2005 AMC 12B Problem 25

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Concepts:basic probabilityarrangements with restrictionscasework

Difficulty rating: 2520

25.

Six ants simultaneously stand on the six vertices of a regular octahedron, with each ant at a different vertex. Simultaneously and independently, each ant moves from its vertex to one of the four adjacent vertices, each with equal probability. What is the probability that no two ants arrive at the same vertex?

5256\dfrac{5}{256}

211024\dfrac{21}{1024}

11512\dfrac{11}{512}

231024\dfrac{23}{1024}

3128\dfrac{3}{128}

Solution:

There are 464^6 equally likely combinations of moves. Label the vertices A,B,C,A,B,C,A, B, C, A', B', C', where primed vertices are opposite the corresponding unprimed ones. An ant cannot move to its own vertex or the opposite one, so a valid outcome is a permutation ff with f(A){A,A},f(A) \notin \{A, A'\}, and similarly for each pair.

There are 43=124 \cdot 3 = 12 ordered choices for (f(A),f(A)).(f(A), f(A')). Of these, f(A)f(A) and f(A)f(A') are opposite in 44 cases and adjacent in 8.8.

If f(A),f(A)f(A), f(A') are opposite, say B,B,B, B', then {f(C),f(C)}={A,A}\{f(C), f(C')\} = \{A, A'\} and {f(B),f(B)}={C,C},\{f(B), f(B')\} = \{C, C'\}, giving 422=164 \cdot 2 \cdot 2 = 16 valid combinations.

If f(A),f(A)f(A), f(A') are adjacent, say B,C,B, C, then one of f(B),f(B)f(B), f(B') must be CC' and there are 44 ordered choices for (f(B),f(B)),(f(B), f(B')), each leaving 22 for (f(C),f(C)):(f(C), f(C')): that is 842=648 \cdot 4 \cdot 2 = 64 valid combinations.

Hence the probability is 16+6446=804096=5256. \dfrac{16 + 64}{4^6} = \dfrac{80}{4096} = \dfrac{5}{256}.

Thus, the correct answer is A.

Problem 25 in Other Years