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jmc

counting and probability senior

Problem

If two distinct members of the set are randomly selected and multiplied, what is the probability that the product is a multiple of 63? Express your answer as a common fraction.
Solution
In order to produce a multiple of 63, we must choose at least two factors of 3 and one factor of 7 among the prime factorizations of the two numbers we choose. We count the number of ways in which we can do this by considering the four multiples of 7 in our list. There are two which are not multiples of 3 (7 and 35) and two that are multiples of 3 but not 9 (21 and 42). Each of 7 and 35 can be paired with 27 to give a multiple of 63, so that's two successes. Each of 21 and 42 can be paired with any of 3, 27, or 51, which gives another successes. Finally, we can choose both 21 and 42, and we have a total of successes.

Since there are total ways to choose a pair of numbers from the list, the probability that a randomly chosen pair of numbers will have a product which is a multiple of 63 is .
Final answer
\frac{3}{7}