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2021 Fall AMC 10B Problem 4

Problem 4 of 25EasierAlgebra

At noon on a certain day, Minneapolis is NN degrees warmer than St. Louis. At 4:004{:}00 the temperature in Minneapolis has fallen by 55 degrees while the temperature in St. Louis has risen by 33 degrees, at which time the temperatures in the two cities differ by 22 degrees. What is the product of all possible values of N?N?

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Solution

Let N=msN=m-s be the noon temperature difference. At 4:00,4{:}00, the new difference is (m5)(s+3)=N8.(m-5)-(s+3)=N-8. The temperatures then differ by 22 degrees, so N8=2.|N-8|=2. Hence N=6N=6 or N=10,N=10, and the product of all possible values is 610=60.6\cdot10=60. Thus, the answer is C .

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Concepts: absolute value · linear equation

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