2021 AMC 12A Problems/Problem 15

Problem

A choir director must select a group of singers from among his $6$ tenors and $8$ basses. The only requirements are that the difference between the number of tenors and basses must be a multiple of $4$ , and the group must have at least one singer. Let $N$ be the number of different groups that could be selected. What is the remainder when $N$ is divided by $100$ ?

$\textbf{(A) } 47\qquad\textbf{(B) } 48\qquad\textbf{(C) } 83\qquad\textbf{(D) } 95\qquad\textbf{(E) } 96\qquad$

Solution 2 (Generating Functions)

The problem can be done using a roots of unity filter. Let $f(x,y)=(1+x)^8(1+y)^6$ . By expanding the binomials and distributing, $f(x,y)$ is the generating function for different groups of basses and tenors. That is, $f(x,y)=\sum_{m=0}^8\sum_{n=0}^6 a_{mn}x^my^n$ where $a_{mn}$ is the number of groups of $m$ basses and $n$ tenors. What we want to do is sum up all values of $a_{mn}$ for which $4\mid m-n$ except for $a_{00}=1$ . To do this, define a new function $g(x)=f(x,x^{-1})=\sum_{m=0}^8\sum_{n=0}^6 a_{mn}x^{m-n}=(1+x)^8(1+x^{-1})^6.$ Now we just need to sum all coefficients of $g(x)$ for which $4\mid m-n$ . Consider a monomial $h(x)=x^k$ . If $4\mid k$ , $h(i)+h(-1)+h(-i)+h(1)=1+1+1+1=4$ otherwise, $h(i)+h(-1)+h(-i)+h(1)=0.$ $g(x)$ is a sum of these monomials so this gives us a method to determine the sum we're looking for: $\frac{g(i)+g(-1)+g(-i)+g(1)}{4}=2^{12}=4096$ (since $g(-1)=0$ and it can be checked that $g(i)=-g(-i)$ ). Hence, the answer is $4096-1$ with the $-1$ for $a_{00}$ which gives $\boxed{95}$ . ~lawliet163

Solution 3 (Casework and Vandermonde's Identity)

By casework, we construct the following table. In the last column, we rewrite some of the combinations using the identity $\binom{n}{r}=\binom{n}{n-r}:$ $\begin{array}{c|c|c|c} & & & \\ [-2ex] \textbf{\# of Tenors} & \textbf{\# of Basses} & \textbf{\# of Ways} & \textbf{Rewrite \# of Ways} \\ [0.5ex] \hline\hline & & & \\ [-2ex] 0 & 8 & \tbinom{6}{0}\tbinom{8}{8} & \\ [1ex] 1 & 1 & \tbinom{6}{1}\tbinom{8}{1} & \tbinom{6}{1}\tbinom{8}{7}\\ [1ex] 2 & 2 & \tbinom{6}{2}\tbinom{8}{2} & \tbinom{6}{2}\tbinom{8}{6}\\ [1ex] 3 & 3 & \tbinom{6}{3}\tbinom{8}{3} & \tbinom{6}{3}\tbinom{8}{5}\\ [1ex] 4 & 4 & \tbinom{6}{4}\tbinom{8}{4} & \\ [1ex] 5 & 5 & \tbinom{6}{5}\tbinom{8}{5} & \tbinom{6}{5}\tbinom{8}{3}\\ [1ex] 6 & 6 & \tbinom{6}{6}\tbinom{8}{6} & \tbinom{6}{6}\tbinom{8}{2}\\ [1ex] \hline & & & \\ [-2ex] 0 & 4 & \tbinom{6}{0}\tbinom{8}{4} & \\ [1ex] 1 & 5 & \tbinom{6}{1}\tbinom{8}{5} & \tbinom{6}{1}\tbinom{8}{3}\\ [1ex] 2 & 6 & \tbinom{6}{2}\tbinom{8}{6} & \tbinom{6}{2}\tbinom{8}{2}\\ [1ex] 3 & 7 & \tbinom{6}{3}\tbinom{8}{7} & \tbinom{6}{3}\tbinom{8}{1}\\ [1ex] 4 & 8 & \tbinom{6}{4}\tbinom{8}{8} & \tbinom{6}{4}\tbinom{8}{0}\\ [1ex] \hline & & & \\ [-2ex] 4 & 0 & \tbinom{6}{4}\tbinom{8}{0} & \tbinom{6}{2}\tbinom{8}{0}\\ [1ex] 5 & 1 & \tbinom{6}{5}\tbinom{8}{1} & \tbinom{6}{1}\tbinom{8}{1}\\ [1ex] 6 & 2 & \tbinom{6}{6}\tbinom{8}{2} & \tbinom{6}{0}\tbinom{8}{2}\\ [1ex] \end{array}$ We apply Vandermonde's Identity to find the requested sum: $\begin{align*} N&=\underbrace{\left[\sum_{k=0}^{6}\binom{6}{k}\binom{8}{8-k}\right]}_{\tbinom{14}{8}}+\underbrace{\left[\sum_{k=0}^{4}\binom{6}{k}\binom{8}{4-k}\right]}_{\tbinom{14}{4}}+\underbrace{\left[\sum_{k=0}^{2}\binom{6}{k}\binom{8}{2-k}\right]}_{\tbinom{14}{2}} \\ &=\binom{14}{6}+\binom{14}{4}+\binom{14}{2} \\ &=3003+1001+91 \\ &=4095 \\ &\equiv\boxed{\textbf{(D) } 95}\pmod{100}. \end{align*}$

~MRENTHUSIASM

Video Solution by Punxsutawney Phil

https://youtube.com/watch?v=FD9BE7hpRvg&t=533s

Video Solution by Hawk Math

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjQARBvdZ20

Video Solution by OmegaLearn (Using Vandermonde's Identity)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mki7xtZLk1I

~pi_is_3.14

2021 AMC 12A (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 14	Followed by Problem 16
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