2017 AMC 12B Problems/Problem 16

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Problem 16

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

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 $\boxed{\textbf{(B)}\frac{1}{19}}$.

Solution by: vedadehhc

See Also

2017 AMC 12B (ProblemsAnswer KeyResources)
Preceded by
Problem 15
Followed by
Problem 17
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All AMC 12 Problems and Solutions

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