Maths Olympiad Prep

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Combinatorics Difficulty 4.8 AIME Find the answer Canada

Andreas, Boyu, Callista, and Diane each randomly choose an
integer from 1 to 9, inclusive. Each of their choices is independent of
the other integers chosen and the same integer can be chosen by more
than one person. The probability that the sum of their four integers is
even is equal to N6561\dfrac{N}{6561}
for some positive integer NN. What
is the sum of the squares of the digits of NN?

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

Solution

Suppose that Andreas, Boyu, Callista, and Diane choose the
numbers aa, bb, cc, and dd, respectively.

There are 9 choices for each of aa,
bb, cc, and dd, so the total number of quadruples
(a,b,c,d)(a,b,c,d) of choices is 94=65619^4 = 6561.

Among the 9 choices, 5 are odd (1,3,5,7,91,3,5,7,9) and 4 are even (2,4,6,82,4,6,8).

If there are NN quadruples (a,b,c,d)(a,b,c,d) with a+b+c+da+b+c+d even (that is, with the sum of
their choices even), then the probability that the sum of their four
integers is even is N6561\dfrac{N}{6561}, which is in the desired
form.

Therefore, we count the number of quadruples (a,b,c,d)(a,b,c,d) with a+b+c+da+b+c+d even.

Among the four integer aa, bb, cc, dd, either 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4 of these
integers are even, with the remaining integers odd.

If 0 of aa, bb, cc, dd
are even and 4 are odd, their sum is even.

If 1 of aa, bb, cc, dd
is even and 3 are odd, their sum is odd.

If 2 of aa, bb, cc, dd
are even and 2 are odd, their sum is even.

If 3 of aa, bb, cc, dd
are even and 1 is odd, their sum is odd.

If 4 of aa, bb, cc, dd
are even and 0 are odd, their sum is even.

Therefore, we need to count the number of quadruples (a,b,c,d)(a,b,c,d) with 0, 2 or 4 even parts.

If 0 are even and 4 are odd, there are 5 choices for each of the
parts, and so there are 54=6255^4 = 625
such quadruples.

If 4 are even and 0 are odd, there are 4 choices for each of the parts,
and so there are 44=2564^4 = 256 such
quadruples.

If 2 are even and 2 are odd, there are 4 choices for each of the even
parts and 5 choices for each of the odd parts, and 6 pairs of locations
for the even integers ($ab, ac, ad, bc, bd,
cd$) with the odd integers put in the remaining two locations
after the locations of the even integers are chosen. Thus, there are
42526=24004^2 \cdot 5^2 \cdot 6 = 2400 such
quadruples.

In total, this means that there are $625 +
256 + 2400 = 3281quadruplesandso quadruples and so N = 3281$.

The sum of the squares of the digits of NN is equal to $3^2 + 2^2 + 8^2 + 1^2 = 9 + 4 + 64 + 1 =
78$.

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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.