2018 AMC 8 Problems/Problem 19
Contents
Problem
In a sign pyramid a cell gets a "+" if the two cells below it have the same sign, and it gets a "-" if the two cells below it have different signs. The diagram below illustrates a sign pyramid with four levels. How many possible ways are there to fill the four cells in the bottom row to produce a "+" at the top of the pyramid?
Solution 1
You could just make out all of the patterns that make the top positive. In this case, you would have the following patterns:
+−−+, −++−, −−−−, ++++, −+−+, +−+−, ++−−, −−++. There are 8 patterns and so the answer is .
-NinjaBoi2000
Solution 2
The top box is fixed by the problem.
Choose the left 3 bottom-row boxes freely. There are ways.
Then the left 2 boxes on the row above are determined.
Then the left 1 box on the row above that is determined
Then the right 1 box on that row is determined.
Then the right 1 box on the row below is determined.
Then the right 1 box on the bottom row is determined, completing the diagram.
So the answer is .
~BraveCobra22aops
Solution 3
Let the plus sign represent 1 and the negative sign represent -1.
The four numbers on the bottom are ,
,
, and
, which are either 1 or -1.
Which means = 1. Since
and
are either 1 or -1,
and
. This shows that
= 1.
Therefore either ,
,
, and
are all positive or negative, or 2 are positive and 2 are negative.
There are 2 ways where ,
,
, and
are 1 (1, 1, 1, 1) and (-1, -1, -1, -1)
There are 6 ways where 2 variables are positive and 2 are negative: (1, 1, -1, -1), (1, -1, 1, -1), (-1, 1, 1, -1), (-1, -1, 1, 1), (-1, 1, -1, 1), and (-1, -1, 1, 1).
So the answer is .
~atharvd
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Video Solution
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See Also
2018 AMC 8 (Problems • Answer Key • Resources) | ||
Preceded by Problem 18 |
Followed by Problem 20 | |
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