2019 AMC 10B Problems/Problem 25

The following problem is from both the 2019 AMC 10B #25 and 2019 AMC 12B #23, so both problems redirect to this page.

Problem

How many sequences of $0$ s and $1$ s of length $19$ are there that begin with a $0$ , end with a $0$ , contain no two consecutive $0$ s, and contain no three consecutive $1$ s?

$\textbf{(A) }55\qquad\textbf{(B) }60\qquad\textbf{(C) }65\qquad\textbf{(D) }70\qquad\textbf{(E) }75$

Solution 1 (recursion)

We can deduce, from the given restrictions, that any valid sequence of length $n$ will start with a $0$ followed by either $10$ or $110$ . Thus we can define a recursive function $f(n) = f(n-3) + f(n-2)$ , where $f(n)$ is the number of valid sequences of length $n$ .

This is because for any valid sequence of length $n$ , you can append either $10$ or $110$ and the resulting sequence will still satisfy the given conditions.

It is easy to find $f(5) = 1$ with the only possible sequence being $01010$ and $f(6) = 2$ with the only two possible sequences being $011010$ and $010110$ by hand, and then by the recursive formula, we have $f(19) = \boxed{\textbf{(C) }65}$ .

Solution 2 (casework)

After any particular $0$ , the next $0$ in the sequence must appear exactly $2$ or $3$ positions down the line. In this case, we start at position $1$ and end at position $19$ , i.e. we move a total of $18$ positions down the line. Therefore, we must add a series of $2$ s and $3$ s to get $18$ . There are a number of ways to do this:

Case 1: nine $2$ s - there is only $1$ way to arrange them.

Case 2: two $3$ s and six $2$ s - there are ${8\choose2} = 28$ ways to arrange them.

Case 3: four $3$ s and three $2$ s - there are ${7\choose4} = 35$ ways to arrange them.

Case 4: six $3$ s - there is only $1$ way to arrange them.

Summing the four cases gives $1+28+35+1=\boxed{\textbf{(C) }65}$ .

Solution 3 (casework and blocks)

We can simplify the original problem into a problem where there are $2^{17}$ binary characters with zeros at the beginning and the end. Then, we know that we cannot have a block of 2 zeroes and a block of 3 ones. Thus, our only options are a block of $0$ s, $1$ s, and $11$ s. Now, we use casework:

Case 1: Alternating 1s and 0s. There is simply 1 way to do this: $0101010101010101010$ . Now, we note that there cannot be only one block of $11$ in the entire sequence, as there must be zeroes at both ends and if we only include 1 block, of $11$ s this cannot be satisfied. This is true for all odd numbers of $11$ blocks.

Case 2: There are 2 $11$ blocks. Using the zeroes in the sequence as dividers, we have a sample as $0110110101010101010$ . We know there are 8 places for $11$ s, which will be filled by $1$ s if the $11$ s don't fill them. This is ${8\choose2} = 28$ ways.

Case 3: Four $11$ blocks arranged. Using the same logic as Case 2, we have ${7\choose4} = 35$ ways to arrange four $11$ blocks.

Case 4: No single $1$ blocks, only $11$ blocks. There is simply one case for this, which is $0110110110110110110$ .

Adding these four cases, we have $1+28+35+1=\boxed{\textbf{(C) }65}$ as our final answer.

~Equinox8

Video Solution

For those who want a video solution: https://youtu.be/VamT49PjmdI

2019 AMC 10B (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 24	Followed by Last Problem
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All AMC 10 Problems and Solutions

2019 AMC 12B (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 22	Followed by Problem 24
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All AMC 12 Problems and Solutions

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