Online Math League

A Division of AcademicLeagues.com
Advanced Algebra Sample Contest
Student Name
Date
Rules: You have 30 minutes to complete the test. You must work independently.
Calculators and reference tools are not permitted. Each problem has exactly
one correct answer.
1. Which of the following points lies on the graph of x2 + 3y 2 = 36?
A. (12, 24)

B. (3, 3)

C. (0, 6)

D. (1, 5)

E. (4, 4)

2. If a is a positive irrational number, what type of number is

a?

A. an integer
B. rational
C. irrational
D. imaginary
E. Cannot be determined from the given information
3. Suppose all the points on the graph of f (x) = ax2 + bx + c have positive
y-coordinates. Then a must be:
A. less than zero

B. less than or equal to zero

C. greater than or equal to zero

D. greater than zero

E. not enough information is given to determine

4. For which of the following x-values is |x| > x2 ?
A. 2

B. 21

C. 0

D. 1

E. 3

5. Simplify the following expression: (x + 2)(x2 + 4)(x4 + 16)(x 2) + 256

A. x8 + 256x4 + 128x2
D. x8 + 2x2

B. x8 + 256x4
E. x8

C. x8 256x4

6. A checkerboard is an eight-by-eight square grid. Thus there is exactly one

8 8 square on a checkerboard (the largest square on the board), and
there are exactly sixty-four 1 1 squares on a checkerboard (the smallest
squares on the board). Adding up all the squares of all the possible sizes,
how many squares are there on a checkerboard?
A. 128

B. 184

C. 204

7. The next number in the sequence

A.

1
3

B.

2
3

27 9
4 , 2 , 3, 2

C. 1

D. 256

E. 408

is:
D.

4
3

E. 2

1
x2 2x+1

8. Assuming x 6= 1, simplify
A.

1
x2 2x+1

B.

1
x2 2x+1

C.

1
x1 :

x
x2 2x+1

x
D. x2 2x+1

x2
x2 2x+1

E.

9. Water is being poured into a cylindrical container at a rate of 50 cm3

per minute. The container has a base radius of 5 cm and a height of 20
cm. If the container starts out empty, what fraction of its volume will be
full of water after 3 minutes?
A.

3
50

B.

3
25

C.

3
20

D.

3
10

E.

3
5

10. Suppose the line y = mx 4 intersects the line y = 3x at (2, 6). What
is the value of m?
A. 6

B. 5

C. 2

D. 5

E. 10

11. Suppose c is the average (mean) of a and e, d is the average of c and e,

and b is the average of a and d. In terms of a and e, b equals

A. 21 (a + e)

B. 83 (a + e)

C. 58 (a + e)

D. 18 (5a + 3e)

E. 81 (3a + 5e)

12. A circle centered on the origin with radius 6 intersects the graph of the
line y = x in two points. The x-coordinate of one of those points is:
A.

B. 2

C. 2 3

E. 3 2

D. 3

13. Suppose you take a well-shuffled standard 52-card deck (no jokers) and
draw three cards at once. What is the probability that all three cards are
the same suit?
A.

131211
525150

B.

1211
5150

C. 4

1211
5150

D. 3

1211
5150

E. 3

1
4

14. What is the sum of all the rational solutions to 4x = 4x?

A. 0

B. 1

C.

3
2

D. 3

E. 4

15. Suppose C1 and C2 are circles that have exactly one intersection point and
share no interior points. If the area of C1 minus the area of C2 is 144,
and the radius of C1 minus the radius of C2 is 8, what is the distance from
the center of C1 to the center of C2 ?
A. 5

B. 8

C. 12

D. 18

E. 25

Online Math League

Advanced Algebra Sample Contest
Answers
1. B
2. C
3. D

4. B
5. E
6. C

7. D
8. C
9. D

10. B
11. D
12. E

13. B
14. C
15. D

Explanations for some of the more difficult questions:

5. Hint for easy simplification: At each stage, multiply the factors that look
most alike. (x + 2) and (x 2) have a product of (x2 4), which can then be
multiplied by (x2 + 4), etc.
6. Drawing careful diagrams, we can see that there is one possible 8 8 square;
there are 4 possible 7 7 squares; there are 9 possible 6 6 squares; etc. all the
way down to the 64 possible 1 1 squares. Summing all the square numbers 1
through 64 gives us an answer of 204.
7. Each number in this sequence is

2
3

of the previous number.

2
3

of 2 is 34 .

10. Since the point (2, 6) lies on both lines, we have 6 = m(2) 4 and
6 = 3(2). So 2m 4 = 6. Thus m = 5.
a+e

+e

a+3e

+a

2
4
11. Taking succesive averages: c = a+e
= a+3e
=
2 , so d =
2
4 , so b =
2
5a+3e
.
You
can
also
solve
this
problem
by
picking
specific
values
for
a
and
e,
8
calculating c, d, and b, then seeing which of the answer choices matches the
result. (A convenient choice of values is a = 1, e = 9.)

12. The equation of the circle is x2 + y 2 = 36. To find where the circle intersects
the line y = x, we can substitute
y for xin this equation, yielding x2 + x2 = 36.

Solving, we have x = 18, or x = 3 2.

13. Your chance of drawing three cards of the same suit is the same whatever
the identity of the first card you draw. Once youve drawn that first card, there
are 51 possibilities for the next card, out of which 12 will match the suit of your
first card. If your first two cards match suit, there are 50 possibilities for the
final card, out of which 11 will match the suit of your first two cards. So the
12 11
50 .
probability of drawing three cards of the same suit is 51
14. The two solutions to the equation are x =

1
2

and x = 1.

15. Let r be the radius of C2 . Then the radius of C1 is r + 8. We therefore have

(r+8)2 r2 = 144, which yields r = 5. So the radius of C2 is 5 and the radius
of C1 is 13. The distance from the center of C1 to the center of C2 is 5+13 = 18.