1993 AMC 12 Problem 24

Attempt Problem 24 of the 1993 AMC 12 below, then check your answer against the professionally curated solution from LIVE by Po-Shen Loh. You can also try the full timed exam, view all 1993 AMC 12 solutions, or check the answer key.

All problems are used with official legal permission of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA).

24.

A box contains 33 shiny pennies and 44 dull pennies. One by one, pennies are drawn at random from the box and not replaced. If the probability is ab\frac{a}{b} that it will take more than four draws until the third shiny penny appears and ab\frac{a}{b} is in lowest terms, then a+b=a+b=
1111
2020
3535
5858
6666
Answer: E
Concepts:complementary probabilitycombinationsrandom ordering
Small hint:
View the three shiny pennies as occupying three of seven draw positions
Big hint:
Subtract the cases in which all three shiny pennies occur among the first four positions
Solution:
The shiny pennies occupy a uniformly chosen 33-element subset of the 77 draw positions. There are (73)=35\binom73=35 possibilities. The third shiny penny appears by draw 44 exactly when all three shiny positions lie among the first four, which occurs in (43)=4\binom43=4 cases. The requested probability is 1−435=3135. 1-\frac4{35}=\frac{31}{35}. Therefore a+b=31+35=66.a+b=31+35=66. Thus the correct answer is E.
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