Difference between revisions of "2014 AMC 10B Problems/Problem 24"

(Problem)
Line 2: Line 2:
  
 
==Problem==
 
==Problem==
The numbers <math>1, 2, 3, 4, 5</math> are to be arranged in a circle. An arrangement is <math>bad</math> if it is not true that for every <math>n</math> from <math>1</math> to <math>15</math> one can find a subset of the numbers that appear consecutively on the circle that sum to <math>n</math>. Arrangements that differ only by a rotation or a reflection are considered the same. How many different bad arrangements are there?
+
The numbers <math>1, 2, 3, 4, 5</math> are to be arranged in a circle. An arrangement is [i]bad[/i] if it is not true that for every <math>n</math> from <math>1</math> to <math>15</math> one can find a subset of the numbers that appear consecutively on the circle that sum to <math>n</math>. Arrangements that differ only by a rotation or a reflection are considered the same. How many different bad arrangements are there?
  
 
<math> \textbf {(A) } 1 \qquad \textbf {(B) } 2 \qquad \textbf {(C) } 3 \qquad \textbf {(D) } 4 \qquad \textbf {(E) } 5 </math>
 
<math> \textbf {(A) } 1 \qquad \textbf {(B) } 2 \qquad \textbf {(C) } 3 \qquad \textbf {(D) } 4 \qquad \textbf {(E) } 5 </math>

Revision as of 16:05, 30 December 2015

The following problem is from both the 2014 AMC 12B #18 and 2014 AMC 10B #24, so both problems redirect to this page.

Problem

The numbers $1, 2, 3, 4, 5$ are to be arranged in a circle. An arrangement is [i]bad[/i] if it is not true that for every $n$ from $1$ to $15$ one can find a subset of the numbers that appear consecutively on the circle that sum to $n$. Arrangements that differ only by a rotation or a reflection are considered the same. How many different bad arrangements are there?

$\textbf {(A) } 1 \qquad \textbf {(B) } 2 \qquad \textbf {(C) } 3 \qquad \textbf {(D) } 4 \qquad \textbf {(E) } 5$

Solution

We see that there are $5!$ total ways to arrange the numbers. However, we can always rotate these numbers so that, for example, the number $1$ is always at the top of the circle. Thus, there are only $4!$ ways under rotation, which is not difficult to list out. We systematically list out all $24$ cases.

Now, we must examine if they satisfy the conditions. We can see that by choosing one number at a time, we can always obtain subsets with sums $1, 2, 3, 4,$ and $5$. By choosing the full circle, we can obtain $15$. By choosing everything except for $1, 2, 3, 4,$ and $5$, we can obtain subsets with sums of $10, 11, 12, 13,$ and $14$.

This means that we now only need to check for $6, 7, 8,$ and $9$. However, once we have found a set summing to $6$, we can choose everything else and obtain a set summing to $9$, and similarly for $7$ and $8$. Thus, we only need to check each case for whether or not we can obtain $6$ or $7$.

We find that there are only $4$ arrangements that satisfy these conditions. However, each of these is a reflection of another. We divide by $2$ for these reflections to obtain a final answer of $\boxed{\textbf {(B) }2}$.

See Also

2014 AMC 10B (ProblemsAnswer KeyResources)
Preceded by
Problem 23
Followed by
Problem 25
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
2014 AMC 12B (ProblemsAnswer KeyResources)
Preceded by
Problem 17
Followed by
Problem 19
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. AMC logo.png