2006 AMC 12A Problem 20
Problem 20 of 25HarderCounting & Probability
A bug starts at one vertex of a cube and moves along the edges of the cube according to the following rule. At each vertex the bug will choose to travel along one of the three edges emanating from that vertex. Each edge has equal probability of being chosen, and all choices are independent. What is the probability that after seven moves the bug will have visited every vertex exactly once?
Answer choices
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Solution
From the start there are equally likely -move walks. For a walk visiting all vertices, there are choices for the first move and for the second, since it cannot return to the starting vertex.
Label cube vertices by three-bit strings. By symmetry, after fixing those first two moves we may take the first three vertices to be A branch check gives exactly these three completions: Thus there are such walks.
The probability is
Thus, the correct answer is C.