Difference between revisions of "2017 AMC 10B Problems/Problem 20"

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Revision as of 12:24, 2 January 2020

Problem

The number $21!=51,090,942,171,709,440,000$ has over $60,000$ positive integer divisors. One of them is chosen at random. What is the probability that it is odd?

$\textbf{(A)}\ \frac{1}{21}\qquad\textbf{(B)}\ \frac{1}{19}\qquad\textbf{(C)}\ \frac{1}{18}\qquad\textbf{(D)}\ \frac{1}{2}\qquad\textbf{(E)}\ \frac{11}{21}$

Solution 1

We note that the only thing that affects the parity of the factor are the powers of 2. There are $10+5+2+1 = 18$ factors of 2 in the number. Thus, there are $18$ cases in which a factor of $21!$ would be even (have a factor of $2$ in its prime factorization), and $1$ case in which a factor of $21!$ would be odd. Therefore, the answer is $\boxed{\textbf{(B)} \frac 1{19}}$

Solution 2: Constructive counting

Consider how to construct any divisor $D$ of $21!$. First by Legendre's theorem for the divisors of a factorial (see here: http://www.cut-the-knot.org/blue/LegendresTheorem.shtml and here: Legendre's Formula), we have that there are a total of 18 factors of 2 in the number. $D$ can take up either 0, 1, 2, 3,..., or all 18 factors of 2, for a total of 19 possible cases. In order for $D$ to be odd, however, it must have 0 factors of 2, meaning that there is a probability of 1 case/19 cases= $\boxed{1/19, \space \text{B}}$

See Also

2017 AMC 10B (ProblemsAnswer KeyResources)
Preceded by
Problem 19
Followed by
Problem 21
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

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

2017 AMC 12B (ProblemsAnswer KeyResources)
Preceded by
Problem 16
Followed by
Problem 18
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