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Maths comp (1 Viewer)

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thunderdax said:
If I remember correctly, since f(f(t))=f(t), f(t)=t and go from there.
If you were rigorously proving this, you'd have to first prove that f(a) = f(b) ==> a = b, but that isn't too hard.

f(a) = f(b)
Therefore f(f(a)) = f(f(b))
Therefore 6a - 2005 = 6b - 2005
Therefore a = b
 

casebash

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The octrahedral one was so easy if you recognised the symmetry. Each of the corners gets an equal share. Far out I missed 2 questions in section 2 and 1 in section 3. I tried solving the quadritic for 11, but i stuffed up and got a complex answer. For the increase or decrease by three i almost casebashed it, but i made an error at the start. Even worse i forgot you don't lose marks for guessing. For qu 30, one vital fact is if two does not divide your number your number is the sum of 4 odds which is an even and contradiction. I got that off Graham White who solved all the questions.
 
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casebash said:
For qu 30, one vital fact is if two does not divide your number your number is the sum of 4 odds which is an even and contradiction. I got that off Graham White who solved all the questions.
And the rest of the 'proof' is thus:

Let the number be n

We know that two of the 4 smallest divisors will be 1 and 2.
If another is 3, then we have n = 1 + 4 + 9 + a^2 = 14 + a^2. a/n, so a/14 (as a/a^2). We check 7 and 14, and they don't work.

Therefore 3 does not divide n

We check 4 in much the same way. (n = 21 + a^2, a/21, a = 1,3,7 or 21, but none work)

Therefore 4 does not divide n

We check 5, and get n = 30 + a^2. Checking the divisors of 30, we note that a = 10 works. This gives 130, which has a largest prime divisor of 13.

We have not proven that this (130) is the only number to satisfy these conditions (this would be an interesting question) but the question implies that there is only one (or at least that all of them have the same largest prime divisor). Therefore the answer is 13.
 

dawso

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how did people get the one with the square that had a triangle that was turned over??

i tried using algebra for ages but was gettin an answer different to the options, so i then got my scribbling paper and ripped it in2 a square of the appropriate shape and folded it then measured the side.....unmathematical but it worked :D
 
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pLuvia

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dawso said:
how did people get the one with the square that had a triangle that was turned over??

i tried using algebra for ages but was gettin an answer different to the options, so i then got my scribbling paper and ripped it in2 a square of the appropriate shape and folded it then measured the side.....unmathematical but it worked :D
but even if you did that, how could u measure the length of the diagonal, it didnt tell you anything about how much it was folded?
 

dawso

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yeah it did, it said that it was folded so that the area of the triangle segment was equal to the other bit showing
 

Slidey

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The square one was 4, wasn't it?

I forget the algebra involved but, basically the answer, whatever it was, had to satisfy the condition that the shaded area S was equal to the unshaded area, U, or U+S+R=12 (the bit folded off = R), since the bit folded off had the same area as S. Now U=S, but S=R, so 3U=12. U=4.

Hopefully.

EDIT: Obviously I don't forget the algebra involved.
 
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justchillin

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Yeah I got 4 for the square one... sorry for sounding stupid but how do u do the octahedron one, I didnt see it... And did u say 13 was the last question answer...
 
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justchillin said:
Yeah I got 4 for the square one... sorry for sounding stupid but how do u do the octahedron one, I didnt see it... And did u say 13 was the last question answer...
Yes, 13 is the answer to the last question.

For the octahedron question, if the verticies are A,B,C,D,E,F, then the volume closest to A isexactly the same as the volume closest to B, and so on, as the octahedron is perfectly symmetric, and as no point can be both closest to A and closest to B (implies PB >= PA and PA >= PB, therefore PA = PB, but the set of such points is only two-dimensional and so we can ignore it, having volume 0), therefore the answer is 120/6 = 20
 

LaCe

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Aced it like a motherfucker!

last section took a while longer than the others, but altogether not too bad, must be the 4gunit lateral thinking kicking in
 

Sepulchres

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4U skills didnt help me at all really. I'm more better at theory exams rather than these for some reason.
 

withoutaface

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AMC last year was great. I got all 3 of the last 10 that I answered right, and missed out on a 3 marker and a 4 marker.
 

David_O

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withoutaface said:
AMC last year was great. I got all 3 of the last 10 that I answered right, and missed out on a 3 marker and a 4 marker.
I could say something mean but I won't. :p
 

withoutaface

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Slide Rule said:
ac: Whoo! Credit. Beat you! ;)
Haha seems the bos clock got changed back, look, I'm replying to your post BEFORE YOU MADE IT!!!!
 
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They're supposed to be rushed, otherwise there would be too many very high or perfect scores.

I just finished (changed an answer with about 7 seconds to go - forgot to check the x = 2 solution in the question with all the square roots, and realised it didn't work right at the end).

(EDIT: This clock thing is weird. This post is repling to casebash's post of 8:19)
 

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