Question

A set of teams held a round-robin tournament in which every team played every other team exactly once. Every team won $10$ games and lost $10$ games; there were no ties. How many sets of three teams $\{A, B, C\}$ were there in which $A$ beat $B,$ $B$ beat $C,$ and $C$ beat $A?$

$\ 385$

$\ 665$

$\ 945$

$\ 1140$

$\ 1330$

Answer: A

Concepts:graph theory complementary counting combinations

Difficulty rating: 1820

Solution:

The total number of teams is $10+10+1=21.$ The total number of sets is therefore $\binom{21}{3} = 1330.$

Now, we must subtract the total number of sets such that there is no cycle. This only happens if one team beats the other two teams. There are $21$ choices for the team that beat the other two and $\binom{10}{2} = 45$ ways to choose the teams they beat. Thus, the total of non-cycles is $21\cdot 45=945.$ This means the total number of cycles is $1330-945=385.$

Thus, the correct answer is A .

2016 AMC 10B Problem 22

Answer: A

Difficulty rating: 1820

Solution:

Problem 22 in Other Years