2006 AIME II Problems/Problem 5

Problem

When rolling a certain unfair six-sided die with faces numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, the probability of obtaining face $F$ is greater than $1/6$ , the probability of obtaining the face opposite is less than $1/6$ , the probability of obtaining any one of the other four faces is $1/6$ , and the sum of the numbers on opposite faces is 7. When two such dice are rolled, the probability of obtaining a sum of 7 is $47/288$ . Given that the probability of obtaining face $F$ is $m/n,$ where $m$ and $n$ are relatively prime positive integers, find $m+n.$

Solution

Without loss of generality, assume that face $F$ has a 6, so the opposite face has a 1. Let $A(n)$ be the probability of rolling a number $n$ on one die and let $B(n)$ be the probability of rolling a number $n$ on the other die. 7 can be obtained by rolling a 2 and 5, 5 and 2, 3 and 4, or 4 and 3. Each has a probability of $\frac{1}{6} \cdot \frac{1}{6} = \frac{1}{36}$ , totaling $4 \cdot \frac{1}{36} = \frac{1}{9}$ . Subtracting all these probabilities from $\frac{47}{288}$ leaves $\frac{15}{288}=\frac{5}{96}$ chance of getting a 1 on die $A$ and a 6 on die $B$ or a 6 on die $A$ and a 1 on die $B$ :

$A(6)\cdot B(1)+B(6)\cdot A(1)=\frac{5}{96}$

Since the two dice are identical, $B(1)=A(1)$ and $B(6)=A(6)$ so

$\begin{align*}A(1)\cdot A(6)+A(1)\cdot A(6)&=\frac{5}{96}\\ A(1)\cdot A(6)&=\frac{5}{192}\end{align*}$

Also, we know that $A(2)=A(3)=A(4)=A(5)=\frac{1}{6}$ and that the total probability must be $1$ , so:

$A(1)+4 \cdot \frac{1}{6}+A(6)=\frac{6}{6} \Longrightarrow A(1)+A(6)=\frac{1}{3}$

Combining the equations:

$\begin{align*}A(6)\left(\frac{1}{3}-A(6)\right)&=\frac{5}{192}\\ 0 &= 192 \left(A(6)\right)^2 - 64 \left(A(6)\right) + 5\\ A(6)&=\frac{64\pm\sqrt{64^2 - 4 \cdot 5 \cdot 192}}{2\cdot192} =\frac{5}{24}, \frac{1}{8}\end{align*}$ We know that $A(6)>\frac{1}{6}$ , so it can't be $\frac{1}{8}$ . Therefore, the probability is $\frac{5}{24}$ and the answer is $5+24=\boxed{029}$ .

Note also that the initial assumption that face $F$ was the face labelled 6 is unnecessary -- we would have carried out exactly the same steps and found exactly the same probability no matter which face it was. We could have labelled $A(6)$ as $p$ , for example, and replaced the others with variables too, but the notation would have been harder to follow.

2006 AIME II (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 4	Followed by Problem 6
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2006 AIME II Problems/Problem 5

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