Found problems: 1111
2007 Princeton University Math Competition, 6
Joe has $1729$ randomly oriented and randomly arranged unit cubes, which are initially unpainted. He makes two cubes of sidelengths $9$ and $10$ or of sidelengths $1$ and $12$ (randomly chosen). These cubes are dipped into white paint. Then two more cubes of sidelengths $1$ and $12$ or $9$ and $10$ are formed from the same unit cubes, again randomly oriented and randomly arranged, and dipped into paint. Joe continues this process until every side of every unit cube is painted. After how many times of doing this is the expected number of painted faces closest to half of the total?
2009 Math Prize For Girls Problems, 12
Jenny places 100 pennies on a table, 30 showing heads and 70 showing tails. She chooses 40 of the pennies at random (all different) and turns them over. That is, if a chosen penny was showing heads, she turns it to show tails; if a chosen penny was showing tails, she turns it to show heads. At the end, what is the expected number of pennies showing heads?
2007 Putnam, 6
For each positive integer $ n,$ let $ f(n)$ be the number of ways to make $ n!$ cents using an unordered collection of coins, each worth $ k!$ cents for some $ k,\ 1\le k\le n.$ Prove that for some constant $ C,$ independent of $ n,$
\[ n^{n^2/2\minus{}Cn}e^{\minus{}n^2/4}\le f(n)\le n^{n^2/2\plus{}Cn}e^{\minus{}n^2/4}.\]
2022 HMNT, 1
Alice and Bob are playing in an eight-player single-elimination rock-paper-scissors tournament. In the first round, all players are paired up randomly to play a match. Each round after that, the winners of the previous round are paired up randomly. After three rounds, the last remaining player is considered the champion. Ties are broken with a coin flip. Given that Alice always plays rock, Bob always plays paper, and everyone else always plays scissors, what is the probability that Alice is crowned champion? Note that rock beats scissors, scissors beats paper, and paper beats rock.
2007 Princeton University Math Competition, 1
Take the square with vertices $(0,0)$, $(1,0)$, $(0,1)$, and $(1,1)$. Choose a random point in this square and draw the line segment from it to $(0,0)$. Choose a second random point in this square and draw the line segment from it to $(1,0)$. What is the probability that the two line segments intersect?
2002 AMC 12/AHSME, 15
There are $1001$ red marbles and $1001$ black marbles in a box. Let $P_s$ be the probability that two marbles drawn at random from the box are the same color, and let $P_d$ be the probability that they are different colors. Find $|P_s-P_d|$.
$\textbf{(A) }0\qquad\textbf{(B) }\dfrac1{2002}\qquad\textbf{(C) }\dfrac1{2001}\qquad\textbf{(D) }\dfrac2{2001}\qquad\textbf{(E) }\dfrac1{1000}$
2005 Kurschak Competition, 2
A and B play tennis. The player to first win at least four points and at least two more than the other player wins. We know that A gets a point each time with probability $p\le \frac12$, independent of the game so far. Prove that the probability that A wins is at most $2p^2$.
2014 Purple Comet Problems, 27
Five men and five women stand in a circle in random order. The probability that every man stands next to at least one woman is $\tfrac m n$, where $m$ and $n$ are relatively prime positive integers. Find $m + n$.
1986 IMO Longlists, 10
A set of $n$ standard dice are shaken and randomly placed in a straight line. If $n < 2r$ and $r < s$, then the probability that there will be a string of at least $r$, but not more than $s$, consecutive $1$'s can be written as $\frac{P}{6^{s+2}}$. Find an explicit expression for $P$.
1998 AMC 8, 19
Tamika selects two different numbers at random from the set $ \{ 8,9,10\} $ and adds them. Carlos takes two different numbers at random from the set $ \{ 3,5,6\} $ and multiplies them. What is the probability that Tamika's result is greater than Carlos' result?
$ \text{(A)}\ \frac{4}{9}\qquad\text{(B)}\ \frac{5}{9}\qquad\text{(C)}\ \frac{1}{2}\qquad\text{(D)}\ \frac{1}{3}\qquad\text{(E)}\ \frac{2}{3} $
2009 Today's Calculation Of Integral, 422
There are 10 cards, labeled from 1 to 10. Three cards denoted by $ a,\ b,\ c\ (a > b > c)$ are drawn from the cards at the same time.
Find the probability such that $ \int_0^a (x^2 \minus{} 2bx \plus{} 3c)\ dx \equal{} 0$.
2000 AIME Problems, 5
Each of two boxes contains both black and white marbles, and the total number of marbles in the two boxes is $25.$ One marble is taken out of each box randomly. The probability that both marbles are black is $27/50,$ and the probability that both marbles are white is $m/n,$ where $m$ and $n$ are relatively prime positive integers. What is $m+n?$
2016 AMC 12/AHSME, 19
Jerry starts at 0 on the real number line. He tosses a fair coin 8 times. When he gets heads, he moves 1 unit in the positive direction; when he gets tails, he moves 1 unit in the negative direction. The probability that he reaches 4 at some time during this process is $a/b$, where $a$ and $b$ are relatively prime positive integers. What is $a+b$? (For example, he succeeds if his sequence of tosses is $HTHHHHHH$.)
$\textbf{(A)}\ 69\qquad\textbf{(B)}\ 151\qquad\textbf{(C)}\ 257\qquad\textbf{(D)}\ 293\qquad\textbf{(E)}\ 313$
1994 AIME Problems, 9
A solitaire game is played as follows. Six distinct pairs of matched tiles are placed in a bag. The player randomly draws tiles one at a time from the bag and retains them, except that matching tiles are put aside as soon as they appear in the player's hand. The game ends if the player ever holds three tiles, no two of which match; otherwise the drawing continues until the bag is empty. The probability that the bag will be emptied is $p/q,$ where $p$ and $q$ are relatively prime positive integers. Find $p+q.$
1988 Polish MO Finals, 2
For a permutation $P = (p_1, p_2, ... , p_n)$ of $(1, 2, ... , n)$ define $X(P)$ as the number of $j$ such that $p_i < p_j$ for every $i < j$. What is the expected value of $X(P)$ if each permutation is equally likely?
2007 ITest, 42
During a movie shoot, a stuntman jumps out of a plane and parachutes to safety within a 100 foot by 100 foot square field, which is entirely surrounded by a wooden fence. There is a flag pole in the middle of the square field. Assuming the stuntman is equally likely to land on any point in the field, the probability that he lands closer to the fence than to the flag pole can be written in simplest terms as \[\dfrac{a-b\sqrt c}d,\] where all four variables are positive integers, $c$ is a multple of no perfect square greater than $1$, $a$ is coprime with $d$, and $b$ is coprime with $d$. Find the value of $a+b+c+d$.
2007 Putnam, 6
A [i]triangulation[/i] $ \mathcal{T}$ of a polygon $ P$ is a finite collection of triangles whose union is $ P,$ and such that the intersection of any two triangles is either empty, or a shared vertex, or a shared side. Moreover, each side of $ P$ is a side of exactly one triangle in $ \mathcal{T}.$ Say that $ \mathcal{T}$ is [i]admissible[/i] if every internal vertex is shared by $ 6$ or more triangles. For example
[asy]
size(100);
dot(dir(-100)^^dir(230)^^dir(160)^^dir(100)^^dir(50)^^dir(5)^^dir(-55));
draw(dir(-100)--dir(230)--dir(160)--dir(100)--dir(50)--dir(5)--dir(-55)--cycle);
pair A = (0,-0.25);
dot(A);
draw(A--dir(-100)^^A--dir(230)^^A--dir(160)^^A--dir(100)^^A--dir(5)^^A--dir(-55)^^dir(5)--dir(100));
[/asy]
Prove that there is an integer $ M_n,$ depending only on $ n,$ such that any admissible triangulation of a polygon $ P$ with $ n$ sides has at most $ M_n$ triangles.
2013 Princeton University Math Competition, 11
If two points are selected at random on a fixed circle and the chord between the two points is drawn, what is the probability that its length exceeds the radius of the circle?
1982 AMC 12/AHSME, 25
The adjacent map is part of a city: the small rectangles are rocks, and the paths in between are streets. Each morning, a student walks from intersection A to intersection B, always walking along streets shown, and always going east or south. For variety, at each intersection where he has a choice, he chooses with probability $\frac{1}{2}$ whether to go east or south. Find the probability that through any given morning, he goes through $C$.
[asy]
defaultpen(linewidth(0.7)+fontsize(8));
size(250);
path p=origin--(5,0)--(5,3)--(0,3)--cycle;
path q=(5,19)--(6,19)--(6,20)--(5,20)--cycle;
int i,j;
for(i=0; i<5; i=i+1) {
for(j=0; j<6; j=j+1) {
draw(shift(6*i, 4*j)*p);
}}
clip((4,2)--(25,2)--(25,21)--(4,21)--cycle);
fill(q^^shift(18,-16)*q^^shift(18,-12)*q, black);
label("A", (6,19), SE);
label("B", (23,4), NW);
label("C", (23,8), NW);
draw((26,11.5)--(30,11.5), Arrows(5));
draw((28,9.5)--(28,13.5), Arrows(5));
label("N", (28,13.5), N);
label("W", (26,11.5), W);
label("E", (30,11.5), E);
label("S", (28,9.5), S);[/asy]
$\textbf {(A) } \frac{11}{32} \qquad \textbf {(B) } \frac 12 \qquad \textbf {(C) } \frac 47 \qquad \textbf {(D) } \frac{21}{32} \qquad \textbf {(E) } \frac 34$
2014 NIMO Problems, 6
Bob is making partitions of $10$, but he hates even numbers, so he splits $10$ up in a special way. He starts with $10$, and at each step he takes every even number in the partition and replaces it with a random pair of two smaller positive integers that sum to that even integer. For example, $6$ could be replaced with $1+5$, $2+4$, or $3+3$ all with equal probability. He terminates this process when all the numbers in his list are odd. The expected number of integers in his list at the end can be expressed in the form $\frac{m}{n}$, where $m$ and $n$ are relatively prime positive integers. Compute $100m+n$.
[i]Proposed by Michael Ren[/i]
1987 AIME Problems, 13
A given sequence $r_1, r_2, \dots, r_n$ of distinct real numbers can be put in ascending order by means of one or more ``bubble passes''. A bubble pass through a given sequence consists of comparing the second term with the first term, and exchanging them if and only if the second term is smaller, then comparing the third term with the second term and exchanging them if and only if the third term is smaller, and so on in order, through comparing the last term, $r_n$, with its current predecessor and exchanging them if and only if the last term is smaller.
The example below shows how the sequence 1, 9, 8, 7 is transformed into the sequence 1, 8, 7, 9 by one bubble pass. The numbers compared at each step are underlined.
\[ \begin{array}{c} \underline{1 \quad 9} \quad 8 \quad 7 \\ 1 \quad \underline{9 \quad 8} \quad 7 \\ 1 \quad 8 \quad \underline{9 \quad 7} \\ 1 \quad 8 \quad 7 \quad 9 \end{array} \]
Suppose that $n = 40$, and that the terms of the initial sequence $r_1, r_2, \dots, r_{40}$ are distinct from one another and are in random order. Let $p/q$, in lowest terms, be the probability that the number that begins as $r_{20}$ will end up, after one bubble pass, in the $30^{\text{th}}$ place. Find $p + q$.
2007 Princeton University Math Competition, 10
Bob, having little else to do, rolls a fair $6$-sided die until the sum of his rolls is greater than or equal to $700$. What is the expected number of rolls needed? Any answer within $.0001$ of the correct answer will be accepted.
1971 Bundeswettbewerb Mathematik, 4
Inside a square with side lengths $1$ a broken line of length $>1000$ without selfintersection is drawn.
Show that there is a line parallel to a side of the square that intersects the broken line in at least $501$ points.
2008 ITest, 66
Michael draws $\triangle ABC$ in the sand such that $\angle ACB=90^\circ$ and $\angle CBA=15^\circ$. He then picks a point at random from within the triangle and labels it point $M$. Next, he draws a segment from $A$ to $BC$ that passes through $M$, hitting $BC$ at a point he labels $D$. Just then, a wave washes over his work, so Michael redraws the exact same diagram farther from the water, labeling all the points the same way as before. If hypotenuse $AB$ is $4$ feet in length, let $p$ be the probability that the number of feet in the length of $AD$ is less than $2\sqrt3-2$. Compute $\lfloor1000p\rfloor$.
2016 AMC 8, 21
A box contains 3 red chips and 2 green chips. Chips are drawn randomly, one at a time without replacement, until all 3 of the reds are drawn or until both green chips are drawn. What is the probability that the 3 reds are drawn?
$\textbf{(A) }\frac{3}{10}\qquad\textbf{(B) }\frac{2}{5}\qquad\textbf{(C) }\frac{1}{2}\qquad\textbf{(D) }\frac{3}{5}\qquad \textbf{(E) }\frac{7}{10}$