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jmc

counting and probability senior

Problem

For each permutation of the integers , form the sum The average value of all such sums can be written in the form , where and are relatively prime positive integers. Find .
Solution
Because of symmetry, we may find all the possible values for and multiply by the number of times this value appears. Each occurs , because if you fix and there are still spots for the others and you can do this times because there are places and can be. To find all possible values for we have to compute\begin{eqnarray} |1 - 10| + |1 - 9| + \ldots + |1 - 2|\\ + |2 - 10| + \ldots + |2 - 3| + |2 - 1|\\ + \ldots\\ + |10 - 9| \end{eqnarray} This is equivalent to The total number of permutations is , so the average value is , and .
Final answer
58