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2020 AMC 12B Problem 20

Problem 20 of 25HarderCounting & Probability

Two different cubes of the same size are to be painted, with the color of each face being chosen independently and at random to be either black or white. What is the probability that after they are painted, the cubes can be rotated to be identical in appearance?

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Solution

For a fixed first cube, the number of second cubes matching it (up to rotation) equals the size of its rotation orbit. So the desired probability is 1642OO2.\tfrac{1}{64^2}\sum_{\mathcal O} |\mathcal O|^2. Grouping by black-face count, the orbit sizes are: 00 or 66 black 1;\to 1; 11 or 55 black 6;\to 6; 22 or 44 black 3\to 3 (opposite) and 1212 (adjacent); 33 black 8\to 8 (corner) and 1212 (band). Then OO2=1+36+(9+144)+(64+144)+(9+144)+36+1=588. \begin{gathered} \sum_{\mathcal O} |\mathcal O|^2 \\ {}= 1 + 36 + (9 + 144) \\ \quad {}+ (64 + 144) + (9 + 144) \\ \quad {}+ 36 + 1 = 588. \end{gathered} The probability is 5884096=1471024.\tfrac{588}{4096} = \tfrac{147}{1024}. Thus, the correct answer is D.

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