Difference between revisions of "1999 AIME Problems/Problem 13"

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Forty teams play a tournament in which every team plays every other team exactly once.  No ties occur, and each team has a <math>50 \%</math> chance of winning any game it plays.  The [[probability]] that no two teams win the same number of games is <math>\frac mn,</math> where <math>m_{}</math> and <math>n_{}</math> are [[relatively prime]] positive integers.  Find <math>\log_2 n.</math>
 
Forty teams play a tournament in which every team plays every other team exactly once.  No ties occur, and each team has a <math>50 \%</math> chance of winning any game it plays.  The [[probability]] that no two teams win the same number of games is <math>\frac mn,</math> where <math>m_{}</math> and <math>n_{}</math> are [[relatively prime]] positive integers.  Find <math>\log_2 n.</math>
  
== Solution ==
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==Solution==
Now one team must win 0 games, one team must win one game, ... , and one team must win all 39 games it plays. Now let's assume that team one wins all games, ... , and team 40 loses all games. The probability that team 40 wins all games is <math>\dfrac{1}{2^{39}}</math>. Now that team 39 has lost it's game, it has a probability of <math>\dfrac{1}{2^{38}}</math> of winning all of the other games. So on, until we get
 
  
<cmath>\frac{1}{2^{39+38+\cdots+1}} = \frac{1}{2^{780}}</cmath>
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There are <math>{40 \choose 2} = 780</math> total pairings of teams, and thus <math>2^{780}</math> possible outcomes. In order for no two teams to win the same number of games, they must each win a different number of games. Since the minimum and maximum possible number of games won are 0 and 39 respectively, and there are 40 teams in total, each team corresponds uniquely with some <math>k</math>, with <math>0 \leq k \leq 39</math>, where <math>k</math> represents the number of games the team won. With this in mind, we see that there are a total of <math>40!</math> outcomes in which no two teams win the same number of games.
  
But that was assuming that we knew which team got what score. Now we need to account of the permutations of each team:
 
  
<cmath>\dfrac{40!}{2^{780}}</cmath>
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The desired probability is thus <math>\frac{40!}{2^{780}}</math>. We need to simplify this into the form <math>\frac{m}{n}</math>, where <math>m</math> and <math>n</math> are relatively prime. The only necessary step is to factor out all the powers of 2 from <math>40!</math>; the remaining number is clearly relatively prime to all powers of 2.
  
Now we need to find how many <math>2</math>'s there are in <math>40!</math>. There are
 
  
<cmath>\left\lfloor \dfrac{40}{2} \right\rfloor +\left\lfloor\dfrac{40}{4} \right\rfloor +\left\lfloor\dfrac{40}{8} \right\rfloor +\left\lfloor\dfrac{40}{16} \right\rfloor +\left\lfloor\dfrac{40}{32} \right\rfloor = 38</cmath>
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The number of powers of 2 in <math>40!</math> is <math>\left \lfloor \frac{40}{2} \right \rfloor + \left \lfloor \frac{40}{4} \right \rfloor + \left \lfloor \frac{40}{8} \right \rfloor + \left \lfloor \frac{40}{16} \right \rfloor + \left \lfloor \frac{40}{32} \right \rfloor = 20 + 10 + 5 + 2 + 1 = 38.</math> Letting <math>y = \frac{40!}{2^{38}}</math>, we have that <math>\frac{40!}{2^{780}} = \frac{2^{38} y}{2^780} = \frac{y}{2^{742}}</math>. Since <math>y</math> and <math>2^{742}</math> are relatively prime, our quotient is in the desired form. Our answer is thus <math>\log_2 2^{742} = \boxed{742}</math>.
 
 
Therefore,
 
 
 
<cmath>n=2^{780-38}=2^{742}</cmath>
 
 
 
and
 
 
 
<cmath>\log_{2} n =\boxed{742}</cmath>
 
  
 
== See also ==
 
== See also ==

Revision as of 22:22, 7 March 2009

Problem

Forty teams play a tournament in which every team plays every other team exactly once. No ties occur, and each team has a $50 \%$ chance of winning any game it plays. The probability that no two teams win the same number of games is $\frac mn,$ where $m_{}$ and $n_{}$ are relatively prime positive integers. Find $\log_2 n.$

Solution

There are ${40 \choose 2} = 780$ total pairings of teams, and thus $2^{780}$ possible outcomes. In order for no two teams to win the same number of games, they must each win a different number of games. Since the minimum and maximum possible number of games won are 0 and 39 respectively, and there are 40 teams in total, each team corresponds uniquely with some $k$, with $0 \leq k \leq 39$, where $k$ represents the number of games the team won. With this in mind, we see that there are a total of $40!$ outcomes in which no two teams win the same number of games.


The desired probability is thus $\frac{40!}{2^{780}}$. We need to simplify this into the form $\frac{m}{n}$, where $m$ and $n$ are relatively prime. The only necessary step is to factor out all the powers of 2 from $40!$; the remaining number is clearly relatively prime to all powers of 2.


The number of powers of 2 in $40!$ is $\left \lfloor \frac{40}{2} \right \rfloor + \left \lfloor \frac{40}{4} \right \rfloor + \left \lfloor \frac{40}{8} \right \rfloor + \left \lfloor \frac{40}{16} \right \rfloor + \left \lfloor \frac{40}{32} \right \rfloor = 20 + 10 + 5 + 2 + 1 = 38.$ Letting $y = \frac{40!}{2^{38}}$, we have that $\frac{40!}{2^{780}} = \frac{2^{38} y}{2^780} = \frac{y}{2^{742}}$. Since $y$ and $2^{742}$ are relatively prime, our quotient is in the desired form. Our answer is thus $\log_2 2^{742} = \boxed{742}$.

See also

1999 AIME (ProblemsAnswer KeyResources)
Preceded by
Problem 12
Followed by
Problem 14
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All AIME Problems and Solutions