Maths Olympiad Prep

Track / Stage 3 / 150 of 260 #150 of 1964

Problem 150

AMC 10/12, early questions
Combinatorics Difficulty 3.4 Find the answer

Find the number of ways 6666 identical coins can be separated into three nonempty piles so that there are fewer coins in the first pile than in the second pile and fewer coins in the second pile than in the third pile.

A number or a short expression. Spacing and $ signs are ignored.

Official solution

Suppose we have 11 coin in the first pile. Then (1,2,63),(1,3,62),,(1,32,33)(1, 2, 63), (1, 3, 62), \ldots, (1, 32, 33) all work for a total of 3131 piles. Suppose we have 22 coins in the first pile, then (2,3,61),(2,4,60),,(2,31,33)(2, 3, 61), (2, 4, 60), \ldots, (2, 31, 33) all work, for a total of 2929. Continuing this pattern until 2121 coins in the first pile, we have the sum
\begin{align*} 31+29+28+26+25+\cdots+4+2+1 &= (31+28+25+22+\cdots+1)+(29+26+23+\cdots+2) \\ &= 176+155 \\ &= \boxed{331}. \end{align*}

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