Maths Olympiad Prep

Track / Stage 3 / 83 of 260 #83 of 1964

Problem 83

AMC 10/12, early questions
Geometry Difficulty 3.3 Multiple choice

What is the maximum number of balls of clay of radius 22 that can completely fit inside a cube of side length 66 assuming the balls can be reshaped but not compressed before they are packed in the cube?

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Official solution

The volume of the cube is Vcube=63=216,V_{\text{cube}}=6^3=216, and the volume of a clay ball is Vball=43π23=323π.V_{\text{ball}}=\frac43\cdot\pi\cdot2^3=\frac{32}{3}\pi.
Since the balls can be reshaped but not compressed, the maximum number of balls that can completely fit inside a cube is VcubeVball=814π.\left\lfloor\frac{V_{\text{cube}}}{V_{\text{ball}}}\right\rfloor=\left\lfloor\frac{81}{4\pi}\right\rfloor.
Approximating with π3.14,\pi\approx3.14, we have 12<4π<13,12<4\pi<13, or 8113814π8112.\left\lfloor\frac{81}{13}\right\rfloor \leq \left\lfloor\frac{81}{4\pi}\right\rfloor \leq \left\lfloor\frac{81}{12}\right\rfloor. We simplify to get 6814π6,6 \leq \left\lfloor\frac{81}{4\pi}\right\rfloor \leq 6,
from which 814π=(D) 6.\left\lfloor\frac{81}{4\pi}\right\rfloor=\boxed{\textbf{(D) }6}.
~NH14 ~MRENTHUSIASM

Source: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty, ordering) added by this project.