Track / Stage 3 / 102 of 260 #102 of 2000

Problem 102

AMC 10/12, early questions

Combinatorics Difficulty 3.3 Find the answer

In the figure below, $3$ of the $6$ disks are to be painted blue, $2$ are to be painted red, and $1$ is to be painted green. Two paintings that can be obtained from one another by a rotation or a reflection of the entire figure are considered the same. How many different paintings are possible?
[asy] size(100); pair A, B, C, D, E, F; A = (0,0); B = (1,0); C = (2,0); D = rotate(60, A)*B; E = B + D; F = rotate(60, A)*C; draw(Circle(A, 0.5)); draw(Circle(B, 0.5)); draw(Circle(C, 0.5)); draw(Circle(D, 0.5)); draw(Circle(E, 0.5)); draw(Circle(F, 0.5)); [/asy]
$\textbf{(A) } 6 \qquad \textbf{(B) } 8 \qquad \textbf{(C) } 9 \qquad \textbf{(D) } 12 \qquad \textbf{(E) } 15$

Your answer

Official solution

Looking at the answer choices, we see that the possibilities are indeed countable. Thus, we will utilize that approach in the form of two separate cases, as rotation and reflection take care of numerous possibilities. First, consider the case that the green disk is in a corner. This yields $6$ possible arrangements for the $3$ blue disks and $2$ red disks in the remaining available slots. Now, consider the case that the green disk is on an edge. This yields $6$ more possible arrangements for the $3$ blue disks and $2$ red disks in the remaining available slots. Thus, our answer is $6 + 6 = \boxed{\bold{(D)}\, 12}$
Solution by akaashp11

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