Makayla finds all the possible ways to draw a path in a 5×55 \times 5 diamond-shaped grid. Each path starts at the bottom of the grid and ends at the top, always moving one unit northeast or northwest. She computes the area of the region between each path and the right side of the grid. Two examples are shown in the figures below. What is the sum of the areas determined by all possible paths?
A. 2520
B. 3150
C. 3840
D. 4730
E. 5050

Worked solution

1. 计算从底部到顶部的所有可能路径的总数

在 5×55 \times 5 的菱形网格中,从最底部的顶点走到最顶部的顶点,每步只能向东北或西北移动一个单位。
到达顶部共需走 5+5=105 + 5 = 10 步,其中向东北走 5 步,向西北走 5 步。
因此,所有可能的路径总数为:
N=(105)=10×9×8×7×65×4×3×2×1=252N = \binom{10}{5} = \frac{10 \times 9 \times 8 \times 7 \times 6}{5 \times 4 \times 3 \times 2 \times 1} = 252

2. 利用轴对称性确定路径对的面积和

整个菱形网格由 25 个单位正方形组成,总面积为 25。
每条路径都将网格分割为两部分:路径左侧区域与路径右侧区域。因为路径沿着小正方形的边行走,所以每个小正方形要么在路径左侧,要么在路径右侧,即:
Area(左)+Area(右)=25\text{Area}(\text{左}) + \text{Area}(\text{右}) = 25
考虑网格关于连接底部与顶部顶点的垂直对称轴的对称变换:
对于任意一条路径 PP,其关于该轴对称的镜像也是一条合法的路径 P′P'。
由对称性,P′P' 右侧的面积等于 PP 左侧的面积:
Area(右,P′)=Area(左,P)\text{Area}(\text{右}, P') = \text{Area}(\text{左}, P)
因此,对称路径对的右侧面积之和为:
Area(右,P)+Area(右,P′)=Area(右,P)+Area(左,P)=25\text{Area}(\text{右}, P) + \text{Area}(\text{右}, P') = \text{Area}(\text{右}, P) + \text{Area}(\text{左}, P) = 25
即使路径关于竖直轴自身对称(P=P′P = P'),其右侧面积恰好为 12.512.5,该等式 2×12.5=252 \times 12.5 = 25 依然成立。

3. 求所有可能路径所确定的面积总和

每条路径右侧区域的平均面积为:
252=12.5\frac{25}{2} = 12.5
因此,所有 252 条可能路径确定的面积总和为:
252×12.5=252×252=126×25=3150252 \times 12.5 = 252 \times \frac{25}{2} = 126 \times 25 = 3150
对应选项 B。

Answer

B

AI analysis — may contain mistakes.

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