2017 AMC 12B Problems/Problem 16

Revision as of 18:05, 16 February 2017 by Vedadehhc (talk | contribs) (Created page with "If a factor of <math>21!</math> is odd, that means it contains no factors of <math>2</math>. We can find the number of factors of two in <math>21!</math> by counting the numbe...")
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)

If a factor of $21!$ is odd, that means it contains no factors of $2$. We can find the number of factors of two in $21!$ by counting the number multiples of $2$, $4$, $8$, and $16$ that are less than or equal to $21$.After some quick counting we find that this number is $10+5+2+1 = 18$. If the prime factorization of $21!$ has $18$ factors of $2$, there are $19$ choices for each divisor for how many factors of $2$ should be included ($0$ to $18$ inclusive). The probability that a randomly chosen factor is odd is the same as if the number of factors of $2$ is $0$ which is $\frac{1}{19} \Rightarrow \boxed{B}$.