In just a few days, the 2019 MATHCOUNTS State Competitions will begin, so let’s look back at some of the 2018 State Sprint round problems and solve them in preparation.

Over the weekend, the world’s most famous groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, enjoyed his favorite day of the year – Groundhog Day! According to historical data on Stormfax^® Weather Almanac’s website (stormfax.com/ghogday), Phil has predicted a long winter 104 times, and an early spring 18 times from 1887 to 2018 (no data for nine of these years). That makes the odds of Phil seeing his shadow, thereby predicting six more weeks of winter for this year, 52 to 9. Based on this information, what is the percent probability of Phil seeing his shadow?

Chapter competitions officially start this week! Are you ready to compete? Perhaps solving these Sprint Round problems from the 2018 Chapter Competition will help you warm up.  

Sprint #15
By switching two of the digits of the number 123,456, Rodrigo obtains a new number that is 1980 more than the original. What is the product of the two digits Rodrigo switched?

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a civil rights activist whose passion and leadership led to great cultural changes in America, was born on January 15, 1929. On November 2, 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed a bill to create a federal holiday honoring Dr. King. The national holiday celebrating the birth of Dr. King was first observed on January 20, 1986. Every year since, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day has been observed on the third Monday of January.    

What is the earliest date in January that Martin Luther King, Jr. Day can occur?

As 2018 comes to an end, let’s go back and solve some of our favorite problems of year.

School Handbook

Problem 237: Kendra starts at a positive integer k and counts up by 4s until she hits exactly 200. Mason starts at a positive integer m and counts up by 6s until he hits exactly 200. If it takes Kendra half as many steps to reach 200 as it takes Mason, what is the greatest possible value of k − m?

Sam, Pam, Ken and Jen are exchanging gifts for the holiday. Each name is written on a slip of paper and placed in a bowl. Sam is the first to randomly select a name from the bowl. What is the probability that Sam selects his own name? Express your answer as a common fraction.

Santiago baked gingerbread cookies in the shapes of children. He gave each gingerbread boy and girl eyes made from chocolate covered candies in one of four different colors, a nose made from a butterscotch chip, toffee chip or peanut butter chip, and a mouth made from a piece of red licorice. Santiago then gave each gingerbread boy and girl buttons made from gum drops in one of four different flavors. For the final detail, he gave each gingerbread boy a blue bow tie, and each gingerbread girl a red hair bow.

It’s Autumn, and that means leaves are falling! Amber’s house occupies 2650 ft² in the middle of a 50-foot by 80-foot parcel of land, and the leaves that fall cover the ground all around her house. If it takes Amber’s family 4.5 hours to rake all the leaves, how many square feet of leaves did they rake each hour?

Each week, Devin buys school lunch on Friday because the cafeteria serves pizza every Friday. Monday through Thursday, Devin brings his lunch to school. The lunch he brings always includes a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a fruit and a drink. Devin has enough fruit and drink options to make a different lunch every day that he brings lunch for the next four weeks. If Devin has the same number of fruit options as he has drink options and he takes no days off from school, how many different fruit options does he have?

A new school year often means new school clothes, new teachers and new friends. One of our favorite parts of a new school year is the release of a new MATHCOUNTS School Handbook! Download your free copy after solving a few problems from some previous handbooks.

Lily is going to the movies with Abby, Bea and Jaclyn. Abby wants to sit at the end of a row, and Bea only cares that she is seated next to Jaclyn. In how many different ways can the girls be seated in a single row that has only four seats?