Maths Olympiad Prep

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Combinatorics Difficulty 6.7 National olympiad Find the answer

Alice the ant starts at vertex AA of regular hexagon ABCDEFABCDEF and moves either right or left each move with equal probability. After 3535 moves, what is the probability that she is on either vertex AA or CC?

2015 CCA Math Bonanza Lightning Round #5.3

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

Solution

1. Understanding the problem: Alice starts at vertex A A of a regular hexagon ABCDEF ABCDEF and moves either right or left with equal probability. We need to find the probability that after 35 moves, Alice is at either vertex A A or C C .

2. Analyzing the movement: In a regular hexagon, moving right or left from any vertex will move Alice to an adjacent vertex. The vertices are cyclic, so moving 6 steps in one direction will bring Alice back to the starting vertex.

3. Distance and parity: To be at vertex A A after 35 moves, Alice must have made an equal number of moves to the right and left, which is impossible since 35 is odd. Therefore, Alice cannot be at vertex A A after 35 moves.

4. **Vertex C C **: To be at vertex C C after 35 moves, Alice must have moved 3 steps away from A A (since C C is 3 steps away from A A in either direction). This means the net number of steps in one direction must be 3 more than the steps in the opposite direction. However, since 35 is odd, the net number of steps cannot be 3 (an odd number) because the total number of steps must be even to balance out the odd number of moves.

5. Conclusion: Since Alice cannot be at vertex A A or C C after 35 moves due to the parity of the number of moves, the probability is 0.

0 \boxed{0}

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