Maths Olympiad Prep

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, 2024

Geometry Difficulty 4.8 AIME Find the answer Canada

Pablo has 2727 solid 1×1×11 \times 1 \times 1 that he assembles in
a larger 3×3×33 \times 3 \times 3 cube.
If 1010 of the smaller cubes are red,
99 are blue, and 88 are yellow, what is the smallest
possible surface area of the larger cube that is red?

A number or a short expression. Fractions can be typed as 3/2, and spacing doesn't matter.

Solution

We begin by determining the number of inner toothpicks used to
make a 2020 by 2424 grid of squares.

A grid containing 2020 rows has 1919 horizontal lines of inner toothpicks,
each of which contains 2424
toothpicks (since there are 2424
columns).

Thus, the number of inner toothpicks positioned horizontally is 19×24=45619\times24=456.

A grid containing 2424 columns has
2323 vertical lines of inner
toothpicks, each of which contains 2020 toothpicks (since there are 2020 rows).

Thus, the number of inner toothpicks positioned vertically is 23×20=46023\times20=460.

In total, there are 456+460=916456+460=916
inner toothpicks.

Next, we determine the total number of toothpicks used to make a
2020 by 2424 grid of squares.

There are 2121 horizontal lines of
toothpicks, each of which contains 2424 toothpicks.

There are 2525 vertical lines of
toothpicks, each of which contains 2020 toothpicks.

Thus, there are a total of 21×24+25×20=100421\times24+25\times20=1004 toothpicks
used to make a 2020 by 2424 grid.

(Alternately, we could have determined that there are 8888 outer toothpicks, and so there are
916+88=1004916+88=1004 toothpicks in
total.)

The percentage of inner toothpicks used is 9161004×100%\frac{916}{1004}\times100\%, which is
91%91\% when rounded to the nearest
percent.

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,444 problems in a working order, from Junior Challenge level to the IMO shortlist.

Source: CEMC, University of Waterloo, licensed CC-BY-NC-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.