2001 AMC 10 Problems/Problem 22
Problem
In the magic square shown, the sums of the numbers in each row, column, and diagonal are the same. Five of these numbers are represented by , , , , and . Find .
Solutions
Solution 1
We know that , so we could find one variable rather than two.
The sum per row is .
Thus .
Since we needed and we know , .
Solution 2
The magic sum is determined by the bottom row. .
Solving for :
.
To find our answer, we need to find . .
really easy solution
a nice thing to know is that any 3 numbers that goes through the middle forms an arithmetic sequence,
through this we know that x=24+z/2 or 2x=24+z because x would be the average
we also know that the because x is the average the magic sum would be 3x, so we can also write the equation 3x-46=z using the bottom row
solving for x in this system we get 22, so know using the arithmetic sequence knowledge we find that y=26 and z=20.
See Also
2001 AMC 10 (Problems • Answer Key • Resources) | ||
Preceded by Problem 21 |
Followed by Problem 23 | |
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