2014 AMC 10B Problems/Problem 16
Problem
Four fair six-sided dice are rolled. What is the probability that at least three of the four dice show the same value?
Solution
We split this problem into cases.
First, we calculate the probability that all four are the same. After the first dice, all the numbers must be equal to that roll, giving a probability of .
Second, we calculate the probability that three are the same and one is different. After the first dice, the next two must be equal and the third different. There are orders to roll the different dice, giving
.
Adding these up, we get , or
.
Solution 2
Note that there are two cases for this problem
: Exactly three of the dices show the same value.
There are values that the remaining die can take on, and there are
ways to choose the die. There are
ways that this can happen. Hence,
ways.
: Exactly four of the dices show the same value.
This can happen in ways.
Hence, the probability is
Solution 3
We solve using PIE.
We first calculate the number of ways that we can have dice be the same and the other dice be anything. We therefore have
ways to have at least
dice be the same.
But wait! We have overcounted the case where all dice are the same! Since the previous case occurs in each of these cases
times, we must subtract the
-dice total three times in order to have them counted once. There are
ways to have four dice be the same, so we our total count is
.
Therefore, our probability is , which is answer choice
.
-FIREDRAGONMATH16
See Also
2014 AMC 10B (Problems • Answer Key • Resources) | ||
Preceded by Problem 15 |
Followed by Problem 17 | |
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All AMC 10 Problems and Solutions |
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