Skip to main content

2021 Fall AMC 10A Problem 13

Problem 13 of 25IntermediateCounting & Probability

Each of 66 balls is randomly and independently painted either black or white with equal probability. What is the probability that every ball is different in color from more than half of the other 55 balls?

Answer choices

Show solution

Solution

Note that for this restriction to hold, there must be 33 balls of each color. There are 26=642^6 = 64 ways to color the balls and (63)=20\binom{6}{3} = 20 to choose which balls are white. The desired probability is therefore 2064=516.\dfrac{20}{64} = \dfrac{5}{16}. Thus, D is the correct answer.

More practice

Concepts: basic probability · combinations

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