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jmc

counting and probability senior

Problem

A moving particle starts at the point and moves until it hits one of the coordinate axes for the first time. When the particle is at the point , it moves at random to one of the points , , or , each with probability , independently of its previous moves. The probability that it will hit the coordinate axes at is , where and are positive integers such that is not divisible by . Find .
Solution
One could recursively compute the probabilities of reaching as the first axes point from any point asfor and the base cases are for any not equal to zero. We then recursively find so the answer is .
Final answer
252