Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 2.1 Junior Find the answer

An integer xx is chosen so that 3x+13x+1 is an even integer. Which of the following must be an odd integer?

Pick one

Solution

Solution 1: If x=1x=1, then 3x+1=43x+1=4, which is an even integer. In this case, the five given choices are (A) x+3=4x+3=4, (B) x3=2x-3=-2, (C) 2x=22x=2, (D) 7x+4=117x+4=11, (E) 5x+3=85x+3=8. Of these, the only odd integer is (D). Therefore, since x=1x=1 satisfies the initial criteria, then (D) must be the correct answer as the result must be true no matter what integer value of xx is chosen that makes 3x+13x+1 even. Solution 2: If xx is an integer for which 3x+13x+1 is even, then 3x3x is odd, since it is 1 less than an even integer. If 3x3x is odd, then xx must be odd (since if xx is even, then 3x3x would be even). If xx is odd, then x+3x+3 is even (odd plus odd equals even), so (A) cannot be correct. If xx is odd, then x3x-3 is even (odd minus odd equals even), so (B) cannot be correct. If xx is odd, then 2x2x is even (even times odd equals even), so (C) cannot be correct. If xx is odd, then 7x7x is odd (odd times odd equals odd) and so 7x+47x+4 is odd (odd plus even equals odd). If xx is odd, then 5x5x is odd (odd times odd equals odd) and so 5x+35x+3 is even (odd plus odd equals even), so (E) cannot be correct. Therefore, the one expression which must be odd is 7x+47x+4.

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Source: Omni-MATH, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.