Maths Olympiad Prep

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Combinatorics Difficulty 3.3 AMC 10/12 Find the answer

Al, Bill, and Cal will each randomly be assigned a whole number from 11 to 1010, inclusive, with no two of them getting the same number. What is the probability that Al's number will be a whole number multiple of Bill's and Bill's number will be a whole number multiple of Cal's?

Pick one

Solution

We can solve this problem with a brute force approach.

If Cal's number is 11:
If Bill's number is 22, Al's can be any of 4,6,8,104, 6, 8, 10.
If Bill's number is 33, Al's can be any of 6,96, 9.
If Bill's number is 44, Al's can be 88.
If Bill's number is 55, Al's can be 1010.
Otherwise, Al's number could not be a whole number multiple of Bill's.
If Cal's number is 22:
If Bill's number is 44, Al's can be 88.
Otherwise, Al's number could not be a whole number multiple of Bill's while Bill's number is still a whole number multiple of Cal's.
Otherwise, Bill's number must be greater than 55, i.e. Al's number could not be a whole number multiple of Bill's.
Clearly, there are exactly 99 cases where Al's number will be a whole number multiple of Bill's and Bill's number will be a whole number multiple of Cal's. Since there are 109810*9*8 possible permutations of the numbers Al, Bill, and Cal were assigned, the probability that this is true is 91098=(C180\frac9{10*9*8}=\boxed{\text{(\textbf C) }\frac1{80}}

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: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.