INTERNET MATH CHALLENGE RULES

Any student in the US up to grade 12, whether in public school, private school, or home school, is eligible.
While we are happy to accept solutions from students anywhere in the world (and will post the names of all correct puzzle solvers each week), only students within the United States are eligible for prizes. (We simply can't afford the postage to send prizes outside the country!)
Solutions may be submitted by individuals or small groups (up to four people).
With your solution, include the following:
Your solution must show or explain your work and reasoning, as well as the final answer.
Solutions must be submitted by electronic mail to imc@uidaho.edu. Please send your solution in the text of the email message and avoid using attachments.
Solutions will be accepted until midnight of the deadline posted with the puzzle.
The names of all those submitting correct solutions will be posted (at this site) for public admiration.
The IMC will run for 28 weeks in the 2003-4 school year. The first puzzle deadline will be September 12 and puzzles will be posted each week through April 16, except for the weeks of December 19, December 26, January 2, and January 9.
Prizes for the IMC this year are made possible by funding from Micron Foundation.

Weekly Prize Drawings:

A few days after the deadline for submitting solutions for the weekly puzzle, we will conduct a drawing to select prize winners from among the names of all those who solved the puzzle correctly. In the case of a group solution, each name from the group will be entered in the drawing.
Two winners will be selected in each weekly drawing to receive specially designed 100% cotton T-shirts.
No individual may be selected as the weekly prize winner more than once in any two-month period. (You may, however, continue to submit solutions toward the monthly drawing.)

Monthly Prize Drawings:

On the following dates we will conduct MONTHLY drawings rather than the usual WEEKLY drawing:
- October 17
- November 14
- December 12
- February 13
- March 12
- April 16
The monthly drawing will be from among all names of correct problem-solvers for any puzzle since the last monthly drawing. If a student has solved more than one of the weekly puzzles in that time period, their name will be included a corresponding number of times in the monthly drawing. (So, if there are 5 weeks in the monthly drawing period, a student may have their name entered up to 5 times in the monthly drawing.)
One winner will be selected in the monthly drawing, and that winner will receive both an IMC T-shirt and a Texas Instruments TI-86 graphing calculator!

Thanks to these sponsors for their generous support of the IMC!