Maths Olympiad Prep

Track / Stage 3 / 220 of 260 #220 of 1964

Problem 220

AMC 10/12, early questions
Number theory Difficulty 3.8 Multiple choice

A positive integer divisor of 12!12! is chosen at random. The probability that the divisor chosen is a perfect square can be expressed as mn\frac{m}{n}, where mm and nn are relatively prime positive integers. What is m+nm+n?

Pick one

Official solution

The prime factorization of 12!12! is 21035527112^{10} \cdot 3^5 \cdot 5^2 \cdot 7 \cdot 11.
This yields a total of 11632211 \cdot 6 \cdot 3 \cdot 2 \cdot 2 divisors of 12!.12!.
In order to produce a perfect square divisor, there must be an even exponent for each number in the prime factorization. Note that the divisor can't have any factors of 77 and 1111 in the prime factorization because there is only one of each in 12!.12!. Thus, there are 6326 \cdot 3 \cdot 2 perfect squares. (For 22, you can have 00, 22, 44, 66, 88, or 1010 22s, etc.)
The probability that the divisor chosen is a perfect square is 632116322=122    mn=122    m + n=1 + 22=(E) 23\frac{6\cdot 3\cdot 2}{11\cdot 6\cdot 3\cdot 2\cdot 2}=\frac{1}{22} \implies \frac{m}{n}=\frac{1}{22} \implies m\ +\ n = 1\ +\ 22 = \boxed{\textbf{(E) } 23 }
~mshell214, edited by Rzhpamath

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