Mock AIME 1 2007-2008 Problems/Problem 8
Problem
A sequence of ten s and/or s is randomly generated. If the probability that the sequence does not contain two consecutive s can be written in the form , where are relatively prime positive integers, find .
Solution
Let denote the number of sequences of length that do not contain consecutive s. A sequence of length must either end in a or a . If the string of length ends in a , this string could have been formed by appending a to any sequence of length , of which there are such strings. If the string of length ends in a , this string could have been formed by appending a (to avoid consecutive s) to any sequence of length , of which there are such strings. Thus, we have the recursion Solving for initial conditions, we find . Thus we have the Fibonacci sequence with shifted indices; indeed , so . The probability is , and .
See also
Mock AIME 1 2007-2008 (Problems, Source) | ||
Preceded by Problem 7 |
Followed by Problem 9 | |
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