Practice (TheColoringMethod)

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A group of $12$ pirates agree to divide a treasure chest of gold coins among themselves as follows. The $k^{\text{th}}$ pirate to take a share takes $\frac{k}{12}$ of the coins that remain in the chest. The number of coins initially in the chest is the smallest number for which this arrangement will allow each pirate to receive a positive whole number of coins. How many coins does the $12^{\text{th}}$ pirate receive?

Six spheres of radius $1$ are positioned so that their centers are at the vertices of a regular hexagon of side length $2$. The six spheres are internally tangent to a larger sphere whose center is the center of the hexagon. An eighth sphere is externally tangent to the six smaller spheres and internally tangent to the larger sphere. What is the radius of this eighth sphere?

In $\triangle ABC$, $AB = 86$, and $AC=97$. A circle with center $A$ and radius $AB$ intersects $\overline{BC}$ at points $B$ and $X$. Moreover $\overline{BX}$ and $\overline{CX}$ have integer lengths. What is $BC$?

Central High School is competing against Northern High School in a backgammon match. Each school has three players, and the contest rules require that each player play two games against each of the other school's players. The match takes place in six rounds, with three games played simultaneously in each round. In how many different ways can the match be scheduled?

All 20 diagonals are drawn in a regular octagon. At how many distinct points in the interior of the octagon (not on the boundary) do two or more diagonals intersect?

What is $\frac{2+4+6}{1+3+5} - \frac{1+3+5}{2+4+6}$?

Mr. Green measures his rectangular garden by walking two of the sides and finds that it is $15$ steps by $20$ steps. Each of Mr. Green's steps is $2$ feet long. Mr. Green expects a half a pound of potatoes per square foot from his garden. How many pounds of potatoes does Mr. Green expect from his garden?

On a particular January day, the high temperature in Lincoln, Nebraska, was $16$ degrees higher than the low temperature, and the average of the high and low temperatures was $3$ degree. In degrees, what was the low temperature in Lincoln that day?

When counting from $3$ to $201$, $53$ is the $51^{st}$ number counted. When counting backwards from $201$ to $3$, $53$ is the $n^{th}$ number counted. What is $n$?

Positive integers $a$ and $b$ are each less than $6$. What is the smallest possible value for $2 \cdot a - a \cdot b$?

The average age of $33$ fifth-graders is $11$. The average age of $55$ of their parents is $33$. What is the average age of all of these parents and fifth-graders?

Six points are equally spaced around a circle of radius 1. Three of these points are the vertices of a triangle that is neither equilateral nor isosceles. What is the area of this triangle?

Ray's car averages $40$ miles per gallon of gasoline, and Tom's car averages $10$ miles per gallon of gasoline. Ray and Tom each drive the same number of miles. What is the cars' combined rate of miles per gallon of gasoline?

Three positive integers are each greater than $1$, have a product of $27000$, and are pairwise relatively prime. What is their sum?

A basketball team's players were successful on 50% of their two-point shots and 40% of their three-point shots, which resulted in 54 points. They attempted 50% more two-point shots than three-point shots. How many three-point shots did they attempt?

Real numbers $x$ and $y$ satisfy the equation $x^2 + y^2 = 10x - 6y - 34$. What is $x + y$?

Let $S$ be the set of sides and diagonals of a regular pentagon. A pair of elements of $S$ are selected at random without replacement. What is the probability that the two chosen segments have the same length?

Jo and Blair take turns counting from $1$ to one more than the last number said by the other person. Jo starts by saying $``1"$, so Blair follows by saying $"1, 2"$. Jo then says $"1, 2, 3"$, and so on. What is the $53^{\text{rd}}$ number said?

Define $a\clubsuit b=a^2b-ab^2$. Which of the following describes the set of points $(x, y)$ for which $x\clubsuit y=y\clubsuit x$?

A wire is cut into two pieces, one of length $a$ and the other of length $b$. The piece of length $a$ is bent to form an equilateral triangle, and the piece of length $b$ is bent to form a regular hexagon. The triangle and the hexagon have equal area. What is $\frac{a}{b}$?

In triangle $ABC$, medians $AD$ and $CE$ intersect at $P$, $PE=1.5$, $PD=2$, and $DE=2.5$. What is the area of $AEDC$?


Alex has $75$ red tokens and $75$ blue tokens. There is a booth where Alex can give two red tokens and receive in return a silver token and a blue token, and another booth where Alex can give three blue tokens and receive in return a silver token and a red token. Alex continues to exchange tokens until no more exchanges are possible. How many silver tokens will Alex have at the end?

The number $2013$ has the property that its units digit is the sum of its other digits, that is $2+0+1=3$. How many integers less than $2013$ but greater than $1000$ share this property?

The real numbers $c,b,a$ form an arithmetic sequence with $a\ge b\ge c\ge 0$ The quadratic $ax^2+bx+c$ has exactly one root. What is this root?

The number $2013$ is expressed in the form $2013 = \frac {a_1!a_2!...a_m!}{b_1!b_2!...b_n!}$, where $a_1 \ge a_2 \ge \cdots \ge a_m$ and $b_1 \ge b_2 \ge \cdots \ge b_n$ are positive integers and $a_1 + b_1$ is as small as possible. What is $|a_1 - b_1|$?