Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /391 of 1394

, 2022

Combinatorics Difficulty 5.1 AIME, harder Find the answer United States

Problem:
Let S={(x,y)Z20x11,0y9}S=\{(x, y) \in \mathbb{Z}^2 \mid 0 \leq x \leq 11, 0 \leq y \leq 9\}. Compute the number of sequences (s0,s1,,sn)(s_0, s_1, \ldots, s_n) of elements in SS (for any positive integer n2n \geq 2) that satisfy the following conditions:
- s0=(0,0)s_0 = (0,0) and s1=(1,0)s_1 = (1,0),
- s0,s1,,sns_0, s_1, \ldots, s_n are distinct,
- for all integers 2in2 \leq i \leq n, sis_i is obtained by rotating si2s_{i-2} about si1s_{i-1} by either 9090^\circ or 180180^\circ in the clockwise direction.

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

Solution

Solution:
Let ana_n be the number of such possibilities where there are nn 9090^{\circ} turns. Note that a0=10a_0 = 10 and a1=119a_1 = 11 \cdot 9.

Now suppose n=2kn = 2k with k1k \geq 1. The path traced out by the sis_i is uniquely determined by a choice of k+1k+1 nonnegative xx-coordinates and kk positive yy-coordinates indicating where to turn and when to stop. If n=2k+1n = 2k+1, the path is uniquely determined by a choice of k+1k+1 nonnegative xx-coordinates and k+1k+1 positive yy-coordinates.

As a result, our final answer is
10+119+(122)(91)+(122)(92)+=12+(120)(90)+(121)(90)+(121)(91)+ 10 + 11 \cdot 9 + \binom{12}{2} \binom{9}{1} + \binom{12}{2} \binom{9}{2} + \cdots = -12 + \binom{12}{0} \binom{9}{0} + \binom{12}{1} \binom{9}{0} + \binom{12}{1} \binom{9}{1} + \cdots
One can check that
k=09(12k)(9k)=k=09(12k)(99k)=(219) \sum_{k=0}^{9} \binom{12}{k} \binom{9}{k} = \sum_{k=0}^{9} \binom{12}{k} \binom{9}{9-k} = \binom{21}{9}
by Vandermonde's identity. Similarly,
k=09(12k+1)(9k)=k=09(12k+1)(99k)=(2110) \sum_{k=0}^{9} \binom{12}{k+1} \binom{9}{k} = \sum_{k=0}^{9} \binom{12}{k+1} \binom{9}{9-k} = \binom{21}{10}
Thus our final answer is
(2210)12=12+22212192172152136!=12+7111325325191724325=12+100121719=64664612=646634. \begin{aligned} \binom{22}{10} - 12 & = -12 + \frac{22 \cdot 21 \cdot 2 \cdot 19 \cdot 2 \cdot 17 \cdot 2 \cdot 15 \cdot 2 \cdot 13}{6!} \\ & = -12 + 7 \cdot 11 \cdot 13 \cdot \frac{2^{5} \cdot 3^{2} \cdot 5 \cdot 19 \cdot 17}{2^{4} \cdot 3^{2} \cdot 5} \\ & = -12 + 1001 \cdot 2 \cdot 17 \cdot 19 \\ & = 646646 - 12 = 646634 . \end{aligned}

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.