2012 AMC 10B Problem 11

Attempt Problem 11 of the 2012 AMC 10B 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 2012 AMC 10B solutions, or check the answer key.

All problems are used with official legal permission of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA).

11.

A dessert chef prepares the dessert for every day of a week starting with Sunday. The dessert each day is either cake, pie, ice cream, or pudding. The same dessert may not be served two days in a row. There must be cake on Friday because of a birthday. How many different dessert menus for the week are possible?
729 729
972 972
1024 1024
2187 2187
2304 2304
Answer: A
Concepts:arrangements with restrictionsmultiplication principlework backwards
Small hint:
Work backward from Friday
Big hint:
Each neighboring day has 33 choices once the next day is fixed
Solution:
We know that there must be cake served on Friday, and as such, on Saturday, we cannot have cake. Therefore, we have 33 choices for Saturday’s menu.
Furthermore, for each of the 55 previous days, we could go backwards and have 33 choices on each day, making the total number of choices 35⋅3=729.3^5\cdot 3 = 729.
Thus, the correct answer is A .
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