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Combinatorics Difficulty 5.3 AIME, harder Find the answer

Alice writes 1001 letters on a blackboard, each one chosen independently and uniformly at random from the set S={a,b,c}S=\{a, b, c\}. A move consists of erasing two distinct letters from the board and replacing them with the third letter in SS. What is the probability that Alice can perform a sequence of moves which results in one letter remaining on the blackboard?

A number or a short expression. Spacing and $ signs are ignored.

Solution

Let na,nbn_{a}, n_{b}, and ncn_{c} be the number of aa 's, bb 's, and cc 's on the board, respectively. The key observation is that each move always changes the parity of all three of na,nbn_{a}, n_{b}, and ncn_{c}. Since the final configuration must have na,nbn_{a}, n_{b}, and ncn_{c} equal to 1,0,01,0,0 in some order, Alice cannot leave one letter on the board if na,nbn_{a}, n_{b}, and ncn_{c} start with the same parity (because then they will always have the same parity). Alice also cannot leave one letter on the board if all the letters are initially the same (because she will have no moves to make). We claim that in all other cases, Alice can make a sequence of moves leaving one letter on the board. The proof is inductive: the base cases na+nb+nc2n_{a}+n_{b}+n_{c} \leq 2 are easy to verify, as the possible tuples are (1,0,0),(1,1,0)(1,0,0),(1,1,0), and permutations. If na+nb+nc3n_{a}+n_{b}+n_{c} \geq 3, assume without loss of generality that nanbncn_{a} \geq n_{b} \geq n_{c}. Then nb1n_{b} \geq 1 (because otherwise all the letters are aa) and na2n_{a} \geq 2 (because otherwise (na,nb,nc)=(1,1,1)(n_{a}, n_{b}, n_{c})=(1,1,1), which all have the same parity). Then Alice will replace aa and bb by cc, reducing to a smaller case. We begin by computing the probability that na,nbn_{a}, n_{b}, and ncn_{c} start with the same parity. Suppose mm letters are chosen at random in the same way (so that we are in the case m=1001m=1001). Let xmx_{m} be the probability that na,nbn_{a}, n_{b}, and ncn_{c} all have the same parity. We have the recurrence xm+1=13(1xm)x_{m+1}=\frac{1}{3}\left(1-x_{m}\right) because when choosing the (m+1)(m+1)th letter, the nin_{i} can only attain the same parity if they did not before, and the appropriate letter is drawn. Clearly x0=1x_{0}=1, which enables us to compute xm=14(1+3(3)m)x_{m}=\frac{1}{4}\left(1+3 \cdot(-3)^{-m}\right). Then x1001x_{1001} is the probability that na,nbn_{a}, n_{b}, and ncn_{c} have the same parity. The probability that all the letters are initially the same is 310003^{-1000}, as this occurs exactly when all the subsequent letters match the first. Thus our final answer is 13100014(1+3(3)1001)=341439991-3^{-1000}-\frac{1}{4}\left(1+3 \cdot(-3)^{-1001}\right)=\frac{3}{4}-\frac{1}{4 \cdot 3^{999}}

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