2005 AIME I Problem 9
Attempt Problem 9 of the 2005 AIME I below, then check your answer against the professionally curated solution from LIVE by Po-Shen Loh. You can also try the full timed exam, view all 2005 AIME I solutions, or check the answer key.
All problems are used with official legal permission of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA).
9.
Twenty-seven unit cubes are each painted orange on a set of four faces so that the two unpainted faces share an edge. The cubes are then randomly arranged to form a cube. Given that the probability that the entire surface of the larger cube is orange is where and are distinct primes and and are positive integers, find
Answer: 74
Solution:
Each unit cube has one "bad edge": the edge shared by its two unpainted faces. The larger cube's surface is entirely orange exactly when every unit cube's bad edge touches no visible face. A uniformly random orientation places the bad edge uniformly among the cube's edge positions, so for each unit cube we count the edge positions both of whose faces are hidden.
A corner cube shows faces meeting at a vertex; the safe edges are those of the hidden faces meeting at the opposite vertex, so the probability is An edge cube shows adjacent faces, which touch edges, leaving safe: probability A face-center cube shows face touching edges, leaving safe: probability The center cube is always fine.
With corner, edge, and face-center cubes, the probability is so
Problem 9 in Other Years
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