Practice (20)

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Chad has $100$ cookies that he wants to distribute among four friends. Two of them, Jeff and Qiao, are rivals; neither wants the other to receive more cookies than they do. The other two, Jim and Townley, don't care about how many cookies they receive. In how many ways can Chad distribute all $100$ cookies to his four friends so that everyone is satisfied? (Some of his four friends may receive zero cookies.)

Let $a$, $b$, and $c$ form a geometric sequence. Can the last two digits of $N=a^3+b^3+c^3-3abc$ be 20?

What is the maximum value of $n$ for which there is a set of distinct positive integers $k_1$, $k_2$, $\dots$ , $k_n$ for which $$k_1^2 + k_2^2 + \cdots +k_n^2 = 2002$$

A sequence of three real numbers forms an arithmetic progression with a first term of 9. If 2 is added to the second term and 20 is added to the third term, the three resulting numbers form a geometric progression. What is the smallest possible value for the third term of the geometric progression?

The sum of $n$ consecutive positive integers is 100. What is the greatest possible value of $n$?

On her first day of work, Janabel sold one widget. On day two, she sold three widgets. On day three, she sold five widgets, and on each succeeding day, she sold two more widgets than she had sold on the previous day. How many widgets in total had Janabel sold after working $20$ days?

Which of the following integers cannot be written as the sum of four consecutive odd integers?

An arithmetic sequence is a sequence in which each term after the first is obtained by adding a constant to the previous term. For example, $2,5,8,11,14$ is an arithmetic sequence with five terms, in which the first term is $2$ and the constant added is $3$. Each row and each column in this $5\times5$ array is an arithmetic sequence with five terms. What is the value of $X$?

If the $5^{th}$, $6^{th}$ and $7^{th}$ coefficients in the expansion of $(x^{-\frac{4}{3}}+x)^n$ form an arithmetic sequence, find the constant term in the expanded form.


Suppose that $a$ and $b$ are digits, not both nine and not both zero, and the repeating decimal $0.\overline{ab}$ is expressed as a fraction in lowest terms. How many different denominators are possible?

Let $A_n$ be the average of all the integers between 1 and 101 which are the multiples of $n$ . Which is the largest among $A_2, A_3, A_4, A_5$ and $A_6$?

The sum of 2008 consecutive positive integers is a perfect square. What is the minimum value of the largest of these integers?

A large equilateral triangle is constructed by using toothpicks to create rows of small equilateral triangles. For example, in the figure we have $3$ rows of small congruent equilateral triangles, with $5$ small triangles in the base row. How many toothpicks would be needed to construct a large equilateral triangle if the base row of the triangle consists of $2003$ small equilateral triangles?


A triangular array of $2016$ coins has $1$ coin in the first row, $2$ coins in the second row, $3$ coins in the third row, and so on up to $N$ coins in the $N$th row. What is the sum of the digits of $N$?

The sum of an infinite geometric series is a positive number $S$, and the second term in the series is $1$. What is the smallest possible value of $S?$

An infinite number of equilateral triangles are constructed as shown on the right. Each inner triangle is inscribed in its immediate outsider and is shifted by a constant angle $\beta$. If the area of the biggest triangle equals to the sum of areas of all the other triangles, find the value of $\beta$ in terms of degrees.


For $-1 < r < 1$, let $S(r)$ denote the sum of the geometric series $$12+12r+12r^2+12r^3+\cdots .$$Let $a$ between $-1$ and $1$ satisfy $S(a)S(-a)=2016$. Find $S(a)+S(-a)$.

A strictly increasing sequence of positive integers $a_1$, $a_2$, $a_3$, $\cdots$ has the property that for every positive integer $k$, the subsequence $a_{2k-1}$, $a_{2k}$, $a_{2k+1}$ is geometric and the subsequence $a_{2k}$, $a_{2k+1}$, $a_{2k+2}$ is arithmetic. Suppose that $a_{13} = 2016$. Find $a_1$.

Initially Alex, Betty, and Charlie had a total of $444$ peanuts. Charlie had the most peanuts, and Alex had the least. The three numbers of peanuts that each person had formed a geometric progression. Alex eats $5$ of his peanuts, Betty eats $9$ of her peanuts, and Charlie eats $25$ of his peanuts. Now the three numbers of peanuts each person has forms an arithmetic progression. Find the number of peanuts Alex had initially.

Triangle $ABC_0$ has a right angle at $C_0$. Its side lengths are pariwise relatively prime positive integers, and its perimeter is $p$. Let $C_1$ be the foot of the altitude to $\overline{AB}$, and for $n \geq 2$, let $C_n$ be the foot of the altitude to $\overline{C_{n-2}B}$ in $\triangle C_{n-2}C_{n-1}B$. The sum $\sum_{i=1}^\infty C_{n-2}C_{n-1} = 6p$. Find $p$.

For each positive integer $n$, $a_n = 9n + 2$ and $b_n = 7n + 3$. If the values common to both sequences are written as a sequence, the $n^{th}$ term of that sequence can be expressed as $pn + q$. What is the value of $p − q$?

Let the sum of first $n$ terms of arithmetic sequence $\{a_n\}$ be $S_n$, and the sum of first $n$ terms of arithmetic sequence $\{b_n\}$ be $T_n$. If $\frac{S_n}{T_n}=\frac{2n}{3n+7}$, compute the value of $\frac{a_8}{b_6}$.

Suppose every term in the sequence $$1, 2, 1, 2, 2, 2, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 1, \cdots$$ is either $1$ or $2$. If there are exactly $(2k-1)$ twos between the $k^{th}$ one and the $(k+1)^{th}$ one, find the sum of its first $2014$ terms.

Let $c_1, c_2, c_3, \cdots$ be a series of concentric circles whose radii form a geometric sequence with common ratio as $r$. Suppose the areas of rings which are formed by two adjacent circles are $S_1, S_2, S_3, \cdots$. Which statement below is correct regarding the sequence $\{S_n\}$? A) It is not a geometric sequence B) It is a geometric sequence and its common ratio is $r$ C) It is a geometric sequence and its common ratio is $r^2$ D) It is a geometric sequence and its common ratio is $r^2-1$

Given the sequence $\{a_n\}$ satisfies $a_n+a_m=a_{n+m}$ for any positive integers $n$ and $m$. Suppose $a_1=\frac{1}{2013}$. Find the sum of its first $2013$ terms.