Maths Olympiad Prep

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, 2020

Combinatorics Difficulty 4.8 AIME Find the answer Canada

Ali, Bea, Che, and Deb compete in a checkers tournament. Each player plays each other player exactly once. At the end of each game, either the two players tie or one player wins and the other player loses. A player earns 5 points for a win, 0 points for a loss, and 2 points for a tie. Exactly how many of the following final point distributions are possible?

Player
Points

Ali
15

Bea
7

Che
4

Deb
2

Player
Points

Ali
10

Bea
10

Che
4

Deb
4

Player
Points

Ali
15

Bea
5

Che
5

Deb
2

Player
Points

Ali
12

Bea
10

Che
5

Deb
0

00
11
22
33
44

A number or a short expression. Fractions can be typed as 3/2, and spacing doesn't matter.

Solution

Since there are 4 players in the tournament and each player plays each other player once, then each player plays 3 games.

Since each win earns 5 points and each tie earns 2 points, the possible results for an individual player are:

3 wins, 0 losses, 0 ties: 15 points
2 wins, 0 losses, 1 tie: 12 points
2 wins, 1 loss, 0 ties: 10 points
1 win, 0 losses, 2 ties: 9 points
1 win, 1 loss, 1 tie: 7 points
1 win, 2 losses, 0 ties: 5 points
0 wins, 0 losses, 3 ties: 6 points
0 wins, 1 loss, 2 ties: 4 points
0 wins, 2 losses, 1 tie: 2 points
0 wins, 3 losses, 0 ties: 0 points

In the third table given, Deb has 2 points which means that Deb had 1 tie. If one player has a tie, then another player must also have a tie. But neither 15 points nor 5 points is a possible total to obtain with a tie. Therefore, the third table is not possible.

Similarly, in the fourth table, Ali with 12 points must have had a tie, but none of the other players’ scores allow for have a tie, so the fourth table is not possible.

In the second table, each of Che and Deb must have 2 ties and neither Ali nor Bea can have a tie because of their totals of 10 points each. Since Che and Deb only played each other once, then each of them must have a tie against another player, which is not possible. Therefore, the second table is not possible.

The first table is possible:

Result
Ali
Bea
Che
Deb

Ali wins against Bea
5 points
0 points

Ali wins against Che
5 points

0 points

Ali wins against Deb
5 points

0 points

Bea ties Che

2 points
2 points

Bea wins against Deb

5 points

0 points

Che ties Deb

2 points
2 points

TOTAL
15 points
7 points
4 points
2 points

Therefore, exactly one of the four given final point distributions is possible.

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Source: CEMC, University of Waterloo, licensed CC-BY-NC-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.