EXTRA CHALLENGES – SET VIII

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Education in Mathematics and Computing, University of Waterloo.

Answers:

1. The number of students who play piano is 80% of 30  0.8  30  24.

12 1
Of these,  or 50% of the piano players also play guitar.
24 2

2. The shaded area contains the odd multiples of 9 from 1 to 65. These are the numbers 9, 27,
45, and 63.

3. Here is a list of the first few positive numbers n, and their squares, n2:

n 1 2 3 4 5 6 ...
n2 1 4 9 16 25 36 ...
Difference 3 5 7 9 11 ...

To satisfy the equation x 2  y 2  5 , we need two squares, x2 and y2, with a

x y difference of 5. The only possibility is x 2  9 and y 2  4 .
3 2
2 When x 2  9 , x  3 or x   3.
3 2 For x  3, y 2  4 so y  2 or y   2.
2
For x   3, y 2  4 so y  2 or y   2.
Therefore, the ordered pairs that satisfy the equation x 2  y 2  5 are
(3, 2), (3,  2), (3, 2), and ( 3,  2).

4. Let g represent the grandmother’s age in years. Two equations we are given include:
Let m represent the mother’s age in years. 1. g  (d  1)3
Let d represent the daughter’s age in years. present age
2. m  d 3

Since g  (d  1)3 , the daughter is at most 3 years old because if she were 4 years old, the
grandmother would be (4  1)3  125 years old, which is beyond the range of a human
lifespan.

For more activities and resources from the University of Waterloo’s Faculty of Mathematics, please visit www.cemc.uwaterloo.ca.
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 EXTRA CHALLENGES – SET VIII
This resource may be copied in its entirety, but is not to be used for commercial purposes without permission from the Centre for
Education in Mathematics and Computing, University of Waterloo.

Based on the above two equations, we have the following table of possible present ages:

Ages
Case 1 Case 2 Case 3
Daughter 1 2 3
Mother 1 8 27
Grandmother 8 27 64

Obviously, Case 1, such that the daughter and mother are the same age, is impossible.
In Case 2, the grandmother had the birth of her daughter at 27  8  19 years old.
In Case 3, the grandmother had the birth of her daughter at 64  27  37 years old.
We know that the grandmother had the birth of her daughter in her 30’s.

Thus, Case 3 satisfies the given information and the present age of the grandmother is 64, the
present age of the mother is 27 years old and the daughter is 3 years old.

5. AB, CD and EF are sides of the squares so they are each 2 cm.
Now, we must find the length of sides BC, DE and FA.

Let’s find the length of FA. First, we can find AGF .

We know that the sum of all angles surrounding the
point G is 360°. AGH and FGI are each 90° since
they are interior angles of squares. Since HGI is an
equilateral triangle, HGI is 60°.
Thus, AGF  90  90  60  360
AGF  240  360
AGF  120

If we let M be the midpoint of AF, GM bisects AGF

d because AGF is isosceles.
Thus MGF  60. We can use our 30°-60°-90° special triangle to show that MF  3 cm.
Then, FA is 3  3  2 3 cm.

Similarly, since we can determine BHC  DIE  AGF  120 and

AG  GF  BH  CH  DI  EI , we can prove that BHC, DIE and AGF are congruent.
Thus, AF  BC  DE  2 3 cm.
Therefore, the perimeter of ABCDEF is 2  2  2  2 3  2 3  2 3
 6  6 3 cm.
For more activities and resources from the University of Waterloo’s Faculty of Mathematics, please visit www.cemc.uwaterloo.ca.
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