry jelly beans did she originally have?

Samia set off on her bicycle to visit her friend, traveling at an average speed of $17$ kilometers per hour. When she had gone half the distance to her friend's house, a tire went flat, and she walked the rest of the way at $5$ kilometers per hour. In all it took her $44$ minutes to reach her friend's house. In …

At Typico High School, $60\%$ of the students like dancing, and the rest dislike it. Of those who like dancing, $80\%$ say that they like it, and the rest say that they dislike it. Of those who dislike dancing, $90\%$ say that they dislike it, and the rest say that they like it. What fraction of students who say they …

Elmer's new car gives $50\%$ better fuel efficiency. However, the new car uses diesel fuel, which is $20\%$ more expensive per liter than the gasoline the old car used. By what percent will Elmer save money if he uses his new car instead of his old car for a long trip?

What is the value of $\dfrac{11!-10!}{9!}$ ?

For what value $x$ does $10^{x}\cdot 100^{2x}=1000^{5}$ ?

For every dollar Ben spent on bagels, David spent $25$ cents less. Ben paid $\$12.50$ more than David. How much did they spend in the bagel store together?

Trickster Rabbit agrees with Foolish Fox to double Fox's money every time Fox crosses the bridge by Rabbit's house, as long as Fox pays $40$ coins in toll to Rabbit after each crossing. The payment is made after the doubling, Fox is excited about his good fortune until he discovers that all his money is gone after …

A triangular array of $2016$ coins has $1$ coin in the first row, $2$ coins in the second row, $3$ coins in the third row, and so on up to $N$ coins in the $N$ th row. What is the sum of the digits of $N$ ?

A binary operation $\diamondsuit$ has the properties that $a\,\diamondsuit\, (b\,\diamondsuit \,c) = (a\,\diamondsuit \,b)\cdot c$ and that $a\,\diamondsuit \,a=1$ for all nonzero real numbers $a, b,$ and $c$ . (Here $\cdot$ represents multiplication). The solution to the equation …

What is the value of $\frac{2a^{-1}+\frac{a^{-1}}{2}}{a}$ when $a= \tfrac{1}{2}$ ?

If $n\heartsuit m=n^3m^2$ , what is $\frac{2\heartsuit 4}{4\heartsuit 2}$ ?

Let $x=-2016$ . What is the value of $$\bigg| \big||x|-x\big|-|x| \bigg| -x?$$

The ratio of the measures of two acute angles is $5:4$ , and the complement of one of these two angles is twice as large as the complement of the other. What is the sum of the degree measures of the two angles?