2023 AMC 12A Problems/Problem 13

Revision as of 17:50, 10 November 2023 by Tigertan (talk | contribs) (Solution 2)
The following problem is from both the 2023 AMC 10A #16 and 2023 AMC 12A #13, so both problems redirect to this page.

Problem

In a table tennis tournament every participant played every other participant exactly once. Although there were twice as many right-handed players as left-handed players, the number of games won by left-handed players was $40\%$ more than the number of games won by right-handed players. (There were no ties and no ambidextrous players.) What is the total number of games played?

$\textbf{(A) }15\qquad\textbf{(B) }36\qquad\textbf{(C) }45\qquad\textbf{(D) }48\qquad\textbf{(E) }66$

Solution 1 (3 min solve)

We know that the total amount of games must be the sum of games won by left and right handed players. Then, we can write $g = l + r$, and since $l = 1.4r$, $g = 2.4r$. Given that $r$ and $g$ are both integers, $g/2.4$ also must be an integer. From here we can see that $g$ must be divisible by 12, leaving only answers B and D. Now we know the formula for how many games are played in this tournament is $n(n-1)/2$, the sum of the first $n-1$ triangular numbers. Now setting 36 and 48 equal to the equation will show that two consecutive numbers must equal 72 or 96. Clearly $72=8*9$, so the answer is $\boxed{\textbf{(B) }36}$.

~~ Antifreeze5420

Solution 2

First, we know that every player played every other player, so there's a total of $\dbinom{n}{2}$ games since each pair of players forms a bijection to a game. Therefore, that rules out D. Also, if we assume the right-handed players won a total of $x$ games, the left-handed players must have won a total of $\dfrac{7}{5}x$ games, meaning that the total number of games played was $\dfrac{12}{5}x$. Thus, the total number of games must be divisible by $12$. Therefore leaving only answer choices B and D. Since answer choice D doesn't satisfy the first condition, the only answer that satisfies both conditions is $\boxed{\textbf{(B) }36}$

Solution 3

Let $r$ be the amount of games the right-handed won. Since the left-handed won $1.4r$ games, the total number of games played can be expressed as $(2.4)r$, or $12/5r$, meaning that the answer is divisible by 12. This brings us down to two answer choices, $B$ and $D$. We note that the answer is some number $x$ choose $2$. This means the answer is in the form $x(x-1)/2$. Since answer choice D gives $48 = x(x-1)/2$, and $96 = x(x-1)$ has no integer solutions, we know that $\boxed{\textbf{(B) }36}$ is the only possible choice.

Video Solution 1 by OmegaLearn

https://youtu.be/BXgQIV2WbOA

Video Solution 2 by TheBeautyofMath

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLtsF1k9Fx8&t=227s

See Also

2023 AMC 10A (ProblemsAnswer KeyResources)
Preceded by
Problem 15
Followed by
Problem 17
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
2023 AMC 12A (ProblemsAnswer KeyResources)
Preceded by
Problem 12
Followed by
Problem 14
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

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