2018 AIME I Problem 9

Below is the professionally curated solution for Problem 9 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.

All of the real AMC 8, AMC 10, AMC 12, and AIME problems in our complete solution collection are used with official legal permission of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA).

Concepts:subsetscounting pairscasework

Difficulty rating: 2990

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.

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 78=567 \cdot 8 = 56 combinations, the ones sharing an element xx require 16x,16 - x, x,x, and 24x24 - 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 5610=4656 - 10 = 46 subsets.

In the remaining subsets every 1616-pair meets every 2424-pair, so some center aa has both b=16ab = 16 - a and c=24ac = 24 - a in the subset. There are 1010 possible centers (a{4,,15}a \in \{4, \ldots, 15\} with a8,12a \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 1706=164170 - 6 = 164 subsets, none of which contain disjoint pairs.

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

← Problem 8Full ExamProblem 10

Problem 9 in Other Years