2019 AMC 10A Problem 22
Below is the professionally curated solution for Problem 22 of the 2019 AMC 10A, from LIVE by Po-Shen Loh. You can also try the full timed exam, view all 2019 AMC 10A solutions, or check the answer key.
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Difficulty rating: 1880
22.
Real numbers between and inclusive, are chosen in the following manner. A fair coin is flipped. If it lands heads, then it is flipped again and the chosen number is if the second flip is heads, and if the second flip is tails. On the other hand, if the first coin flip is tails, then the number is chosen uniformly at random from the closed interval Two random numbers and are chosen independently in this manner. What is the probability that
Solution:
We can case on whether and are chosen from the interval or from and Each case has a chance of happening, since they depend on two coin flips.
Case and are either or
and need to be different, which happens with a probability.
Case is either or and is chosen from
If then has to be chosen from and if then has to be chosen from
This means that always has a probability of being chosen from the correct interval.
Case is chosen from and is either or
This has the same probability as case due to symmetry.
and are chosen from
We can use geometric probability since we are working with an infinite number of pairs. We graph
The shaded area covers of the graph, showing that there is a probability of this case working.
Adding up all the probabilities, we get
Thus, B is the correct answer.
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