2011 AMC 10A Problem 22

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Concepts:graph theorycaseworkpermutations

Difficulty rating: 1840

22.

Each vertex of convex pentagon ABCDEABCDE is to be assigned a color. There are 66 colors to choose from, and the ends of each diagonal must have different colors. How many different colorings are possible?

25202520

28802880

31203120

32503250

37503750

Solution:

Note that there are only 33 cases: all the vertices are different, there is one pair of adjacent vertices with the same colors, or there are 22 pairs (each pair has a different color).

Case 1:1: all vertices have different colors

This case just gives us 6!=7206! = 720 different colorings.

Case 2:2: one pair of adjacent vertices has the same color

There are 6!2=360 \dfrac{6!}{2} = 360 ways to choose the colors for this case. There are then 55 options for the pair of vertices.

This gives us a total of 3605=1800 360 \cdot 5 = 1800 colorings for this case.

Case 3:3: two pairs of adjacent vertices have the same color

There are 55 choices for the vertex that is not in a pair. There are then 654=120 6 \cdot 5 \cdot 4 = 120 choices for the colors. There are then a total of 1205=600 120 \cdot 5 = 600 colorings for this case.

There are a total of 720+1800+600=3120 720 + 1800 + 600 = 3120 colorings for all the cases.

Thus, C is the correct answer.

Problem 22 in Other Years