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2020 AMC 10B Problem 11

Problem 11 of 25IntermediateCounting & Probability

Ms. Carr asks her students to read any 55 of the 1010 books on a reading list. Harold randomly selects 55 books from this list, and Betty does the same. What is the probability that there are exactly 22 books that they both select?

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Solution

Assume that Harold has already picked his 55 books. Of these five books, there are (52)\binom{5}{2} ways that Betty can have picked exactly two of the same books as Harold, and (53)\binom{5}{3} ways that Betty can choose her other three books from the 55 books not on Harold’s list. Thus there are (52)(53)=100\binom{5}{2}\binom{5}{3}=100 favorable choices for Betty out of (105)=252\binom{10}{5}=252 equally likely choices. The probability is 100252=2563.\frac{100}{252}=\frac{25}{63}. Thus, D is the correct answer.

More practice

Concepts: combinations · basic probability

Problem text and solution from the LIVE past-contest archive. See also the AoPS wiki page for community solutions.