2018 AIME I Problem 9

Attempt Problem 9 of the 2018 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 2018 AIME I solutions, or check the answer key.

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9.

Find the number of four-element subsets of {1,2,3,4,…,20}\{1, 2, 3, 4, \ldots, 20\} with the property that two distinct elements of the subset have a sum of 16,16, and two distinct elements of the subset have a sum of 24.24. For example, {3,5,13,19}\{3, 5, 13, 19\} and {6,10,20,18}\{6, 10, 20, 18\} are two such subsets.

Answer: 210
Concepts:subsetscounting pairscasework
Difficulty rating: 2990
Small Hint:

There are 77 pairs summing to 1616 and 88 pairs summing to 24;24; split by whether the two pairs can be chosen disjoint

Big Hint:

If the pairs must overlap, some element aa has both 16−a16 - a and 24−a24 - a in the subset plus a free fourth element; subtract the subsets that have two such centers

Solution:

The pairs of distinct elements summing to 1616 are {1,15},{2,14},…,{7,9}\{1,15\}, \{2,14\}, \ldots, \{7,9\} (seven pairs), and those summing to 2424 are {4,20},{5,19},…,{11,13}\{4,20\}, \{5,19\}, \ldots, \{11,13\} (eight pairs). First count subsets containing a 1616-pair and a 2424-pair that are disjoint. Of the 7⋅8=567 \cdot 8 = 56 combinations, the ones sharing an element xx require 16−x,16 - x, x,x, and 24−x24 - x all to be valid, which happens for the 1010 values x∈{4,…,15}x \in \{4, \ldots, 15\} other than 88 and 12.12. No four-element set arises from two different disjoint combinations (a second decomposition would force a 1616-pair to coincide with a 2424-pair), so this case gives 56−10=4656 - 10 = 46 subsets.

In the remaining subsets every 1616-pair meets every 2424-pair, so some center aa has both b=16−ab = 16 - a and c=24−ac = 24 - a in the subset. There are 1010 possible centers (a∈{4,…,15}a \in \{4, \ldots, 15\} with a≠8,12a \ne 8, 12), and the fourth element can be any of the 1717 remaining numbers, giving 170170 center–subset counts. Exactly 66 subsets admit two centers and are counted twice: {1,7,9,15},\{1,7,9,15\}, {2,6,10,14},\{2,6,10,14\}, {3,5,11,13},\{3,5,11,13\}, {5,11,13,19},\{5,11,13,19\}, {6,10,14,18},\{6,10,14,18\}, and {7,9,15,17}.\{7,9,15,17\}. This case gives 170−6=164170 - 6 = 164 subsets, none of which contain disjoint pairs.

The total is 46+164=210.46 + 164 = 210.

Problem 8#8
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