2021 AIME I Problem 4

Attempt Problem 4 of the 2021 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 2021 AIME I solutions, or check the answer key.

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4.

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.

Answer: 331
Concepts:partitions and compositionsstars and barssymmetry
Difficulty rating: 2180
Solution:

The ordered triples (a,b,c)(a, b, c) of positive integers with a+b+c=66a + b + c = 66 number (652)=2080.\binom{65}{2} = 2080. Exactly one of them has all three values equal, namely (22,22,22).(22, 22, 22). Triples with exactly two values equal come from 2a+c=662a + c = 66 with ca:c \ne a: here aa can be 11 through 3232 except 22,22, giving 3131 multisets, each arrangeable in 33 ways, so 9393 ordered triples.

Hence 2080193=19862080 - 1 - 93 = 1986 ordered triples have three distinct values, and each unordered choice a<b<ca \lt b \lt c is counted 66 times. The number of valid separations is 19866=331.\frac{1986}{6} = 331.

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