2005 AMC 10B Problems/Problem 12

Revision as of 09:15, 1 June 2021 by Mobius247 (talk | contribs) (Solution 2)

Problem

Twelve fair dice are rolled. What is the probability that the product of the numbers on the top faces is prime?

$\mathrm{(A)} \left(\frac{1}{12}\right)^{12} \qquad \mathrm{(B)} \left(\frac{1}{6}\right)^{12} \qquad \mathrm{(C)} 2\left(\frac{1}{6}\right)^{11} \qquad \mathrm{(D)} \frac{5}{2}\left(\frac{1}{6}\right)^{11} \qquad \mathrm{(E)} \left(\frac{1}{6}\right)^{10}$

Solution

In order for the product of the numbers to be prime, $11$ of the dice have to be a $1$, and the other die has to be a prime number. There are $3$ prime numbers ($2$, $3$, and $5$), and there is only one $1$, and there are $\dbinom{12}{1}$ ways to choose which die will have the prime number, so the probability is $\dfrac{3}{6}\times\left(\dfrac{1}{6}\right)^{11}\times\dbinom{12}{1} = \dfrac{1}{2}\times\left(\dfrac{1}{6}\right)^{11}\times12=\left(\dfrac{1}{6}\right)^{11}\times6=\boxed{\mathrm{(E)}\ \left(\dfrac{1}{6}\right)^{10}}$.

Solution 2

There are three cases where the product of the numbers is prime. One die will show $2$, $3$, or $5$ and each of the other $11$ dice will show a $1$. For each of these three cases, the number of ways to order the numbers is $\dbinom{12}{1}$ = $12$ . There are $6$ possible numbers for each of the $12$ dice, so the total number of permutations is $6^{12}$. The probability the product is prime is therefore \frac{3\cdot 12}{6^{12}

$\dfrac{x}{\sqrt{2}}=\dfrac{x\sqrt{2}}{2}$

$\frac{3\cdot 12}{6^{12}} = \left(\frac{1}{6^{10}}\right)$

\left(\dfrac{1}{6}\right)^{10}}

See Also

2005 AMC 10B (ProblemsAnswer KeyResources)
Preceded by
Problem 11
Followed by
Problem 13
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All AMC 10 Problems and Solutions

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