2001 AMC 8 Problems/Problem 2

Problem

I'm thinking of two whole numbers. Their product is 24 and their sum is 11. What is the larger number?

$\text{(A)}\ 3 \qquad \text{(B)}\ 4 \qquad \text{(C)}\ 6 \qquad \text{(D)}\ 8 \qquad \text{(E)}\ 12$

Solution

Let the numbers be $x$ and $y$ . Then we have $x+y=11$ and $xy=24$ . Solving for $x$ in the first equation yields $x=11-y$ , and substituting this into the second equation gives $(11-y)(y)=24$ . Simplifying this gives $-y^2+11y=24$ , or $y^2-11y+24=0$ . This factors as $(y-3)(y-8)=0$ , so $y=3$ or $y=8$ , and the corresponding $x$ values are $x=8$ and $x=3$ . These are essentially the same answer: one number is $3$ and one number is $8$ , so the largest number is $8, \boxed{\text{D}}$ .

2001 AMC 8 (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 1	Followed by Problem 3
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 AJHSME/AMC 8 Problems and Solutions

Page

Toolbox

Search

2001 AMC 8 Problems/Problem 2

Problem

Solution

See Also