Image is here: https://latex.artofproblemsolving.com/d/0/4/d04c14a38efb837151549f4b864fde841fa50f95.png
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Answer(since I originally answered the question in Latex, and since It's almost time to sleep, I will edit it tomorrow.)(The original post is here: https://artofproblemsolving.com/texer/yglroond)
Color the dots red and blue shown below.. Notice that whenever the ant moves, it moves from a red dot to a blue dot or a blue dot to a red dot. So since
is a red dot, it must move to a blue dot, then a red dot, then a blue dot, then a red dot, and end up on a blue dot. There are only four blue dots, and the ant is equally likely to end up on any one of these four, since the diagram is symmetric to a
rotation. The probability that the ant ends on
after five minutes is therefore
.
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Note: @Ikleyn is not correct unlike the other times I saw her answer questions. The correct ones are me and @greenstamps.
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Let E denotes one step horizontally in (+) direction (East)
W denotes one step horizontally in (-) direction (West)
N denotes one step vertically in (+) direction (North)
S denotes one step vertically in (-) direction (South).
We will denote each path as a sequence of letters E, W, N, S.
To get from A to B in 5 steps, the path must contain 5 letters; equal number of E and W letters;
in addition, the number of N letters must be 1 more than the number of S letters.
So, all good paths must fall into one of these DISJOINT categories
(1) no E,W at all; there are only all distinguishable permutations of 3N and 2S.
the number of such arrangements is = = 10.
(2) one E compensated by one W, in any order; the rest are 2N and 1S in any arrangement.
the total number of such arrangements is = = 60.
(3) two E compensated by two W, in any order; and only one N; no S
the total number of such artranjements is = = 30.
Thus, there are 10 + 60 + 30 = 100 good arrangements (paths leading from A to B).
The total number of all possible paths of the length 5 is = 1024: any of 4 letters in each of 5 positions, independently.
So the probability is P = = = 0.09766 (rounded). ANSWER
Solved.
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Nice contest/entertainment problem of a Math Olympiad or Math Circle level.
As a pre-requisite, you must know everything about distinguishable permutations.
About it, read the lesson
- Arranging elements of sets containing indistinguishable elements
in this site.
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In this post, the diagram attached by the visitor at the end,
DOES NOT correspond to the wording part of the problem - it creates misunderstanding.
In this problem, much wider lattice should be considered - otherwise, the probabilities
would not be all equal to 1/4 for moving one step from each current point.