Combinatorics AIME Intermediate
2017


Problem - 3805
A special deck of cards contains $49$ cards, each labeled with a number from $1$ to $7$ and colored with one of seven colors. Each number-color combination appears on exactly one card. Sharon will select a set of eight cards from the deck at random. Given that she gets at least one card of each color and at least one card with each number, find the probability that Sharon can discard one of her cards and $\textit{still}$ have at least one card of each color and at least one card with each number.

Without loss of generality, let's assume the duplicated number and color of these cards are $1$ and red, respectively. In order for the qualified event to happen, one of these cards must be a red $1$ because Sharon should be able to eliminate the duplicate number and color by removing a single card.

If one card is red-$1$, then the other red color can only be assigned to $2$ to $7$ which has $6$ choices. Afterwards, the remaining $6$ colors can be assigned arbitrarily. Hence, the number of qualified cases equals $6\times 6!$.

The number of all possible cases can be calculated by adding the number of qualified cases (i.e. the above) and the number of unqualified cases. The later equals $\binom{6}{2} \times 6!$. This is because if no card is red-$1$, then the two reds can match of two of the other six numbers and then the other $6$ colors have no restriction.

Therefore, the final answer is $$\frac{6\times 6!}{\binom{6}{2}\times 6! + 6\times 6!}=\boxed{\frac{4}{9}}$$

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