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2006 AMC 12A Problem 9

Problem 9 of 25EasierNumber Theory

Oscar buys 1313 pencils and 33 erasers for $1.00.\$1.00. A pencil costs more than an eraser, and both items cost a whole number of cents. What is the total cost, in cents, of one pencil and one eraser?

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Solution

Let pp be a pencil’s cost and ss the cost of one pencil plus one eraser, in cents. Then 13p+3e=3s+10p=100, 13p + 3e = 3s + 10p = 100, so 3s3s is a multiple of 1010 less than 100.100. Hence s{10,20,30},s \in \{10, 20, 30\}, with p=7,4,1p = 7, 4, 1 respectively. Since a pencil costs more than an eraser, p>s2,p \gt \tfrac{s}{2}, which holds only for s=10s = 10 (pencil 7,7, eraser 33). So one pencil and one eraser cost 1010 cents. Thus, the correct answer is A.

More practice

Concepts: Diophantine Equation · divisibility

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