AMC10 2017 10B, Problem 1

Mary thought of a positive two-digit number. She multiplied it by $3$ and added $11$. Then she switched the digits of the result, obtaining a number between $71$ and $75$, inclusive. What was Mary's number?

Solution: Let her $2$-digit number be $x$. Multiplying by $3$ makes it a multiple of $3$, meaning that the sum of its digits is divisible by $3$. Adding on $11$ increases the sum of the digits by $1+1 = 2,$ (we can ignore numbers such as $39+11=50$) and reversing the digits keeps the sum of the digits the same; this means that the resulting number must be $2$ more than a multiple of $3$. There are two such numbers between $71$ and $75$: $71$ and $74.$ Now that we have narrowed down the choices, we can simply test the answers to see which one will provide a two-digit number when the steps are reversed: \[\] For $71,$ we reverse the digits, resulting in $17.$ Subtracting $11$, we get $6.$ We can already see that dividing this by $3$ will not be a two-digit number, so $71$ does not meet our requirements. \[\] Therefore, the answer must be the reversed steps applied to $74.$ We have the following: \[\] $74\rightarrow47\rightarrow36\rightarrow12$ \[\] Therefore, our answer is $\fbox{12}$.

Answer: 12