Skip to main content

2023 AMC 12B Problem 23

Problem 23 of 25HarderNumber TheoryCounting & Probability

When nn standard six-sided dice are rolled, the product of the numbers rolled can be any of 936936 possible values. What is n?n?

Answer choices

Show solution

Solution

Each die contributes an exponent vector in the primes 2,3,52,3,5 (face 1(0,0,0),1\to(0,0,0), 2(1,0,0),2\to(1,0,0), 3(0,1,0),3\to(0,1,0), 4(2,0,0),4\to(2,0,0), 5(0,0,1),5\to(0,0,1), 6(1,1,0)6\to(1,1,0)), and a product is determined by the sum of these vectors. Fix the exponent of 55 by requiring exactly kk dice to show 5,5, and put m=nk.m=n-k. For an exponent bb of 3,3, where 0bm,0\le b\le m, the possible exponents aa of 22 are precisely 0,1,,2mb.0,1,\ldots,2m-b. If ab,a\le b, use aa faces showing 66 and bab-a showing 3.3. If a>b,a\gt b, use bb faces showing 66 and make the remaining aba-b factors of 22 with faces 44 and, if needed, one face 2.2. The bound a2mba\le 2m-b says this uses at most mm dice; fill unused dice with 11’s. Thus the number of exponent pairs is b=0m(2mb+1)=(m+1)(3m+2)2. \begin{gathered} \sum_{b=0}^{m}(2m-b+1)\\ {}=\frac{(m+1)(3m+2)}2. \end{gathered} Summing over k=0,1,,nk=0,1,\ldots,n, equivalently over m=0,1,,n,m=0,1,\ldots,n, the number of distinct products is m=0n(m+1)(3m+2)2=(n+1)2(n+2)2. \begin{gathered} \sum_{m=0}^{n}\frac{(m+1)(3m+2)}2\\ {}=\frac{(n+1)^2(n+2)}2. \end{gathered} For n=11n=11 this is 122132=936,\dfrac{12^2\cdot13}{2}=936, so n=11.n=11. Thus, the correct answer is A.

More practice

Concepts: prime factorization · systematic listing

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