2010 AMC 10B Problems/Problem 18

Revision as of 20:30, 21 December 2011 by NeilOnnsu (talk | contribs)

Problem

Positive integers $a$, $b$, and $c$ are randomly and independently selected with replacement from the set $\{1, 2, 3,\dots, 2010\}$. What is the probability that $abc + ab + a$ is divisible by $3$?

$\textbf{(A)}\ \dfrac{1}{3} \qquad \textbf{(B)}\ \dfrac{29}{81} \qquad \textbf{(C)}\ \dfrac{31}{81} \qquad \textbf{(D)}\ \dfrac{11}{27} \qquad \textbf{(E)}\ \dfrac{13}{27}$

Solution 1

First we factor $abc+bc+c$ into $a(b(c+1)+1)$. For $a(b(c+1)+1)$ to be divisible by three we can either have $a$ be a multiple of 3 or $b(c+1)+1$ be a multiple of three. Adding the probability of these two being divisible by 3 we get that the probability is $\boxed{\textbf{(E)}\ \frac{13}{27}}$


Solution 2

We look at the probability of each term being 3. 1/3 for the first term, 1/9 for the second term, and 1/27 for the third term. So the solution is 13/27 or E.

See Also

2010 AMC 10B (ProblemsAnswer KeyResources)
Preceded by
Problem 17
Followed by
Problem 19
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
All AMC 10 Problems and Solutions