Maths Olympiad Prep

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Combinatorics Difficulty 2.7 Junior Find the answer Canada

A 10 by 10 grid is created using 100 points, as shown.

Figure 0

Point PP is given. One of the other 99 points is randomly chosen to be QQ. What is the probability that the line segment PQPQ is vertical or horizontal?

Pick one

Solution

Line segment PQPQ is vertical if QQ is chosen from the points in the column in which PP lies. This column contains 9 points other than PP which could be chosen to be QQ so that PQPQ is vertical. Line segment PQPQ is horizontal if QQ is chosen from the points in the row in which PP lies. This row contains 9 points other than PP which could be chosen to be QQ so that PQPQ is horizontal. Each of these 9 points is different from the 9 points in the column containing PP. Thus, there are 9+9=189+9=18 points which may be chosen to be QQ so that PQPQ is vertical or horizontal. Since there are a total of 99 points to choose QQ from, the probability that QQ is chosen so that PQPQ is vertical or horizontal is 1899\frac{18}{99} or 211\frac{2}{11}.

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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.