2011 AMC 12B Problem 19

For $0\lt x\le100,$ the nearest lattice point above the line $y=\tfrac12x+2$ is $\left(x,\tfrac12x+3\right)$ if $x$ is even and $\left(x,\tfrac12x+\tfrac52\right)$ if $x$ is odd. The slope from $(0,2)$ to that point is $\dfrac12+\dfrac1x$ for even $x$ and $\dfrac12+\dfrac{1}{2x}$ for odd $x.$ The minimum such slope is $\dfrac{51}{100}$ for even $x$ and $\dfrac{50}{99}$ for odd $x.$ Since $\dfrac{50}{99}\lt\dfrac{51}{100},$ the line avoids all these lattice points exactly when $\dfrac12\lt m\lt\dfrac{50}{99},$ so the maximum is $a=\dfrac{50}{99}.$ Thus, the correct answer is B.