No single-colour rectangle on a 12-gon
Question
The twelve vertices of a regular dodecagon are each coloured red or blue independently with equal probability. Call a rectangle monochromatic if its four corners are vertices of the dodecagon and all four have the same colour. What is the probability that no monochromatic rectangle exists?
Short answer
. Rectangles inscribed in the dodecagon are exactly pairs of diameters, so one appears iff two diametrically opposite pairs are both red-red or both blue-blue. Counting the opposite pairs: no single-colour pair gives , one gives , one red-red plus one blue-blue gives , for colourings out of , i.e. .
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Open the worked solutionLessons behind this question
- Counting and Combinatorics
- Sample Spaces, Events, and the Probability Axioms
- Conditional Probability, Total Probability, and Bayes' Rule
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