2011 AIME II Problem 12
Below is the professionally curated solution for Problem 12 of the 2011 AIME II, from LIVE by Po-Shen Loh. You can also try the full timed exam, view all 2011 AIME II solutions, or check the answer key.
All of the real AMC 8, AMC 10, AMC 12, and AIME problems in our complete solution collection are used with official legal permission of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA).
Difficulty rating: 3060
12.
Nine delegates, three each from three different countries, randomly select chairs at a round table that seats nine people. Let the probability that each delegate sits next to at least one delegate from another country be where and are relatively prime positive integers. Find
Solution:
Only the pattern of countries in the nine chairs matters, and all patterns are equally likely. The condition fails for some delegate exactly when both of his neighbors are compatriots, which happens exactly when some country's three delegates occupy three consecutive chairs. Let be the set of patterns in which country 's delegates are consecutive.
There are triples of consecutive chairs, so choosing which of the remaining chairs go to one of the other countries. For two countries, after placing the first block ( ways) the remaining six chairs form an arc containing triples of consecutive chairs, so For all three, the circle must split into three consecutive triples ( ways) assigned to the countries in orders: By inclusion-exclusion,
The probability is so
Problem 12 in Other Years
1997 AIME · 1998 AIME · 1999 AIME · 2000 AIME I · 2000 AIME II · 2001 AIME I · 2001 AIME II · 2002 AIME I · 2002 AIME II · 2003 AIME I · 2003 AIME II · 2004 AIME I · 2004 AIME II · 2005 AIME I · 2005 AIME II · 2006 AIME I · 2006 AIME II · 2007 AIME I · 2007 AIME II · 2008 AIME I · 2008 AIME II · 2009 AIME I · 2009 AIME II · 2010 AIME I · 2010 AIME II · 2011 AIME I · 2012 AIME I · 2012 AIME II · 2013 AIME I · 2013 AIME II · 2014 AIME I · 2014 AIME II · 2015 AIME I · 2015 AIME II · 2016 AIME I · 2016 AIME II · 2017 AIME I · 2017 AIME II · 2018 AIME I · 2018 AIME II · 2019 AIME I · 2019 AIME II · 2020 AIME I · 2020 AIME II · 2021 AIME I · 2021 AIME II · 2022 AIME I · 2022 AIME II · 2023 AIME I · 2023 AIME II · 2024 AIME I · 2024 AIME II · 2025 AIME I · 2025 AIME II · 2026 AIME I · 2026 AIME II