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Ireland

Ireland counting and probability

Problem

In the mathematical talent show called "The -factor", contestants are scored by a panel of 8 judges. Each judge awards a score of 0 ('fail'), ('pass'), or ('pass with distinction'). Three of the contestants were Ann, Barbara and David. Ann was awarded the same score as Barbara by exactly 4 judges. David declares that he obtained different scores to Ann from at least 4 judges, and also that he obtained different scores to Barbara from at least 4 judges. In how many ways could scores have been allocated to David, assuming he is telling the truth?
Solution
First Solution: Represent each "score sheet" by a 8-digit ternary string with digits from . Without loss of generality we may assume that Ann's score sheet reads 00001111, and that Barbara's score sheet reads 00002222. The total number of possible score sheets is . We will count the number of score sheets which could not have been allocated to David: call this number . Denote by the set of 8-digit ternary strings which differ from Ann's score in at most 3 places, and by the set of 8-digit ternary strings which differ from Barbara's score in at most 3 places. Then Next we count . For there are two possible cases: The first 4 digits of are all zero, and the second 4 digits contain at least one 1 and at least one 2. There are of these, since contain no 1s, contain no 2s, and 1 contains no 1s and no 2s. Three of the first 4 digits of are zero, and the second 4 digits contains exactly two 1s and exactly two 2s. There are of these. Therefore , and so leaving the number of possible score sheets for David as .

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Alternative solution.

Second Solution: Represent each score sheet by a 8-digit ternary string with digits from . Without loss of generality we may assume that Ann's score sheet reads 00001111, and that Barbara's score sheet reads 00002222. Note that the number of differences between David's and Ann's scores in the first 4 digits is equal to the number of differences between David's and Barbara's scores in the first 4 digits. Next, note that the number of 4-digit ternary strings containing nonzero elements is given by . Also, denote by the number of 4-digit ternary strings which differ from 1111 and 2222 in at least digits, for . Then (all strings are allowed) (since all strings except 1111 and 2222 are allowed) (since disallowed strings are those which differ from 1111 and 2222 in at most one place) (partitioning the count on the number of zeros in the string) * (only the string 0000 is allowed). The total number of score sheets for David is then (partitioning the count according to the number of nonzero elements in the first 4 digits) i.e., the number of score sheets possible for David is 5505.
Final answer
5505

Techniques

Inclusion-exclusion