Question

Sonya the frog chooses a point uniformly at random lying within the square $[0, 6] \times [0, 6]$ in the coordinate plane and hops to that point. She then chooses a distance uniformly at random from $[0, 1]$ and a direction uniformly at random from $\{\text{north}, \text{south}, \text{east}, \text{west}\}.$ All her choices are independent. She now hops the distance in the chosen direction. What is the probability that she lands outside the square?

$\dfrac{1}{6}$

$\dfrac{1}{12}$

$\dfrac{1}{4}$

$\dfrac{1}{10}$

$\dfrac{1}{9}$

Solution:

The four directions behave the same by symmetry, so say she hops east. She lands outside exactly when her $x$ -coordinate plus the hop distance $d$ tops $6.$ Fix $d.$ Her $x$ -coordinate is uniform on $[0, 6],$ so it beats $6 - d$ with probability $\frac{d}{6}.$ Now average over $d$ uniform on $[0, 1]:$ $\frac{1}{6} \cdot \frac{1}{2} = \frac{1}{12}.$ Thus, B is the correct answer.

2023 AMC 10B Problem 19

Solution:

Problem 19 in Other Years