1988 AHSME Problems

1988 AHSME (Answer Key) Printable versions: Wiki • AoPS Resources • PDF
Instructions This is a 30-question, multiple choice test. Each question is followed by answers marked A, B, C, D and E. Only one of these is correct. You will receive 5 points for each correct answer, 2 points for each problem left unanswered, and 0 points for each incorrect answer. No aids are permitted other than scratch paper, graph paper, ruler, compass, protractor and erasers. Figures are not necessarily drawn to scale. You will have 90 minutes working time to complete the test.
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Problem 1

$\sqrt{8}+\sqrt{18}=$

$\text{(A)}\ \sqrt{20} \qquad \text{(B)}\ 2(\sqrt{2}+\sqrt{3}) \qquad \text{(C)}\ 7 \qquad \text{(D)}\ 5\sqrt{2}\qquad \text{(E)}\ 2\sqrt{13}$

Solution

Problem 2

Triangles $ABC$ and $XYZ$ are similar, with $A$ corresponding to $X$ and $B$ to $Y$ . If $AB=3, BC=4$ , and $XY=5$ , then $YZ$ is:

$\text{(A)}\ 3\frac{3}{4} \qquad \text{(B)}\ 6 \qquad \text{(C)}\ 6\frac{1}{4} \qquad \text{(D)}\ 6\frac{2}{3} \qquad \text{(E)}\ 8$

Solution

Problem 3

$[asy] draw((0,0)--(1,0)--(1,4)--(0,4)--(0,0)--(0,1)--(-1,1)--(-1,2)); draw((-1,2)--(0,2)--(0,4)--(-1,4)--(-1,5)--(1,5)--(1,6)--(0,6)); draw((0,6)--(0,5)--(3,5)--(3,6)--(4,6)--(4,2)--(5,2)); draw((5,2)--(5,1)--(1,1)--(3,1)--(3,0)--(4,0)--(4,1)); draw((1,4)--(3,4)--(3,2)--(1,2)--(4,2)--(3,2)--(3,6)); draw((3,6)--(4,6)--(4,5)--(5,5)--(5,4)--(4,4)); [/asy]$

Four rectangular paper strips of length $10$ and width $1$ are put flat on a table and overlap perpendicularly as shown. How much area of the table is covered?

$\text{(A)}\ 36 \qquad \text{(B)}\ 40 \qquad \text{(C)}\ 44 \qquad \text{(D)}\ 98 \qquad \text{(E)}\ 100$

Solution

Problem 4

The slope of the line $\frac{x}{3} + \frac{y}{2} = 1$ is

$\textbf{(A)}\ -\frac{3}{2}\qquad \textbf{(B)}\ -\frac{2}{3}\qquad \textbf{(C)}\ \frac{1}{3}\qquad \textbf{(D)}\ \frac{2}{3}\qquad \textbf{(E)}\ \frac{3}{2}$

Solution

Problem 5

If $b$ and $c$ are constants and $(x + 2)(x + b) = x^2 + cx + 6$ , then $c$ is

$\textbf{(A)}\ -5\qquad \textbf{(B)}\ -3\qquad \textbf{(C)}\ -1\qquad \textbf{(D)}\ 3\qquad \textbf{(E)}\ 5$

Solution

Problem 6

A figure is an equiangular parallelogram if and only if it is a

$\textbf{(A)}\ \text{rectangle}\qquad \textbf{(B)}\ \text{regular polygon}\qquad \textbf{(C)}\ \text{rhombus}\qquad \textbf{(D)}\ \text{square}\qquad \textbf{(E)}\ \text{trapezoid}$

Solution

Problem 7

Estimate the time it takes to send $60$ blocks of data over a communications channel if each block consists of $512$ "chunks" and the channel can transmit $120$ chunks per second.

$\textbf{(A)}\ 0.04 \text{ seconds}\qquad \textbf{(B)}\ 0.4 \text{ seconds}\qquad \textbf{(C)}\ 4 \text{ seconds}\qquad \textbf{(D)}\ 4\text{ minutes}\qquad \textbf{(E)}\ 4\text{ hours}$

Solution

Problem 8

If $\frac{b}{a} = 2$ and $\frac{c}{b} = 3$ , what is the ratio of $a + b$ to $b + c$ ?

$\textbf{(A)}\ \frac{1}{3}\qquad \textbf{(B)}\ \frac{3}{8}\qquad \textbf{(C)}\ \frac{3}{5}\qquad \textbf{(D)}\ \frac{2}{3}\qquad \textbf{(E)}\ \frac{3}{4}$

Solution

Problem 9

$[asy] defaultpen(linewidth(0.7)+fontsize(10)); pair A=(0,0), B=(16,0), C=(16,16), D=(0,16), E=(32,0), F=(48,0), G=(48,16), H=(32,16), I=(0,8), J=(10,8), K=(10,16), L=(32,6), M=(40,6), N=(40,16); draw(A--B--C--D--A^^E--F--G--H--E^^I--J--K^^L--M--N); label("S", (18,8)); label("S", (50,8)); label("Figure 1", (A+B)/2, S); label("Figure 2", (E+F)/2, S); label("10'", (I+J)/2, S); label("8'", (12,12)); label("8'", (L+M)/2, S); label("10'", (42,11)); label("table", (5,12)); label("table", (36,11)); [/asy]$

An $8' \times 10'$ table sits in the corner of a square room, as in Figure $1$ below. The owners desire to move the table to the position shown in Figure $2$ . The side of the room is $S$ feet. What is the smallest integer value of $S$ for which the table can be moved as desired without tilting it or taking it apart?

$\textbf{(A)}\ 11\qquad \textbf{(B)}\ 12\qquad \textbf{(C)}\ 13\qquad \textbf{(D)}\ 14\qquad \textbf{(E)}\ 15$

Solution

Problem 10

In an experiment, a scientific constant $C$ is determined to be $2.43865$ with an error of at most $\pm 0.00312$ . The experimenter wishes to announce a value for $C$ in which every digit is significant. That is, whatever $C$ is, the announced value must be the correct result when $C$ is rounded to that number of digits. The most accurate value the experimenter can announce for $C$ is

$\textbf{(A)}\ 2\qquad \textbf{(B)}\ 2.4\qquad \textbf{(C)}\ 2.43\qquad \textbf{(D)}\ 2.44\qquad \textbf{(E)}\ 2.439$

Solution

Problem 11

$[asy] defaultpen(linewidth(0.7)+fontsize(10)); pair A=(5,0), B=(7,0), C=(10,0), D=(13,0), E=(16,0); pair F=(4,3), G=(5,3), H=(7,3), I=(10,3), J=(12,3); dot(A); dot(B); dot(C); dot(D); dot(E); dot(F); dot(G); dot(H); dot(I); dot(J); draw((0,0)--(18,0)^^(0,3)--(18,3)); draw((0,0)--(0,.5)^^(5,0)--(5,.5)^^(10,0)--(10,.5)^^(15,0)--(15,.5)); draw((0,3)--(0,2.5)^^(5,3)--(5,2.5)^^(10,3)--(10,2.5)^^(15,3)--(15,2.5)); draw((1,0)--(1,.2)^^(2,0)--(2,.2)^^(3,0)--(3,.2)^^(4,0)--(4,.2)^^(6,0)--(6,.2)^^(7,0)--(7,.2)^^(8,0)--(8,.2)^^(9,0)--(9,.2)^^(10,0)--(10,.2)^^(11,0)--(11,.2)^^(12,0)--(12,.2)^^(13,0)--(13,.2)^^(14,0)--(14,.2)^^(16,0)--(16,.2)^^(17,0)--(17,.2)^^(18,0)--(18,.2)); draw((1,3)--(1,2.8)^^(2,3)--(2,2.8)^^(3,3)--(3,2.8)^^(4,3)--(4,2.8)^^(6,3)--(6,2.8)^^(7,3)--(7,2.8)^^(8,3)--(8,2.8)^^(9,3)--(9,2.8)^^(10,3)--(10,2.8)^^(11,3)--(11,2.8)^^(12,3)--(12,2.8)^^(13,3)--(13,2.8)^^(14,3)--(14,2.8)^^(16,3)--(16,2.8)^^(17,3)--(17,2.8)^^(18,3)--(18,2.8)); label("A", A, S); label("B", B, S); label("C", C, S); label("D", D, S); label("E", E, S); label("A", F, N); label("B", G, N); label("C", H, N); label("D", I, N); label("E", J, N); label("1970", (0,3), W); label("1980", (0,0), W); label("0", (0,1.5)); label("50", (5,1.5)); label("100", (10,1.5)); label("150", (15,1.5)); label("Population in thousands", (9,-3)); [/asy]$

On each horizontal line in the figure below, the five large dots indicate the populations of cities $A, B, C, D$ and $E$ in the year indicated. Which city had the greatest percentage increase in population from $1970$ to $1980$ ?

$\textbf{(A)}\ A\qquad \textbf{(B)}\ B\qquad \textbf{(C)}\ C\qquad \textbf{(D)}\ D\qquad \textbf{(E)}\ E$

Solution

Problem 12

Each integer $1$ through $9$ is written on a separate slip of paper and all nine slips are put into a hat. Jack picks one of these slips at random and puts it back. Then Jill picks a slip at random. Which digit is most likely to be the units digit of the sum of Jack's integer and Jill's integer?

$\textbf{(A)}\ 0\qquad \textbf{(B)}\ 1\qquad \textbf{(C)}\ 8\qquad \textbf{(D)}\ 9\qquad \textbf{(E)}\ \text{each digit is equally likely}$

Solution

Problem 13

If $\sin(x)= 3\cos(x)$ then what is $\sin(x) \cdot \cos(x)$ ?

$\textbf{(A)}\ \frac{1}{6}\qquad \textbf{(B)}\ \frac{1}{5}\qquad \textbf{(C)}\ \frac{2}{9}\qquad \textbf{(D)}\ \frac{1}{4}\qquad \textbf{(E)}\ \frac{3}{10}$

Solution

Problem 14

For any real number a and positive integer k, define

${a \choose k} = \frac{a(a-1)(a-2)\cdots(a-(k-1))}{k(k-1)(k-2)\cdots(2)(1)}$

What is

${-\frac{1}{2} \choose 100} \div {\frac{1}{2} \choose 100}$ ?

$\textbf{(A)}\ -199\qquad \textbf{(B)}\ -197\qquad \textbf{(C)}\ -1\qquad \textbf{(D)}\ 197\qquad \textbf{(E)}\ 199$

Solution

Problem 15

If $a$ and $b$ are integers such that $x^2 - x - 1$ is a factor of $ax^3 + bx^2 + 1$ , then $b$ is

$\textbf{(A)}\ -2\qquad \textbf{(B)}\ -1\qquad \textbf{(C)}\ 0\qquad \textbf{(D)}\ 1\qquad \textbf{(E)}\ 2$

Solution

Problem 16

$[asy] defaultpen(linewidth(0.7)+fontsize(10)); pair H=origin, B=(1,-(1/sqrt(3))), C=(-1,-(1/sqrt(3))), A=(0,(2/sqrt(3))), E=(2,-(2/sqrt(3))), F=(-2,-(2/sqrt(3))), D=(0,(4/sqrt(3))); draw(A--B--C--A^^D--E--F--D); label("A'", A, N); label("B'", B, SE); label("C'", C, SW); label("A", D, E); label("B", E, E); label("C", F, W); [/asy]$

$ABC$ and $A'B'C'$ are equilateral triangles with parallel sides and the same center, as in the figure. The distance between side $BC$ and side $B'C'$ is $\frac{1}{6}$ the altitude of $\triangle ABC$ . The ratio of the area of $\triangle A'B'C'$ to the area of $\triangle ABC$ is

$\textbf{(A)}\ \frac{1}{36}\qquad \textbf{(B)}\ \frac{1}{6}\qquad \textbf{(C)}\ \frac{1}{4}\qquad \textbf{(D)}\ \frac{\sqrt{3}}{4}\qquad \textbf{(E)}\ \frac{9+8\sqrt{3}}{36}$

Solution

Problem 17

If $|x| + x + y = 10$ and $x + |y| - y = 12$ , find $x + y$

$\textbf{(A)}\ -2\qquad \textbf{(B)}\ 2\qquad \textbf{(C)}\ \frac{18}{5}\qquad \textbf{(D)}\ \frac{22}{3}\qquad \textbf{(E)}\ 22$

Solution

Problem 18

At the end of a professional bowling tournament, the top 5 bowlers have a playoff. First #5 bowls #4. The loser receives $5$ th prize and the winner bowls #3 in another game. The loser of this game receives $4$ th prize and the winner bowls #2. The loser of this game receives $3$ rd prize and the winner bowls #1. The winner of this game gets 1st prize and the loser gets 2nd prize. In how many orders can bowlers #1 through #5 receive the prizes?

$\textbf{(A)}\ 10\qquad \textbf{(B)}\ 16\qquad \textbf{(C)}\ 24\qquad \textbf{(D)}\ 120\qquad \textbf{(E)}\ \text{none of these}$

Solution

Problem 19

Simplify

$\frac{bx(a^2x^2 + 2a^2y^2 + b^2y^2) + ay(a^2x^2 + 2b^2x^2 + b^2y^2)}{bx + ay}$

$\textbf{(A)}\ a^2x^2 + b^2y^2\qquad \textbf{(B)}\ (ax + by)^2\qquad \textbf{(C)}\ (ax + by)(bx + ay)\qquad\\ \textbf{(D)}\ 2(a^2x^2+b^2y^2)\qquad \textbf{(E)}\ (bx+ay)^2$

Solution

Problem 20

In one of the adjoining figures a square of side $2$ is dissected into four pieces so that $E$ and $F$ are the midpoints of opposite sides and $AG$ is perpendicular to $BF$ . These four pieces can then be reassembled into a rectangle as shown in the second figure. The ratio of height to base, $XY / YZ$ , in this rectangle is

$[asy] defaultpen(linewidth(0.7)+fontsize(10)); pair A=(0,1), B=(0,-1), C=(2,-1), D=(2,1), E=(1,-1), F=(1,1), G=(.8,.6); pair X=(4,sqrt(5)), Y=(4,-sqrt(5)), Z=(4+2/sqrt(5),-sqrt(5)), W=(4+2/sqrt(5),sqrt(5)), T=(4,0), U=(4+2/sqrt(5),-4/sqrt(5)), V=(4+2/sqrt(5),1/sqrt(5)); draw(A--B--C--D--A^^B--F^^E--D^^A--G^^rightanglemark(A,G,F)); draw(X--Y--Z--W--X^^T--V--X^^Y--U); label("A", A, NW); label("B", B, SW); label("C", C, SE); label("D", D, NE); label("E", E, S); label("F", F, N); label("G", G, E); label("X", X, NW); label("Y", Y, SW); label("Z", Z, SE); label("W", W, NE); [/asy]$

$\textbf{(A)}\ 4\qquad \textbf{(B)}\ 1+2\sqrt{3}\qquad \textbf{(C)}\ 2\sqrt{5}\qquad \textbf{(D)}\ \frac{8+4\sqrt{3}}{3}\qquad \textbf{(E)}\ 5$

Solution

Problem 21

The complex number $z$ satisfies $z + |z| = 2 + 8i$ . What is $|z|^{2}$ ? Note: if $z = a + bi$ , then $|z| = \sqrt{a^{2} + b^{2}}$ .

$\textbf{(A)}\ 68\qquad \textbf{(B)}\ 100\qquad \textbf{(C)}\ 169\qquad \textbf{(D)}\ 208\qquad \textbf{(E)}\ 289$

Solution

Problem 22

For how many integers $x$ does a triangle with side lengths $10, 24$ and $x$ have all its angles acute?

$\textbf{(A)}\ 4\qquad \textbf{(B)}\ 5\qquad \textbf{(C)}\ 6\qquad \textbf{(D)}\ 7\qquad \textbf{(E)}\ \text{more than } 7$

Solution

Problem 23

The six edges of a tetrahedron $ABCD$ measure $7, 13, 18, 27, 36$ and $41$ units. If the length of edge $AB$ is $41$ , then the length of edge $CD$ is

$\textbf{(A)}\ 7\qquad \textbf{(B)}\ 13\qquad \textbf{(C)}\ 18\qquad \textbf{(D)}\ 27\qquad \textbf{(E)}\ 36$

Solution

Problem 24

An isosceles trapezoid is circumscribed around a circle. The longer base of the trapezoid is $16$ , and one of the base angles is $\arcsin(.8)$ . Find the area of the trapezoid.

$\textbf{(A)}\ 72\qquad \textbf{(B)}\ 75\qquad \textbf{(C)}\ 80\qquad \textbf{(D)}\ 90\qquad \textbf{(E)}\ \text{not uniquely determined}$

Solution

Problem 25

$X, Y$ and $Z$ are pairwise disjoint sets of people. The average ages of people in the sets $X, Y, Z, X \cup Y, X \cup Z$ and $Y \cup Z$ are $37, 23, 41, 29, 39.5$ and $33$ respectively. Find the average age of the people in set $X \cup Y \cup Z$ .

$\textbf{(A)}\ 33\qquad \textbf{(B)}\ 33.5\qquad \textbf{(C)}\ 33.6\overline{6}\qquad \textbf{(D)}\ 33.83\overline{3}\qquad \textbf{(E)}\ 34$

Solution

Problem 26

Suppose that $p$ and $q$ are positive numbers for which

$\log_{9}(p) = \log_{12}(q) = \log_{16}(p+q)$

What is the value of $\frac{q}{p}$ ?

$\textbf{(A)}\ \frac{4}{3}\qquad \textbf{(B)}\ \frac{1+\sqrt{3}}{2}\qquad \textbf{(C)}\ \frac{8}{5}\qquad \textbf{(D)}\ \frac{1+\sqrt{5}}{2}\qquad \textbf{(E)}\ \frac{16}{9}$

Solution

Problem 27

In the figure, $AB \perp BC, BC \perp CD$ , and $BC$ is tangent to the circle with center $O$ and diameter $AD$ . In which one of the following cases is the area of $ABCD$ an integer?

$[asy] defaultpen(fontsize(10pt)+linewidth(.8pt)); pair O=origin, A=(-1/sqrt(2),1/sqrt(2)), B=(-1/sqrt(2),-1), C=(1/sqrt(2),-1), D=(1/sqrt(2),-1/sqrt(2)); draw(unitcircle); dot(O); draw(A--B--C--D--A); label("$A$",A,dir(A)); label("$B$",B,dir(B)); label("$C$",C,dir(C)); label("$D$",D,dir(D)); label("$O$",O,N); [/asy]$

$\textbf{(A)}\ AB=3, CD=1\qquad \textbf{(B)}\ AB=5, CD=2\qquad \textbf{(C)}\ AB=7, CD=3\qquad\\ \textbf{(D)}\ AB=9, CD=4\qquad \textbf{(E)}\ AB=11, CD=5$

Solution

Problem 28

An unfair coin has probability $p$ of coming up heads on a single toss. Let $w$ be the probability that, in $5$ independent toss of this coin, heads come up exactly $3$ times. If $w = 144 / 625$ , then

$\textbf{(A)}\ p\text{ must be }\tfrac{2}{5}\qquad \textbf{(B)}\ p\text{ must be }\tfrac{3}{5}\qquad\\ \textbf{(C)}\ p\text{ must be greater than }\tfrac{3}{5}\qquad \textbf{(D)}\ p\text{ is not uniquely determined}\qquad\\ \textbf{(E)}\ \text{there is no value of } p \text{ for which }w =\tfrac{144}{625}$

Solution

Problem 29

You plot weight $(y)$ against height $(x)$ for three of your friends and obtain the points $(x_{1},y_{1}), (x_{2},y_{2}), (x_{3},y_{3})$ . If $x_{1} < x_{2} < x_{3}$ and $x_{3} - x_{2} = x_{2} - x_{1}$ , which of the following is necessarily the slope of the line which best fits the data? "Best fits" means that the sum of the squares of the vertical distances from the data points to the line is smaller than for any other line.

$\textbf{(A)}\ \frac{y_{3}-y_{1}}{x_{3}-x_{1}}\qquad \textbf{(B)}\ \frac{(y_{2}-y_{1})-(y_{3}-y_{2})}{x_{3}-x_{1}}\qquad\\ \textbf{(C)}\ \frac{2y_{3}-y_{1}-y_{2}}{2x_{3}-x_{1}-x_{2}}\qquad \textbf{(D)}\ \frac{y_{2}-y_{1}}{x_{2}-x_{1}}+\frac{y_{3}-y_{2}}{x_{3}-x_{2}}\qquad\\ \textbf{(E)}\ \text{none of these}$

Solution

Problem 30

Let $f(x) = 4x - x^{2}$ . Give $x_{0}$ , consider the sequence defined by $x_{n} = f(x_{n-1})$ for all $n \ge 1$ . For how many real numbers $x_{0}$ will the sequence $x_{0}, x_{1}, x_{2}, \ldots$ take on only a finite number of different values?

$\textbf{(A)}\ \text{0}\qquad \textbf{(B)}\ \text{1 or 2}\qquad \textbf{(C)}\ \text{3, 4, 5 or 6}\qquad\\ \textbf{(D)}\ \text{more than 6 but finitely many}\qquad\\ \textbf{(E) }\infty$

Solution

1988 AHSME (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by 1987 AHSME	Followed by 1989 AHSME
1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17 • 18 • 19 • 20 • 21 • 22 • 23 • 24 • 25 • 26 • 27 • 28 • 29 • 30
All AHSME Problems and Solutions

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1988 AHSME Problems

Contents

Problem 1

Problem 2

Problem 3

Problem 4

Problem 5

Problem 6

Problem 7

Problem 8

Problem 9

Problem 10

Problem 11

Problem 12

Problem 13

Problem 14

Problem 15

Problem 16

Problem 17

Problem 18

Problem 19

Problem 20

Problem 21

Problem 22

Problem 23

Problem 24

Problem 25

Problem 26

Problem 27

Problem 28

Problem 29

Problem 30

See also