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2004 AIME II Problems/Problem 10

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Problem

Let S be the set of integers between 1 and 2^{40} whose binary expansions have exactly two 1's. If a number is chosen at random from S, the probability that it is divisible by 9 is p/q, where p and q are relatively prime positive integers. Find p+q.

Solution

A positive integer n has exactly two 1s in its binary representation exactly when n = 2^j + 2^k for j \neq k nonnegative integers. Thus, the set S is equal to the set \{n \in \mathbb{Z} \mid n = 2^j + 2^k \,\mathrm{ and }\, 0 \leq j < k \leq 39\}. (The second condition ensures simultaneously that j \neq k and that each such number less than 2^{40} is counted exactly once.) This means there are {40 \choose 2} = 780 total such numbers.

Now, consider the powers of 2 mod 9: 2^{6n} \equiv 1, 2^{6n + 1} \equiv 2, 2^{6n + 2} \equiv 4, 2^{6n + 3} \equiv 8 \equiv -1, 2^{6n + 4} \equiv 7 \equiv -2, 2^{6n + 5} \equiv 5 \equiv -4 \pmod 9.

It's clear what the pairs j, k can look like. If one is of the form 6n (7 choices), the other must be of the form 6n + 3 (7 choices). If one is of the form 6n + 1 (7 choices) the other must be of the form 6n + 4 (6 choices). And if one is of the form 6n + 2 (7 choices), the other must be of the form 6n + 5 (6 choices). This means that there are 7\cdot 7 + 7\cdot 6 + 7\cdot 6 = 49 + 42 +42 = 133 total "good" numbers.

The probability is \frac{133}{780}, and the answer is 133 + 780 = \boxed{913}.

See also

2004 AIME II (ProblemsResources)
Preceded by
Problem 9
Followed by
Problem 11
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
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