Skip to main content

2002 AMC 10B Problem 8

Problem 8 of 25EasierAlgebraNumber Theory

Suppose July of year NN has five Mondays. Which of the following must occur five times in August of year N?N? (Note: both months have 3131 days.)

Answer choices

Show solution

Solution

A 3131-day month is 44 weeks plus 33 extra days, so exactly the weekdays of the 11st, 22nd, and 33rd of the month occur five times. For July to have five Mondays, Monday must be one of July 1,1, 2,2, or 3.3. In all three cases August 11 lands on a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, and the common weekday among the resulting five-time days is Thursday. More directly, since July has 3131 days, August 11 is the same weekday as July 4.4. With Monday on July 1,1, 2,2, or 3,3, the three five-time weekdays of August always include Thursday. Thus, the correct answer is D.

More practice

Concepts: date and time · modular arithmetic · casework

Problem text and solution from the LIVE past-contest archive. See also the AoPS wiki page for community solutions.