2020 AMC 12B Problems/Problem 19

Square $ABCD$ in the coordinate plane has vertices at the points $A(1,1), B(-1,1), C(-1,-1),$ and $D(1,-1).$ Consider the following four transformations: $L,$ a rotation of $90^{\circ}$ counterclockwise around the origin; $R,$ a rotation of $90^{\circ}$ clockwise around the origin; $H,$ a reflection across the $x$ -axis; and $V,$ a reflection across the $y$ -axis.

Each of these transformations maps the squares onto itself, but the positions of the labeled vertices will change. For example, applying $R$ and then $V$ would send the vertex $A$ at $(1,1)$ to $(-1,-1)$ and would send the vertex $B$ at $(-1,1)$ to itself. How many sequences of $20$ transformations chosen from $\{L, R, H, V\}$ will send all of the labeled vertices back to their original positions? (For example, $R, R, V, H$ is one sequence of $4$ transformations that will send the vertices back to their original positions.)

$\textbf{(A)}\ 2^{37} \qquad\textbf{(B)}\ 3\cdot 2^{36} \qquad\textbf{(C)}\ 2^{38} \qquad\textbf{(D)}\ 3\cdot 2^{37} \qquad\textbf{(E)}\ 2^{39}$

Solution

none as of yet...

2020 AMC 12B (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 18	Followed by Problem 20
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 12 Problems and Solutions

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

Page

Toolbox

Search

2020 AMC 12B Problems/Problem 19

Solution