CombinatoricsDifficulty 5.1AIME, harderProve itUnited States
Problem:
Consider a 6×6 grid of squares. Edmond chooses four of these squares uniformly at random. What is the probability that the centers of these four squares form a square?
Solution
Solution:
Firstly, there are (436) possible combinations of points. Call a square proper if its sides are parallel to the coordinate axes and improper otherwise. Note that every improper square can be inscribed in a unique proper square. Hence, an n×n proper square represents a total of n squares: 1 proper and n−1 improper.
There are thus a total of i=1∑6i(6−i)2=i=1∑6(i3−12i2+36i)=i=1∑6i3−12i=1∑6i2+36i=1∑6i=441−12(91)+36(21)=441−1092+756=105 squares on the grid. Our desired probability is thus (436)105=5611.
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Source: MathNet,
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