Difference between revisions of "2001 AMC 12 Problems/Problem 11"
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Latest revision as of 17:19, 18 October 2025
- The following problem is from both the 2001 AMC 12 #11 and 2001 AMC 10 #23, so both problems redirect to this page.
Problem
A box contains exactly five chips, three red and two white. Chips are randomly removed one at a time without replacement until all the red chips are drawn or all the white chips are drawn. What is the probability that the last chip drawn is white?
Solution 1
Imagine that we draw all the chips in random order, i.e., we do not stop when the last chip of a color is drawn. To draw out all the white chips first, the last chip left must be red, and all previous chips can be drawn in any order. Since there are 
red chips, the probability that the last chip of the five is red (and so also the probability that the last chip drawn is white) is 
.
~A genius ofc :P
Solution 2
Let's assume we don't stop picking until all of the chips are picked. To satisfy this condition, we have to arrange the letters: 
such that both 
's appear in the first 
. We find the number of ways to arrange the white chips in the first and divide that by the total ways to choose all the chips. The probability of this occurring is 
Solution 3
The amount of ways to end with a white chip is by having 
and 
. The amount of arrangements for 
with at the end is , the number of arrangements of 
with at the end is 
, and the number of arrangements with is just 
. This gives us 
total ways to end with white. Next, the cases to end with a red are 
, and 
. gives us ways and gives us way. So the number of ways to end with a red is . Thus, our answer is simply 
= 
Solution 4
First, we figure out the total number of ways to arrange the 
chips. There are 
ways of arranging them. Now if the last chip is white, all we need to do is to arrange the 4 chips before the last , which are 
. There are 
ways of arranging the first 4 chips. Therefore, the answer is 
Video Solution
~savannahsolver
See Also
| 2001 AMC 10 (Problems • Answer Key • Resources) | ||
| Preceded by Problem 22 |
Followed by Problem 24 | |
| 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 | ||
| 2001 AMC 12 (Problems • Answer Key • Resources) | |
| Preceded by Problem 10 |
Followed by Problem 12 |
| 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 12 Problems and Solutions | |
These problems are copyrighted © by the Mathematical Association of America, as part of the American Mathematics Competitions. 
