PURPLE COMET!
MATH MEET April 2024
MIDDLE SCHOOL - PROBLEMS
Copyright ©Titu Andreescu and Jonathan Kane
Problem 1
Penelope is 36 years old. She noticed that the sum of her age and her father’s age is 5 times the difference
in her age and her father’s age. Find Penelope’s father’s age.
Problem 2
The diagram below shows an 11 × 13 rectangle and a 11 × 21 rectangle attached to adjacent sides of an
11 × 11 square. Find the distance between the two farthest apart points in this figure.
13
11
11
21
Problem 3
Fred placed 19 blue marks on a pole that divided the pole into 20 equally-sized sections. Karen placed 16
red marks on the pole that divided the pole into 17 equally-sized sections. The distance between adjacent
blue marks is m percent less than the distance between adjacent red marks, where m is a positive integer.
Find m.
Problem 4
The diagram below shows a large equilateral triangle with side length 8 divided into 16 small equilateral
triangles with side length 2. Find the total length of all the line segments in the diagram.
1
Problem 5
Let a and b be nonzero real numbers such that
(a − 10b)2 + (a − 11b)2 + (a − 12b)2 = (a − 13b)2 + (a − 14b)2 .
a
Find .
b
Problem 6
Find the difference between the base-seven number 2347 and the base-six number 2346 . Express the answer
as a base-ten number.
Problem 7
Let ABCD be a square with side length 24, and let E and F be the midpoints of sides AB and CD,
respectively. Find the area of the region common to the insides of both △ABF and △CDE.
Problem 8
Find the positive integer n such that
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
+ + + + + + + + + + = 1.
6 7 8 9 10 12 15 18 24 42 n
Problem 9
In △ABC with right angle at C, points D and E lie on side AB and AC, respectively, such that CD is an
altitude of △ABC and DE is an altitude of △ACD. Suppose CD = 10 and DE = 8. Then the area of
m
△ABC is n, where m and n are relatively prime positive integers. Find m + n.
Problem 10
Nonnegative integers m and n satisfy 46m − 2 · 46n = 2024. Find 46n + 2 · 46m .
Problem 11
Find the positive integer n such that there is an integer b > 1 where the base-b representation of n is 961
and the base-(b + 1) representation of n is 804.
Problem 12
Find the sum of the squares of all integers n for which (n + 9)2 divides the positive integer n + 2024.
Problem 13
For any real number y, let {y} refer to the fractional part of y, so, for example, {3.14} = 3.14 − 3 = 0.14,
{10} = 10 − 10 = 0, and {−2.7} = −2.7 − (−3) = 0.3. Suppose x satisfies 3x + {x} = 100. Find 4x.
2
Problem 14
In the following arithmetic calculation, each different letter represents a different digit:
P U R + P L E − C O M E T + M E E T = 0.
Find the minimum possible value for the four-digit number M E E T .
Problem 15
In rectangle ABCD, AB = 20 and AD = 19. Point E lies on side AD with AE = 4. Let the incircle of
△CDE be tangent to CE at F . A circle tangent to AB and BC is tangent to CE at G. The distance F G
m
can be written n, where m and n are relatively prime positive integers. Find m + n.
Problem 16
Three red blocks, three white blocks, and three blue blocks are packed away by randomly selecting three of
the nine blocks to go into a red box, then randomly selecting three of the six remaining blocks to go into a
white box, and then placing the remaining three blocks in a blue box. The probability that no red blocks
m
end up in the red box and no white blocks end up in the white box is n, where m and n are relatively
prime positive integers. Find m + n.
Problem 17
The least real number r such that 2x + 3y + 4z ≤ 3x2 + 4y 2 + 12z 2 + r for all real numbers x, y, and z is a
m
rational number n, where m and n are relatively prime positive integers. Find m + n.
Problem 18
Find the number of ordered pairs (A, B) of sets satisfying A ⊆ B ⊆ {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6} where the number of
elements in A plus the number of elements in B is an even number.
Problem 19
An isosceles triangle R has side lengths 17, 17, and 16. Region S consists of the set of points inside of R
m
that are a distance of at least 2 from the sides of R. The area of S divided by the area of R is n, where m
and n are relatively prime positive integers. Find m + n.
Problem 20
A 25 meter pipe that connects two reservoirs is made up of alternating 2-meter sections and 3-meter
sections: 2, 3, 2, 3, 2, 3, 2, 3, 2, 3. Suppose three of these ten sections are selected at random and removed
m
from the pipe. Then there are relatively prime positive integers m and n such that n is the probability
that the three sections can be reinserted into the pipe in a way that none of the three sections ends up in
the position where it started and none of the other seven sections of pipe are moved. The 2-meter and
3-meter sections need not be alternating in the new arrangement. Find m + n.
