2010 AMC 10A Problems/Problem 22

Problem

Eight points are chosen on a circle, and chords are drawn connecting every pair of points. No three chords intersect in a single point inside the circle. How many triangles with all three vertices in the interior of the circle are created?

$\textbf{(A)}\ 28 \qquad \textbf{(B)}\ 56 \qquad \textbf{(C)}\ 70 \qquad \textbf{(D)}\ 84 \qquad \textbf{(E)}\ 140$

Solution

To choose a chord, we know that two points must be chosen. This implies that for three chords to create a triangle and not intersect at a single point, six points need to be chosen. We also know that for any six points we pick, there is only $1$ way to connect the points such that a triangle is formed in the circle's interior (this is because we want no two chords to be nonintersecting ~Williamgolly). Therefore, the answer is ${{8}\choose{6}}$, which is equivalent to $\boxed{\textbf{(A) }28}$.

Video Solution by TheBeautyofMath

https://youtu.be/8aBePLkFdss

See Also

2010 AMC 10A (ProblemsAnswer KeyResources)
Preceded by
Problem 21
Followed by
Problem 23
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All AMC 10 Problems and Solutions

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