2000 AMC 12 Problem 23

Attempt Problem 23 of the 2000 AMC 12 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 2000 AMC 12 solutions, or check the answer key.

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

23.

Professor Gamble buys a lottery ticket, which requires that he pick six different integers from 11 through 46,46, inclusive. He chooses his numbers so that the sum of the base-ten logarithms of his six numbers is an integer. It so happens that the integers on the winning ticket have the same property -- the sum of the base-ten logarithms is an integer. What is the probability that Professor Gamble holds the winning ticket?

15\dfrac{1}{5}

14\dfrac{1}{4}

13\dfrac{1}{3}

12\dfrac{1}{2}

11

Answer: B
Concepts:logarithmprime factorizationbasic probability
Difficulty rating: 2330
Solution:

The sum of the logarithms is an integer kk exactly when the product of the six numbers is 10k.10^k. Since 10=25,10 = 2 \cdot 5, each chosen number must be of the form 2a5b,2^a 5^b, so it comes from 1,2,4,5,8,10,16,20,25,32,40. 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 10, 16, 20, 25, 32, 40.

For each, record the excess of factors of 22 over factors of 55: 0,1,2,1,3,0,4,1,2,5,2.0, 1, 2, -1, 3, 0, 4, 1, -2, 5, 2. The product is a power of 1010 only if the six chosen values have equal totals of 22s and 55s, i.e. their excesses sum to 0.0.

The only negative excesses are 1-1 for 55 and 2-2 for 25.25. A six-number ticket with total excess 00 must contain both: omitting either leaves too few zero and small positive excesses to reach six numbers. The other four numbers must therefore have total excess 3.3. There are two numbers of excess 00 (1,101,10), two of excess 11 (2,202,20), and two of excess 22 (4,404,40); any number of excess at least 33 would leave too few zeros to complete a four-number selection. Thus we must take both excess-00 numbers, one excess-11 number, and one excess-22 number. This gives exactly four valid tickets: {1,5,10,20,25,40},\{1, 5, 10, 20, 25, 40\}, {1,2,5,10,25,40},\{1, 2, 5, 10, 25, 40\}, {1,2,4,5,10,25},\{1, 2, 4, 5, 10, 25\}, and {1,4,5,10,20,25}.\{1, 4, 5, 10, 20, 25\}.

Professor Gamble holds one of these four, and only one matches the winning ticket, so the probability is 14.\dfrac14.

Thus, the correct answer is B.

← Problem 22#22
Full Exam

Problem 23 in Other Years