Olympiad Maths Prep

Track / Stage 3 / 158 of 260 #158 of 2000

Problem 158

AMC 10/12, early questions
Combinatorics Difficulty 3.5 Find the answer

Let SS be the set of points (a,b)(a,b) in the coordinate plane, where each of aa and bb may be 1- 1, 00, or 11. How many distinct lines pass through at least two members of SS?
(A) 8(B) 20(C) 24(D) 27(E) 36\text {(A)}\ 8 \qquad \text {(B)}\ 20 \qquad \text {(C)}\ 24 \qquad \text {(D)}\ 27\qquad \text {(E)}\ 36

Official solution

2004 AMC12A-13.png
Solution 1
Let's count them by cases:

2004 AMC12A-13b.png
Case 1: The line is horizontal or vertical, clearly 32=63 \cdot 2 = 6.
Case 2: The line has slope ±1\pm 1, with 22 through (0,0)(0,0) and 44 additional ones one unit above or below those. These total 66.
Case 3: The only remaining lines pass through two points, a vertex and a non-vertex point on the opposite side. Thus we have each vertex pairing up with two points on the two opposites sides, giving 42=84 \cdot 2 = 8 lines.
These add up to 6+6+8=20 (B)6+6+8=20\ \mathrm{(B)}.

Solution 2
There are (92)=36{9 \choose 2} = 36 ways to pick two points, but we've clearly overcounted all of the lines which pass through three points. In fact, each line which passes through three points will have been counted (32)=3{3 \choose 2} = 3 times, so we have to subtract 22 for each of these lines. Quick counting yields 33 horizontal, 33 vertical, and 22 diagonal lines, so the answer is 362(3+3+2)=2036 - 2(3+3+2) = 20 distinct lines.

Solution 3
First consider how many lines go through (1,1)(-1, -1) and hit two points in SS. You can see that there are 55 such lines. Now, we cross out (1,1)(-1, -1) and make sure to never consider consider lines that go through it anymore (As doing so would be double counting). Repeat for (1,0)(-1, 0), making sure not to count the vertical line as it goes through the crossed out (1,1)(-1, -1). Then cross out (1,0)(-1, 0). Repeat for the rest, and count 2020 lines in total.

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