2019 AIME II Problems/Problem 2

Problem 2

Lily pads $1,2,3,\ldots$ lie in a row on a pond. A frog makes a sequence of jumps starting on pad $1$ . From any pad $k$ the frog jumps to either pad $k+1$ or pad $k+2$ chosen randomly with probability $\tfrac{1}{2}$ and independently of other jumps. The probability that the frog visits pad $7$ is $\tfrac{p}{q}$ , where $p$ and $q$ are relatively prime positive integers. Find $p+q$ .

Solution

Let $P_n$ be the probability the frog reaches pad $7$ starting from pad $n$ . Then $P_7 = 1$ , $P_6 = \frac12$ , and $P_n = \frac12(P_{n + 1} + P_{n + 2})$ for all integers $1 \leq n \leq 5$ . Working our way down to $P_1$ , we find $P_1 = \frac{43}{64}$ . $43 + 64 = \boxed{107}$ .

2019 AIME II (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 1	Followed by Problem 3
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2019 AIME II Problems/Problem 2

Problem 2

Solution

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