AoPSWiki
Our Precalculus course starts on Dec. 4. Master trig, complex numbers, and vectors and matrices in 2 and 3 dimensions. Click here to enroll today!

2005 AMC 10A Problems/Problem 9

From AoPSWiki

Revision as of 04:50, 27 November 2007 by Cmac89 (Talk | contribs)
(diff) ← Older revision | Current revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)

Problem

Three tiles are marked X and two other tiles are marked O. The five tiles are randomly arranged in a row. What is the probability that the arrangement reads XOXOX?

\mathrm{(A) \ } \frac{1}{12}\qquad \mathrm{(B) \ } \frac{1}{10}\qquad \mathrm{(C) \ } \frac{1}{6}\qquad \mathrm{(D) \ } \frac...

Solution

There are \frac{5!}{2!3!}=10 distinct arrangements of three X's and two O's.

There is only 1 distinct arrangement that reads XOXOX

Therefore the desired probability is \frac{1}{10} \Rightarrow \mathrm{(B)}

See Also

Want to learn how to tackle those tough AMC/AIME/Olympiad algebra problems? Check out Art of Problem Solving's Intermediate Algebra by Richard Rusczyk and Mathew Crawford. Over 1600 problems!
© Copyright 2008 AoPS Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. • FoundationPrivacyContact Us