2018 AIME I Problem 10

Below is the professionally curated solution for Problem 10 of the 2018 AIME I, from LIVE by Po-Shen Loh. You can also try the full timed exam, view all 2018 AIME I solutions, or check the answer key.

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Concepts:bijectioncombinationsinvariant

Difficulty rating: 3060

10.

The wheel shown below consists of two circles and five spokes, with a label at each point where a spoke meets a circle. A bug walks along the wheel, starting at point A.A. At every step of the process, the bug walks from one labeled point to an adjacent labeled point. Along the inner circle the bug only walks in a counterclockwise direction, and along the outer circle the bug only walks in a clockwise direction. For example, the bug could travel along the path AJABCHCHIJA,AJABCHCHIJA, which has 1010 steps. Let nn be the number of paths with 1515 steps that begin and end at point A.A. Find the remainder when nn is divided by 1000.1000.

Solution:

From any inner point the bug has exactly two moves, counterclockwise along the inner circle or outward along a spoke; from any outer point it has exactly two, clockwise along the outer circle or inward along a spoke. Call a move XX if it is counterclockwise or inward and YY if it is clockwise or outward. Then every string in {X,Y}15\{X, Y\}^{15} describes exactly one 1515-step path from A.A.

A step arrives on the inner circle exactly when it is an X,X, so the path ends on the inner circle exactly when its last move is an X;X; in that case the numbers of inward and outward moves are equal. Measuring angular position in fifths of a turn (counterclockwise +1,+1, clockwise 1,-1, spokes 00), the path returns to AA exactly when it ends on the inner circle and the net rotation is a multiple of 5,5, that is, when the last move is XX and #X#Y0(mod5).\#X - \#Y \equiv 0 \pmod 5. With 1515 moves this means the number of XXs is 5,5, 10,10, or 15.15.

Fixing the last move as X,X, the first 1414 moves contain 4,4, 9,9, or 1414 XXs, so n=(144)+(149)+(1414)=1001+2002+1=3004,n = \binom{14}{4} + \binom{14}{9} + \binom{14}{14} = 1001 + 2002 + 1 = 3004, and the remainder is 4.4.

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