2002 AMC 12B Problems/Problem 8

The following problem is from both the 2002 AMC 12B #8 and 2002 AMC 10B #8, so both problems redirect to this page.

Problem

Suppose July of year $N$ has five Mondays. Which of the following must occur five times in the August of year $N$? (Note: Both months have $31$ days.)

$\textrm{(A)}\ \text{Monday} \qquad \textrm{(B)}\ \text{Tuesday} \qquad \textrm{(C)}\ \text{Wednesday} \qquad \textrm{(D)}\ \text{Thursday} \qquad \textrm{(E)}\ \text{Friday}$

Solution 1

If there are five Mondays, there are only three possibilities for their dates: $(1,8,15,22,29)$, $(2,9,16,23,30)$, and $(3,10,17,24,31)$.

In the first case August starts on a Thursday, and there are five Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays in August.

In the second case August starts on a Wednesday, and there are five Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays in August.

In the third case August starts on a Tuesday, and there are five Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays in August.

The only day of the week that is guaranteed to appear five times is therefore $\boxed{\textrm{(D)}\ \text{Thursday}}$.

Solution 2 (visualization)

A diagram can be constructed to visualize the possibilities for the dates. First, a 4x7 rectangle representing 28 days can be constructed with three extra cells on the bottom to represent the three extra days.

Then, the rest of the steps in Solution 1 can be followed.

For example, if the first of the bottom three cells is a Monday, it is clear that the following two days are Tuesday and Wednesday. This means that the new bottom three cells (as both months have 31 days) of August will be Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. This same process can be repeated so that the second cell is represented as Monday and so forth; then, the only day of the week that appears when all three cases are considered is $\boxed{\textrm{(D)}\ \text{Thursday}}$.

~bearjere

See Also

2002 AMC 10B (ProblemsAnswer KeyResources)
Preceded by
Problem 7
Followed by
Problem 9
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
All AMC 10 Problems and Solutions
2002 AMC 12B (ProblemsAnswer KeyResources)
Preceded by
Problem 7
Followed by
Problem 9
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
All AMC 12 Problems and Solutions

The problems on this page are copyrighted by the Mathematical Association of America's American Mathematics Competitions. AMC logo.png