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2005 AMC 10B Problems/Problem 21

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Problem

Forty slips are placed into a hat, each bearing a number 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, or 10, with each number entered on four slips. Four slips are drawn from the hat at random and without replacement. Let p be the probability that all four slips bear the same number. Let q be the probability that two of the slips bear a number a and the other two bear a number b \neq a. What is the value of q/p?

\mathrm{(A)} 162 \qquad \mathrm{(B)} 180 \qquad \mathrm{(C)} 324 \qquad \mathrm{(D)} 360 \qquad \mathrm{(E)} 720

Solution

There are 10 ways to determine which number to pick. There are 4! way to then draw those four slips with that number, and 40 \cdot 39 \cdot 38 \cdot 37 total ways to draw four slips. Thus p = \frac{10\cdot 4!}{40 \cdot 39 \cdot 38 \cdot 37}.

There are {10 \choose 2} = 45 ways to determine which two numbers to pick for the second probability. There are {4 \choose 2} ways to arrange the order which we draw the non-equal slips, and in each order there are 4 \times 3 \times 4 \times 3 ways to pick the slips, so q = \frac{45 \cdot 6 \cdot 4^2 \cdot 3^2}{40 \times 39 \times 38 \times 37}.

Hence, the answer is \frac{q}{p} = \frac{2^5 \cdot 3^4 \cdot 5}{10\cdot 4!} = 162\ \mathbf{(A)}.

See Also

2005 AMC 10B (ProblemsResources)
Preceded by
Problem 20
Followed by
Problem 22
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
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