2009 AMC 12A Problems

Problem 1

Solution

Problem 2

Solution

Problem 3

Solution

Problem 4

Solution

Problem 5

Solution

Problem 6

Solution

Problem 7

Solution

Problem 8

Solution

Problem 9

Solution

Problem 10

Solution

Problem 11

Solution

Problem 12

Solution

Problem 13

Solution

Problem 14

Solution

Problem 15

For what value of $n$ is $i + 2i^2 + 3i^3 + \cdots + ni^n = 48 + 49i$ ?

Note: here $i = \sqrt { - 1}$ .

$\textbf{(A)}\ 24 \qquad \textbf{(B)}\ 48 \qquad \textbf{(C)}\ 49 \qquad \textbf{(D)}\ 97 \qquad \textbf{(E)}\ 98$

Solution

Problem 16

A circle with center $C$ is tangent to the positive $x$ and $y$ -axes and externally tangent to the circle centered at $(3,0)$ with radius $1$ . What is the sum of all possible radii of the circle with center $C$ ?

$\textbf{(A)}\ 3 \qquad \textbf{(B)}\ 4 \qquad \textbf{(C)}\ 6 \qquad \textbf{(D)}\ 8 \qquad \textbf{(E)}\ 9$

Solution

Problem 17

Let $a + ar_1 + ar_1^2 + ar_1^3 + \cdots$ and $a + ar_2 + ar_2^2 + ar_2^3 + \cdots$ be two different infinite geometric series of positive numbers with the same first term. The sum of the first series is $r_1$ , and the sum of the second series is $r_2$ . What is $r_1 + r_2$ ?

$\textbf{(A)}\ 0\qquad \textbf{(B)}\ \frac {1}{2}\qquad \textbf{(C)}\ 1\qquad \textbf{(D)}\ \frac {1 + \sqrt {5}}{2}\qquad \textbf{(E)}\ 2$

Solution

Problem 18

For $k > 0$ , let $I_k = 10\ldots 064$ , where there are $k$ zeros between the $1$ and the $6$ . Let $N(k)$ be the number of factors of $2$ in the prime factorization of $I_k$ . What is the maximum value of $N(k)$ ?

$\textbf{(A)}\ 6\qquad \textbf{(B)}\ 7\qquad \textbf{(C)}\ 8\qquad \textbf{(D)}\ 9\qquad \textbf{(E)}\ 10$

Solution

Problem 19

Andrea inscribed a circle inside a regular pentagon, circumscribed a circle around the pentagon, and calculated the area of the region between the two circles. Bethany did the same with a regular heptagon (7 sides). The areas of the two regions were $A$ and $B$ , respectively. Each polygon had a side length of $2$ . Which of the following is true?

$\textbf{(A)}\ A = \frac {25}{49}B\qquad \textbf{(B)}\ A = \frac {5}{7}B\qquad \textbf{(C)}\ A = B\qquad \textbf{(D)}\ A$ $= \frac {7}{5}B\qquad \textbf{(E)}\ A = \frac {49}{25}B$

Solution

Problem 20

Convex quadrilateral $ABCD$ has $AB = 9$ and $CD = 12$ . Diagonals $AC$ and $BD$ intersect at $E$ , $AC = 14$ , and $\triangle AED$ and $\triangle BEC$ have equal areas. What is $AE$ ?

$\textbf{(A)}\ \frac {9}{2}\qquad \textbf{(B)}\ \frac {50}{11}\qquad \textbf{(C)}\ \frac {21}{4}\qquad \textbf{(D)}\ \frac {17}{3}\qquad \textbf{(E)}\ 6$

Solution

Problem 21

Let $p(x) = x^3 + ax^2 + bx + c$ , where $a$ , $b$ , and $c$ are complex numbers. Suppose that

$p(2009 + 9002\pi i) = p(2009) = p(9002) = 0$

What is the number of nonreal zeros of $x^{12} + ax^8 + bx^4 + c$ ?

$\textbf{(A)}\ 4\qquad \textbf{(B)}\ 6\qquad \textbf{(C)}\ 8\qquad \textbf{(D)}\ 10\qquad \textbf{(E)}\ 12$

Solution

Problem 22

A regular octahedron has side length $1$ . A plane parallel to two of its opposite faces cuts the octahedron into the two congruent solids. The polygon formed by the intersection of the plane and the octahedron has area $\frac {a\sqrt {b}}{c}$ , where $a$ , $b$ , and $c$ are positive integers, $a$ and $c$ are relatively prime, and $b$ is not divisible by the square of any prime. What is $a + b + c$ ?

$\textbf{(A)}\ 10\qquad \textbf{(B)}\ 11\qquad \textbf{(C)}\ 12\qquad \textbf{(D)}\ 13\qquad \textbf{(E)}\ 14$

Solution

Problem 23

Functions $f$ and $g$ are quadratic, $g(x) = - f(100 - x)$ , and the graph of $g$ contains the vertex of the graph of $f$ . The four $x$ -intercepts on the two graphs have $x$ -coordinates $x_1$ , $x_2$ , $x_3$ , and $x_4$ , in increasing order, and $x_3 - x_2 = 150$ . The value of $x_4 - x_1$ is $m + n\sqrt p$ , where $m$ , $n$ , and $p$ are positive integers, and $p$ is not divisible by the square of any prime. What is $m + n + p$ ?

$\textbf{(A)}\ 602\qquad \textbf{(B)}\ 652\qquad \textbf{(C)}\ 702\qquad \boxed{\textbf{(D)}\ 752}\qquad \textbf{(E)}\ 802$

Solution

Problem 24

The tower function of twos is defined recursively as follows: $T(1) = 2$ and $T(n + 1) = 2^{T(n)}$ for $n\ge1$ . Let $A = (T(2009))^{T(2009)}$ and $B = (T(2009))^A$ . What is the largest integer $k$ such that