1999 AIME Problems/Problem 10

Problem

Ten points in the plane are given, with no three collinear. Four distinct segments joining pairs of these points are chosen at random, all such segments being equally likely. The probability that some three of the segments form a triangle whose vertices are among the ten given points is where and are relatively prime positive integers. Find

Solution

First, let us find the number of triangles that can be formed from the 10 points. Since none of the points are collinear, it is possible to pick sets of 3 points which form triangles. However, a fourth distinct segment must also be picked. Since the triangle accounts for 3 segments, there are segments remaining.

The total number of ways of picking four distinct segments is . Thus, the requested probability is . The solution is .

Solution 2

Note that 4 points can NEVER form 2 triangles. Therefore, we just need to multiply the probability that the first three segments picked form a triangle by 4. We can pick any segment for the first choice, then only segments that share an endpoint with the first one, then the one segment that completes the triangle. Note that the fourth segment doesn't matter in this case. Note that there are segments that share an endpoint with the first segment. The answer is then $4 \times \frac{16}{44} \times \frac{1}{43} = \frac{16}{11} \times 43} = \frac{16}{473} \implies m + n = \boxed{489}$ (Error compiling LaTeX. Unknown error_msg) -whatRthose

See also

The problems on this page are copyrighted by the Mathematical Association of America's American Mathematics Competitions.