Problem 15 (2008 AIME I) — AIME 2008 · USAMO Guide - Olympiad Mathematics Learning Platform

Problem 15 (2008 AIME I)

AIME 2008

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Understand the scale

Scale 0.5: Easiest math competition problems, often solvable even for early middle school students without experience. 1: Problems strictly for beginners, often at a moderate middle school level. 1.5: Problems for stronger beginner students, on the level of the middling problems in most middle school contests. 2: For motivated beginners, harder questions from the previous categories. 2.5: More advanced beginner problems, hardest questions from previous categories. 3: Early intermediate problems that require more creative thinking. 3.5: Tougher early intermediate problems that consistently stretch into higher-level creative thinking or conceptual knowledge. 4: Intermediate-level problems. 4.5: Upper intermediate problems approaching the upper bound for non-invitational sprint math competitions. 5: More difficult AIME problems or simple proof-based Olympiad-style problems. 6: High-level AIME-styled questions or introductory Olympiad-level questions. 7: Tougher Olympiad-level questions, may require more technical knowledge. 8: High-level Olympiad-level questions. 9: Expert Olympiad-level questions. 9.5: The hardest problems appearing on Olympiads which the strongest students could reasonably solve. 10: Historically notorious problems, generally unsuitable for even very hard competitions because they are exceedingly tedious, long, and difficult.

Problem

A square piece of paper has sides of length $100$ . From each corner a wedge is cut in the following manner: at each corner, the two cuts for the wedge each start at a distance $\sqrt{17}$ from the corner, and they meet on the diagonal at an angle of $60^{\circ}$ (see the figure below). The paper is then folded up along the lines joining the vertices of adjacent cuts. When the two edges of a cut meet, they are taped together. The result is a paper tray whose sides are not at right angles to the base. The height of the tray, that is, the perpendicular distance between the plane of the base and the plane formed by the upper edges, can be written in the form $\sqrt[n]{m}$ , where $m$ and $n$ are positive integers, $m<1000$ , and $m$ is not divisible by the $n$ th power of any prime. Find $m+n$ . $

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