Question

Each square in a $3 \times 3$ grid is randomly filled with one of the $4$ shaded-and-unshaded tiles shown below on the right.

What is the probability that the tiling will contain a large shaded diamond in one of the smaller $2 \times 2$ grids? Below is an example of such a tiling.

$\dfrac{1}{1024}$

$\dfrac{1}{256}$

$\dfrac{1}{64}$

$\dfrac{1}{16}$

$\dfrac{1}{4}$

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Written solution:

There are $4^9$ possible tilings. There are $4$ possible $2\times2$ grids where a large shaded diamond could appear.

After one of these $2\times2$ grids is chosen, the four tile orientations inside it are forced, and the other $5$ squares can be filled in any way. This gives $4^5$ tilings for each chosen $2\times2$ grid.

Two different $2\times2$ grids cannot both contain a large shaded diamond, because their overlapping squares would require incompatible tile orientations. Therefore the number of favorable tilings is $4\cdot4^5=4^6.$

The desired probability is then $\dfrac{4^6}{4^9} = \dfrac{1}{4^3} = \dfrac{1}{64}.$

Thus, C is the correct answer.

2023 AMC 8 Problem 23

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Problem 23 in Other Years