2015 AIME II Problem 5

Below is the professionally curated solution for Problem 5 of the 2015 AIME II, from LIVE by Po-Shen Loh. You can also try the full timed exam, view all 2015 AIME II solutions, or check the answer key.

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Concepts:basic probabilitycounting pairsinequality

Difficulty rating: 2270

5.

Two unit squares are selected at random without replacement from an n×nn \times n grid of unit squares. Find the least positive integer nn such that the probability that the two selected squares are horizontally or vertically adjacent is less than 12015.\frac{1}{2015}.

Solution:

Each of the nn rows contains n1n - 1 horizontally adjacent pairs, so there are n(n1)n(n-1) horizontal pairs and likewise n(n1)n(n-1) vertical pairs. Out of (n22)=n2(n21)2\binom{n^2}{2} = \frac{n^2(n^2-1)}{2} equally likely pairs, the probability of adjacency is 2n(n1)2n2(n21)=4n(n+1).\frac{2n(n-1) \cdot 2}{n^2(n^2 - 1)} = \frac{4}{n(n+1)}.

We need n(n+1)>42015=8060.n(n+1) \gt 4 \cdot 2015 = 8060. Since 8990=801089 \cdot 90 = 8010 and 9091=8190,90 \cdot 91 = 8190, the least such nn is 90.90.

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