Mock AIME 2 2010 Problems/Problem 3

Revision as of 13:15, 31 December 2023 by Ddk001 (talk | contribs) (Solution 1(PIE))

Problem

Five gunmen are shooting each other. At the same moment, each randomly chooses one of the other four to shoot. The probability that there are some two people shooting each other can be expressed in the form $\frac{a}{b}$, where $a, b$ are relatively prime positive integers. Find $a+b$.

Solution 1(PIE)

Let the five people be $A, B, C, D,$ and $E$. Let $A_1$ denote the event of $A$ and $B$ shooting each other and $A_2$ through $A_{10}$ similarly. Then, $P(\text{Some 2 people are shooting each other})=P(A_1 \cup A_2 \cup \dots \cup A_{10})$.