Problems

Consider the operation "minus the reciprocal of," defined by $a\diamond b=a-\frac{1}{b}$ . What is $((1\diamond2)\diamond3)-(1\diamond(2\diamond3))$ ?

What is the sign and units digit of the product of all the odd negative integers strictly greater than $-2015$ ?

For how many integers $x$ is the point $(x,-x)$ inside or on the circle of radius $10$ centered at $(5,5)$ ?

The line $12x+5y=60$ forms a triangle with the coordinate axes. What is the sum of the lengths of the altitudes of this triangle?

What is $10 \cdot \left(\tfrac{1}{2} + \tfrac{1}{5} + \tfrac{1}{10}\right)^{-1}?$

Roy's cat eats $\frac{1}{3}$ of a can of cat food every morning and $\frac{1}{4}$ of a can of cat food every evening. Before feeding his cat on Monday morning, Roy opened a box containing $6$ cans of cat food. On what day of the week did the cat finish eating all the cat food in the box?

Bridget bakes 48 loaves of bread for her bakery. She sells half of them in the morning for $\$2.50$ each. In the afternoon she sells two thirds of what she has left, and because they are not fresh, she charges only half price. In the late afternoon she sells the remaining loaves at a dollar each. Each loaf …

On an algebra quiz, $10\%$ of the students scored $70$ points, $35\%$ scored $80$ points, $30\%$ scored $90$ points, and the rest scored $100$ points. What is the difference between the mean and median score of the students' scores on this quiz?

Suppose that $a$ cows give $b$ gallons of milk in $c$ days. At this rate, how many gallons of milk will $d$ cows give in $e$ days?

The two legs of a right triangle, which are altitudes, have lengths $2\sqrt3$ and $6$ . How long is the third altitude of the triangle?

Five positive consecutive integers starting with $a$ have average $b$ . What is the average of $5$ consecutive integers that start with $b$ ?

A customer who intends to purchase an appliance has three coupons, only one of which may be used: Coupon 1: $10\%$ off the listed price if the listed price is at least $\$50$ Coupon 2: $\$20$ off the listed price if the listed price is at least $\$100$ Coupon 3: $18\%$ off the amount by …

The $y$ -intercepts, $P$ and $Q$ , of two perpendicular lines intersecting at the point $A(6,8)$ have a sum of zero. What is the area of $\triangle APQ$ ?

David drives from his home to the airport to catch a flight. He drives $35$ miles in the first hour, but realizes that he will be $1$ hour late if he continues at this speed. He increases his speed by $15$ miles per hour for the rest of the way to the airport and arrives $30$ minutes early. How many miles is the …

A square in the coordinate plane has vertices whose $y$ -coordinates are $0$ , $1$ , $4$ , and $5$ . What is the area of the square?

Four cubes with edge lengths $1$ , $2$ , $3$ , and $4$ are stacked as shown. What is the length of the portion of $\overline{XY}$ contained in the cube with edge length $3$ ?

Positive integers $a$ and $b$ are such that the graphs of $y=ax+5$ and $y=3x+b$ intersect the $x$ -axis at the same point. What is the sum of all possible $x$ -coordinates of these points of intersection?

In rectangle $ABCD$ , $AB=20$ and $BC=10$ . Let $E$ be a point on $\overline{CD}$ such that $\angle CBE=15^\circ$ . What is $AE$ ?

A sequence of natural numbers is constructed by listing the first $4$ , then skipping one, listing the next $5$ , skipping $2$ , listing $6$ , skipping $3$ , and, on the $n$ th iteration, listing $n+3$ and skipping $n$ . The sequence begins $1,2,3,4,6,7,8,9,10,13$ . What is the $500,000^{\text{th}}$ number in the …

Leah has $13$ coins, all of which are pennies and nickels. If she had one more nickel than she has now, then she would have the same number of pennies as nickels. In cents, how much are Leah's coins worth?

What is $\frac{2^3 + 2^3}{2^{-3} + 2^{-3}}$ ?

Peter drove the first third of his trip on a gravel road, the next $20$ miles on pavement, and the remaining one-fifth on a dirt road. In miles how long was Peter's trip?

Susie pays for $4$ muffins and $3$ bananas. Calvin spends twice as much paying for $2$ muffins and $16$ bananas. A muffin is how many times as expensive as a banana?

Camden constructs a square window using $8$ equal-size panes of glass, as shown. The ratio of the height to width for each pane is $5 : 2$ , and the borders around and between the panes are $2$ inches wide. In inches, what is the side length of the square window?

Orvin went to the store with just enough money to buy $30$ balloons. When he arrived, he discovered that the store had a special sale on balloons: buy $1$ balloon at the regular price and get a second at $\frac{1}{3}$ off the regular price. What is the greatest number of balloons Orvin could buy?