Art of Problem Solving
AoPS Online
Math texts, online classes, and more
for students in grades 5-12.
Visit AoPS Online ‚
Books for Grades 5-12 Online Courses
Beast Academy
Engaging math books and online learning
for students ages 6-13.
Visit Beast Academy ‚
Books for Ages 6-13 Beast Academy Online
AoPS Academy
Small live classes for advanced math
and language arts learners in grades 2-12.
Visit AoPS Academy ‚
Find a Physical Campus Visit the Virtual Campus

2005 AMC 10B Problems/Problem 12

Problem

Twelve fair dice are rolled. What is the probability that the product of the numbers on the top faces is prime?

$\textbf{(A) } \left(\frac{1}{12}\right)^{12} \qquad \textbf{(B) } \left(\frac{1}{6}\right)^{12} \qquad \textbf{(C) } 2\left(\frac{1}{6}\right)^{11} \qquad \textbf{(D) } \frac{5}{2}\left(\frac{1}{6}\right)^{11} \qquad \textbf{(E) } \left(\frac{1}{6}\right)^{10}$

Solution 1

In order for the product of the numbers to be prime, $11$ of the dice have to be a $1$, and the other die has to be a prime number. There are $3$ prime numbers ($2$, $3$, and $5$), and there is only one $1$, and there are $\dbinom{12}{1}$ ways to choose which die will have the prime number, so the probability is $\dfrac{3}{6}\times\left(\dfrac{1}{6}\right)^{11}\times\dbinom{12}{1} = \dfrac{1}{2}\times\left(\dfrac{1}{6}\right)^{11}\times12=\left(\dfrac{1}{6}\right)^{11}\times6=\boxed{\textbf{(E) }\left(\dfrac{1}{6}\right)^{10}}$.

Solution 2

There are three cases where the product of the numbers is prime. One die will show $2$, $3$, or $5$ and each of the other $11$ dice will show a $1$. For each of these three cases, the number of ways to order the numbers is $\dbinom{12}{1}$ = $12$ . There are $6$ possible numbers for each of the $12$ dice, so the total number of permutations is $6^{12}$. The probability the product is prime is therefore $\frac{3\cdot 12}{6^{12}} = \frac{1}{6^{10}} =\boxed{\textbf{(E) }\left(\dfrac{1}{6}\right)^{10}}$.

~mobius247

Solution 3

The only way to get a product of that is a prime number is to roll all ones except for such prime, e.g: $11$ ones and $1$ two. So we seek the probability of rolling $11$ ones and $1$ prime number. The probability of rolling $11$ ones is $\frac{1}{6^{11}}$ and the probability of rolling a prime is $\frac{1}{2}$, giving us a probability of $\frac{1}{6^{11}}\cdot\frac{1}{2}$ of this outcome occuring. However, there are $\frac{12!}{11!\cdot{1!}}=12$ ways to arrange the ones and the prime. Multiplying the previous probability by $12$ gives us $\frac{1}{6^{11}}\cdot\frac{1}{2}\cdot{6}=\frac{1}{6^{10}}=\boxed{\textbf{(E) }\left(\dfrac{1}{6}\right)^{10}}.$

-Benedict T (countmath1)

See Also

2005 AMC 10B (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by
Problem 11 		Followed by
Problem 13
1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17 • 18 • 19 • 20 • 21 • 22 • 23 • 24 • 25
All AMC 10 Problems and Solutions

The problems on this page are copyrighted by the Mathematical Association of America's American Mathematics Competitions. AMC logo.png

Retrieved from "https://artofproblemsolving.com/wiki/index.php?title=2005_AMC_10B_Problems/Problem_12&oldid=174935"