2016 AMC 12A Problem 19
Attempt Problem 19 of the 2016 AMC 12A 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 2016 AMC 12A solutions, or check the answer key.
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19.
Jerry starts at on the real number line. He tosses a fair coin times. When he gets heads, he moves unit in the positive direction; when he gets tails, he moves unit in the negative direction. The probability that he reaches at some time during this process is where and are relatively prime positive integers. What is (For example, he succeeds if his sequence of tosses is HTHHHHHH.)
Answer: B
Small Hint:
Count the toss sequences in which the running total reaches
Big Hint:
With at most tails he always reaches with or tails only some orders work
Solution:
Count the sequences of tosses whose running total reaches With at most tails he certainly reaches contributing sequences.
With exactly tails, he can first reach on toss or toss Reaching it on toss requires four initial heads, after which the remaining head has possible positions. Otherwise, tosses and are heads, one of the first four tosses is a tail, and the last two are tails, again giving possibilities. Thus this case contributes With exactly tails, only HHHHTTTT works, giving He cannot reach with fewer than heads.
So there are favorable sequences out of a probability of Then
Thus, the correct answer is B.
Problem 19 in Other Years
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