Skip to main content

AMC 12 Mock Exam 5 Problem 8

Problem 8 of 25

In a board game, a player rolls three fair standard six-sided dice and wins the round if the three numbers rolled could be the side lengths of a nondegenerate triangle. (For example, 2,3,42,3,4 wins, but 2,2,42,2,4 does not.) What is the probability that the player wins the round?

Answer choices

Show solution

Solution

The roll (x,y,z)(x,y,z) fails exactly when one number is at least the sum of the other two. At most one number can have this property (if x≥y+zx\ge y+z, then x>yx>y and x>zx>z, so neither yy nor zz can be at least the sum of the other two). So the number of failing rolls is 33 times the number of rolls with x≥y+zx\ge y+z.

For y+z=sy+z=s (where 2≤s≤62\le s\le6) there are s−1s-1 pairs (y,z)(y,z) and 7−s7-s choices of x∈{s,…,6}x\in\{s,\dots,6\}, giving ∑s=26(s−1)(7−s)=5+8+9+8+5=35.\sum_{s=2}^{6}(s-1)(7-s)=5+8+9+8+5=35. Hence 3⋅35=1053\cdot35=105 of the 216216 rolls fail, and the probability of a triangle is 216−105216=111216=3772\frac{216-105}{216}=\frac{111}{216}=\boxed{\tfrac{37}{72}}.

Tagged: dice probability, triangle inequality