AoPSWiki
Want to learn how to tackle those tough AMC/AIME/Olympiad counting and probability problems? Check out Art of Problem Solving's Intermediate Counting & Probability by David Patrick.
Personal tools

2007 AMC 12A Problems/Problem 12

From AoPSWiki

The following problem is from both the 2007 AMC 12A #12 and 2007 AMC 10A #16, so both problems redirect to this page.

Problem

Integers a, b, c, and d, not necessarily distinct, are chosen independently and at random from 0 to 2007, inclusive. What is the probability that ad-bc is even?

\mathrm{(A)}\ \frac 38\qquad \mathrm{(B)}\ \frac 7{16}\qquad \mathrm{(C)}\ \frac 12\qquad \mathrm{(D)}\ \frac 9{16}\qquad \ma...

Solution

The only times when ad-bc is even is when ad and bc are of the same parity. The chance of ad being odd is \frac 12 \cdot \frac 12 = \frac 14, so it has a \frac 34 probability of being even. Therefore, the probability that ad-bc will be even is \left(\frac 14\right)^2+\left(\frac 34\right)^2=\frac 58\ \mathrm{(E)}.

See also

2007 AMC 12A (ProblemsResources)
Preceded by
Problem 11
Followed by
Problem 13
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
2007 AMC 10A (ProblemsResources)
Preceded by
Problem 15
Followed by
Problem 17
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
Try our innovative online adaptive learning system, Alcumus.
Over 1100 problems and 60+ video lessons. FREE!
© Copyright 2008 AoPS Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. • FoundationPrivacyContact Us