Maths Olympiad Prep

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Problem 904

AMC 12 late, AIME early
Combinatorics Difficulty 4.7 Find the answer Harvard-MIT Math Tournament · United States

A certain cafeteria serves ham and cheese sandwiches, ham and tomato sandwiches, and tomato and cheese sandwiches. It is common for one meal to include multiple types of sandwiches. On a certain day, it was found that 80 customers had meals which contained both ham and cheese; 90 had meals containing both ham and tomatoes; 100 had meals containing both tomatoes and cheese. 20 customers' meals included all three ingredients. How many customers were there?

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

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Official solution

Solution: 230. Everyone who ate just one sandwich is included in exactly one of the first three counts, while everyone who ate more than one sandwich is included in all four counts. Thus, to count each customer exactly once, we must add the first three figures and subtract the fourth twice: 80+90+100220=23080+90+100-2 \cdot 20=230.

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