1986 AHSME Problems/Problem 10
Contents
Problem
The permutations of
are arranged in dictionary order as if each were an ordinary five-letter word.
The last letter of the
th word in this list is:
Solution 1
We could list out all of the possible combinations in dictionary order.
MAEHS
MAESH
MAHES
MAHSE
MASEH
MASHE
MEAHS
MEASH
MEHAS
MEHSA
MESAH
MESHA
MHAES
MHASE
We find that the combination ends with the letter E.
So the answer is
.
Solution 2
We can do this problem without having to list out every single combination.
There are distinct letters, so therefore there are
ways to rearrange the letters.
We can divide the
different combinations into 5 groups. Words that start with
, words that start with
and so on...
Combinations
-
start with
,
combinations
-
start with
,
combinations
-
start with
,
combinations
-
start with
,
and combinations
-
start with
.
We are only concerned with combination
, so we focus on combinations
-
.
We can divide the remaining 24 combinations into 4 groups of 6, based upon the second letter.
Combinations
-
begin with
,
combinations
-
begin with
,
combinations
-
begin with
,
and combinations
-
begin with
.
Combination
begins with
. Now we can fill in the rest of the letters in alphabetical order and get
(as
is
). The last letter of the word is
, so the answer is
.
See also
1986 AHSME (Problems • Answer Key • Resources) | ||
Preceded by Problem 9 |
Followed by Problem 11 | |
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