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Difference between revisions of "2021 Fall AMC 10A Problems/Problem 21"

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Revision as of 20:58, 22 November 2021

Problem

Each of the $20$ balls is tossed independently and at random into one of the $5$ bins. Let $p$ be the probability that some bin ends up with $3$ balls, another with $5$ balls, and the other three with $4$ balls each. Let $q$ be the probability that every bin ends up with $4$ balls. What is $\frac{p}{q}$?

$\textbf{(A)}\ 1 \qquad\textbf{(B)}\ 4 \qquad\textbf{(C)}\ 8 \qquad\textbf{(D)}\ 12 \qquad\textbf{(E)}\ 16$

Solution 1 (Multinomial Numbers)

For simplicity purposes, we assume that the balls are indistinguishable and the bins are distinguishable.

Let $d$ be the number of ways to distribute $20$ balls to $5$ bins. We have \[p=\frac{5\cdot4\cdot\binom{20}{3,5,4,4,4}}{d} \text{ and } q=\frac{\binom{20}{4,4,4,4,4}}{d}.\] Therefore, the answer is \[\frac pq=\frac{5\cdot4\cdot\binom{20}{3,5,4,4,4}}{\binom{20}{4,4,4,4,4}}=\frac{5\cdot4\cdot\frac{20!}{3!5!4!4!4!}}{\frac{20!}{4!4!4!4!4!}}=\frac{5\cdot4\cdot(4!4!4!4!4!)}{3!5!4!4!4!}=\frac{5\cdot4\cdot4}{5}=\boxed{\textbf{(E)}\ 16}.\]

Remark

By the stars and bars argument, we get $d=\binom{20+5-1}{5-1}=\binom{24}{4}.$

~MRENTHUSIASM

Solution 3 (Simple)

See Also

2021 Fall AMC 10A (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by
Problem 20 		Followed by
Problem 22
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

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