# Difference between revisions of "2014 AMC 10B Problems/Problem 18"

## Problem

A list of $11$ positive integers has a mean of $10$, a median of $9$, and a unique mode of $8$. What is the largest possible value of an integer in the list?

$\textbf {(A) } 24 \qquad \textbf {(B) } 30 \qquad \textbf {(C) } 31\qquad \textbf {(D) } 33 \qquad \textbf {(E) } 35$

## Solution 1

We start off with the fact that the median is $9$, so we must have $a, b, c, d, e, 9, f, g, h, i, j$, listed in ascending order. Note that the integers do not have to be distinct.

Since the mode is $8$, we have to have at least $2$ occurrences of $8$ in the list. If there are $2$ occurrences of $8$ in the list, we will have $a, b, c, 8, 8, 9, f, g, h, i, j$. In this case, since $8$ is the unique mode, the rest of the integers have to be distinct. So we minimize $a,b,c,f,g,h,i$ in order to maximize $j$. If we let the list be $1,2,3,8,8,9,10,11,12,13,j$, then $j = 11 \times 10 - (1+2+3+8+8+9+10+11+12+13) = 33$.

Next, consider the case where there are $3$ occurrences of $8$ in the list. Now, we can have two occurrences of another integer in the list. We try $1,1,8,8,8,9,9,10,10,11,j$. Following the same process as above, we get $j = 11 \times 10 - (1+1+8+8+8+9+9+10+10+11) = 35$. As this is the highest choice in the list, we know this is our answer. Therefore, the answer is $\boxed{\textbf{(E) }35}$

## Solution 2

Note that x1 + ... + x11 = 110 let x6 = 9 so x1 + ... + x5 + x7+ ... + x11 = 101 now to maximise the value of xi where i ranges from 1 to 11, we let any 7 elements be 1,2,...,7 so x1 + x2 + x3 = 57 now we have to let one of above 3 values = 8 hence x1 + x2 = 49 now let x1 = 35 , x2 =14 hence 35 is the answe