Olympiad Maths Prep

Track / Stage 4 / 240 of 340 #500 of 2000

Problem 500

AMC 12 late, AIME early
Combinatorics Difficulty 4.9 Find the answer

3. Rolling a die twice yields the numbers m,nm, n, and the vector a=(m,n)\boldsymbol{a}=(m, n) is formed. Then the probability that the angle between a\boldsymbol{a} and the vector b=\boldsymbol{b}= (1,1)(1,-1) is an angle within a right triangle is ( ).
(A) 512\frac{5}{12}
(B) 12\frac{1}{2}
(C) 712\frac{7}{12}
(D) 34\frac{3}{4}

Official solution

3. C.

Solution 1: Since m,nm, n can take 1,2,,61,2, \cdots, 6, the vector a\boldsymbol{a} has 6×6=366 \times 6=36 possible positions. When a\boldsymbol{a} and b=(1,1)\boldsymbol{b}=(1,-1) form an angle that is an interior angle of a right triangle,
\begin{array}{l} \cos \langle\boldsymbol{a}, \boldsymbol{b}\rangle=\frac{\boldsymbol{a} \cdot \boldsymbol{b}}{|\boldsymbol{a}||\boldsymbol{b}|}=\frac{m-n}{\sqrt{m^{2}+n^{2}} \cdot \sqrt{2}} \in[0,1) \\ \Leftrightarrow 0 \leqslant m-n<0 \text {. }

The above inequality is obviously always true.
The number of solutions to the inequality mn0m-n \geqslant 0 is
6+5+4+3+2+1=21 6+5+4+3+2+1=21 \text {. }

Therefore, the probability that the angle between a\boldsymbol{a} and b\boldsymbol{b} is an interior angle of a right triangle is 2136=712\frac{21}{36}=\frac{7}{12}.
Solution 2: Let the angle between a\boldsymbol{a} and b\boldsymbol{b} be θ\theta.
When m=nm=n, θ\theta is a right angle, with 6 cases; for the remaining 30 cases, by symmetry, half have mn>0m-n>0, making θ\theta an acute angle, and the other half have mn<0m-n<0, making θ\theta an obtuse angle. Therefore, the number of cases where the angle between a\boldsymbol{a} and b\boldsymbol{b} is an interior angle of a right triangle is 6+15=216+15=21, and the probability is 2136=712\frac{21}{36}=\frac{7}{12}.

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