1990 AJHSME Problems/Problem 7

Problem

When three different numbers from the set $\{ -3, -2, -1, 4, 5 \}$ are multiplied, the largest possible product is

$\text{(A)}\ 10 \qquad \text{(B)}\ 20 \qquad \text{(C)}\ 30 \qquad \text{(D)}\ 40 \qquad \text{(E)}\ 60$

Solution

First we try for a positive product, meaning we either pick three positive numbers or one positive number and two negative numbers.

It is clearly impossible to pick three positive numbers. If we try the second case, we want to pick the numbers with the largest absolute values, so we choose $5$ , $-3$ and $-2$ . Their product is $30\rightarrow \boxed{\text{C}}$ .

1990 AJHSME (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 6	Followed by Problem 8
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All AJHSME/AMC 8 Problems and Solutions

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1990 AJHSME Problems/Problem 7

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