2021 AMC 10B Problems/Problem 22

Revision as of 14:21, 12 February 2021 by Rayfish (talk | contribs)

Problem

Ang, Ben, and Jasmin each have $5$ blocks, colored red, blue, yellow, white, and green; and there are $5$ empty boxes. Each of the people randomly and independently of the other two people places one of their blocks into each box. The probability that at least one box receives $3$ blocks all of the same color is $\frac{m}{n}$, where $m$ and $n$ are relatively prime positive integers. What is $m + n ?$

$\textbf{(A)} ~47 \qquad\textbf{(B)} ~94 \qquad\textbf{(C)} ~227 \qquad\textbf{(D)} ~471 \qquad\textbf{(E)} ~542$

Solution

Let our denominator be $(5!)^3$, so we consider all possible distributions.

We use PIE (Principle of Inclusion and Exclusion) to count the successful ones.

When we have at $1$ box with all $3$ balls the same color in that box, there are $_{5} C _{1} \cdot _{5} P _{1} \cdot (4!)^3$ ways for the distributions to occur ($_{5} C _{1}$ for selecting one of the five boxes for a uniform color, $_{5} P _{1}$ for choosing the color for that box, $4!$ for each of the three people to place their remaining items).

However, we overcounted those distributions where two boxes had uniform color, and there are $_{5} C _{2} \cdot _{5} P _{2} \cdot (3!)^3$ ways for the distributions to occur ($_{5} C _{2}$ for selecting two of the five boxes for a uniform color, $_{5} P _{2}$ for choosing the color for those boxes, $3!$ for each of the three people to place their remaining items).

Again, we need to re-add back in the distributions with three boxes of uniform color... and so on so forth.

Our success by PIE is \[_{5} C _{1} \cdot _{5} P _{1} \cdot (4!)^3 - _{5} C _{2} \cdot _{5} P _{2} \cdot (3!)^3 + _{5} C _{3} \cdot _{5} P _{3} \cdot (2!)^3 - _{5} C _{4} \cdot _{5} P _{4} \cdot (1!)^3 + _{5} C _{5} \cdot _{5} P _{5} \cdot (0!)^3 = 120 \cdot 2556.\] \[\frac{120 \cdot 2556}{120^3}=\frac{71}{400},\] yielding an answer of $471$.

Solution 2

As In Solution 1, the probability is \[\frac{\binom{5}{1}\cdot 5\cdot (4!)^3 - \binom{5}{2}\cdot 5\cdot 4\cdot (3!)^3 + \binom{5}{3}\cdot 5\cdot 4\cdot 3\cdot (2!)^3 - \binom{5}{4}\cdot 5\cdot 4\cdot 3\cdot 2\cdot (1!)^3 + \binom{5}{5}\cdot 5\cdot 4\cdot 3\cdot 2\cdot 1}{(5!)^3}\] \[= \frac{5\cdot 5\cdot (4!)^3 - 10\cdot 5\cdot 4\cdot (3!)^3 + 10\cdot 5\cdot 4\cdot 3\cdot (2!)^3 - 5\cdot 5! + 5!}{(5!)^3}.\] Dividing by $5!$, we get \[\frac{5\cdot (4!)^2 - 10\cdot (3!)^2 + 10\cdot (2!)^2 - 5 + 1}{(5!)^2}.\] Dividing by $4$, we get \[\frac{5\cdot 6\cdot 24 - 10\cdot 9 + 10 - 1}{30\cdot 120}.\] Dividing by $9$, we get \[\frac{5\cdot 2\cdot 8 - 10 + 1}{10\cdot 40} = \frac{71}{400} \implies \boxed{\textbf{(D) }471}\].

Video Solution by OmegaLearn (Principal of Inclusion Exclusion)

https://youtu.be/o0S8SqRO0Yc

~ pi_is_3.14


2021 AMC 10B (ProblemsAnswer KeyResources)
Preceded by
Problem 21
Followed by
Problem 23
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