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1988 AIME Problems/Problem 1

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Problem

One commercially available ten-button lock may be opened by depressing -- in any order -- the correct five buttons. The sample shown below has as its combination. Suppose that these locks are redesigned so that sets of as many as nine buttons or as few as one button could serve as combinations. How many additional combinations would this allow?

Image:1988-1.png

Solution

Currently there are possible ways. With any number from to , the number of ways is . Now we can use the identity \sum^{n}_{k=0}{n \choose k}=2^{n}. So the number of ways is just 2^{10}-{10\choose 0}-{10\choose 10}-{10 \choose 5}=1024-1-1-252=\boxed{770}.

See also

1988 AIME (ProblemsResources)
Preceded by
First Question
Followed by
Problem 2
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Looking for a challenging geometry text? Preparing for MATHCOUNTS or the AMC exams? Check out Art of Problem Solving's Introduction to Geometry by Richard Rusczyk.
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