Various Functions Solutions
1. We can use plug-in method to solve this question.
Since , then:
;
.
Thus the question asks: for which function f below will --
> ?
Say a=-1 and b=1, then the question becomes: for which function f below
will .
A: x +3
No match.
B: x^2
No match.
C: |x|
No match.
D: 1/x
No match.
E: x/4
Match.
Answer: E.
2. Notice that the greatest common factor of 10 and x, GCF(10,x), naturally must be a factor of
10: 1, 2, 5, and 10. Thus from f(10,x)=11 we can get four different values of x:
GCF(10,x)=1 --> --> ;
GCF(10,x)=2 --> --> ;
GCF(10,x)=5 --> --> ;
GCF(10,x)=10 --> --> .
(1) x is a square of an integer --> can be 1 or 100. Not sufficient.
(2) The sum of the distinct prime factors of x is a prime number ---> distinct primes of 12 are 2
and 3: , distinct primes of 45 are 3 and 5: and
distinct primes of 100 are 2 and 5: . can be 12 or 100. Not sufficient.
(1)+(2) can only be 100. Sufficient.
Answer: C.
3. Answer is C
While we spend a lot of time honing the skill of translating English into algebra, there is
sometimes great comfort to be gained in a sequence problem through doing precisely the
reverse. The general rule for this sequence is that we derive each term based on the two terms
that precede it – specifically by subtracting the absolute value of the previous term from the
absolute value of the “pre-previous” one.
So , and , and , and so on. We are told that
the sequence begins 0, 3, ..., so we can derive that:
.
Then .
Then .
As soon as we’ve seen and turn out to be 0 and 3 consecutively, we know that the next
number to show up in the sequence will be identical to the number that showed up after the
last time we saw 0 and 3 appear consecutively (i.e. as and ) — so will be identical
to , so -3. So we have established the pattern 0, 3, -3, 0, 3, -3, ... for our sequence.
Every time we finish a complete cycle within the sequence, the sum returns to 0 (since 0 + 3 +
-3 = 0). We finish a cycle after every third entry (i.e. after the third, the sixth, the ninth, and
so on), so we will have done so (and returned our running sum to 0) with . will then
add itself (0) to that sum, and will add itself (3) onto that. So we will land at a sum of 3
for .
4.
In all the option just put 2-x in place of x
A. f(x)=x+2===>f(2-x)=2-x+2=4-x==>not equal
B. (fx)=2x-x^2====>f(2-x)=2(2-x)-(2-x)^2=4-2x-x^2+4x-4=2x-x^2===>equal==correct
C. f(x)=2-x===>f(2-x)=2-(2-x)=x===>not equal
D. f(x)=(2-x)^2===>f(2-x)=(2-2+x)^2=x^2===>not equal
E. f(x)=x^2===>f(2-x)=(2-x)^2===>not equal
5. . Notice that we can factor out 2 from h(100)+2, thus the
smallest prime factor of h(100)+2 is 2: .
Answer: E.
6. A.
B.
C. .
D. .
E. . Correct.
Answer: E.
OR, as f(a+b)= f(a)+f(b) must be true for all positive numbers a and b, then you can randomly
pick particular values of a and b and check for them:
For example: and
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
. Correct.
It might happen that for some choices of a and b other options may be "correct" as well. If this
happens just pick some other numbers and check again these "correct" options only.
7. , means that the value of can
be found by calculating the expression for the particular .
For example: if , what is the value of ? Just
plug for , , so if the function is , then .
There are some functions for which . For example: if we
define as , the value of will be always positive and will give the
following values: for , ;
for , . Please note that in this case is equal to ,
meaning that for positive values of you'll get the same values of as for the negative
values of .
So, basically in original question we are told to define the expression, for
which , which means that plugging and in the expression must give
same result.
A. --> is the expression for , we want to find whether the expression
for would be the same: plug --> .
As and are different, so does not equal to .
The same with the other options:
(A) , so --> and : no match.
(B) , so --
> and : no match.
(C) ,
so --> and : no match.
(D) , so --
> and . Bingo! if then also
equals to .
Still let's check (E)
(E) --> . and : no match.
But this problem can be solved by simple number picking: plug in numbers.
As stem says that "following functions f is f(x) = f (1-x) for all x", so it should work for all
choices of .
Now let be 2 (note that: -1, 0, and 1 generally are not good choices for number picking),
then . So we should check whether .
(A) and --> ;
(B) and --> ;
(C) and
--> ;
(D) and --> ,
correct;
(E) and --> .
It might happen that for some choices of other options may be "correct" as well. If this
happens, just pick some other number for and check again these "correct" options only.
8. Let the 3-digit positive integer be and positive integer be .
Question: .
Then and .
Given: --> --
> (or ).
So, , and (or , and ) --
> . For example
if and are 143 and 123 respectively (hundreds and units digit are equal and tens digit
of is 2 more than tens digit of ) then .
Answer: D.
9. In order the answer to be A, the question should read:
If , what is the value of in terms of f(x)?
Say , then:
and since ,
then .
Answer: A.
10. Given: .
As then , also as then --> --
> .
Answer: D.
11. Given: , where is a positive integer.
Question: must be divisible by which one of the following numbers.
Now, is the product of 3 consecutive integers so out of them one is
definitely divisible by 3 and at least one is divisible by 2, so must be divisible by 2*3=6.
Answer: C.
Generally out of ANY consecutive integers one is always divisible by and at least one
by , , ... For example out of ANY 5 consecutive integers there is one which is
divisible by 5, and at least one which is divisible by 4, 3, and 2. That's because an integer
divided by an integer can give a remainder of: 0 (when it's divisible by ), 1, 2, ...,
or (total of different remainders from 0 to ), so out of consecutive integers
there definitely will be one which gives a reminder of zero, so divisible by .
Which give us the following property: the product of consecutive integers is always divisible
by , so by too. For example: given consecutive integers --> the product
of 3*4*5*6 is 360, which is divisible by 4!=24.
If we apply this property to the original question we'll have that the product of given 3
consecutive integers must be divisible by 3!=6.
12. The function basically transforms the digits of integer n into the power of primes: 2, 3, 5, ...
For example:
;
;
;
;
...
The question asks for the leas number that cannot be expressed by the function p(n).
So, the digits of n transform to the power and since single digit cannot be more than 10 then
p(n) cannot have the power of 10 or higher.
So, the least number that cannot be expressed by the function p(n) is (n just
cannot have 10 as its digit).
Answer: D.
13. This question for instance basically asks: how many positive integers are less than given prime
number p which have no common factor with p except 1.
Well as p is a prime, all positive numbers less than p have no common factors with p (except
common factor 1). So there would be p-1 such numbers (as we are looking number of integers
less than p).
For example: if p=7 how many numbers are less than 7 having no common factors with 7: 1, 2,
3, 4, 5, 6 --> 7-1=6. Answer : A.
14. The function F(n) is defined as the product of all the consecutive positive integers between 1
and n^2, inclusive, thus .
The function G(n) is defined as the product of the squares of all the consecutive positive
integers between 1 and n, inclusive, thus .
The power of 2 is 5.
Answer: E.
15. f(24) = 2*4*6*8*10*12*14*16*18*20*22*24 = 2^12*(1*2*3*4*5*6*7*8*9*10*11) --> the greatest prime
factor is 11.
Answer: E.
16.
Given that:
;
;
Question asks to find the value of .
Notice that only the first function gives answer as a simple value rather than another function,
thus we should manipulate with so that to get in the end.
;
;
Answer: E.
17. (1) f(2) = 100 --> --> or . Two answers, not sufficient.
(2) f(3) = -1,000 --> --> --> only one solution: . Sufficient.
Answer: B.
18. (1) f(2) = 100 --> --> or . Two answers, not sufficient.
(2) f(3) = -1,000 --> --> --> only one solution: . Sufficient.
Answer: B.
