Roll me a cube!

You roll three regular six sided dice.

The probability that you will be able to arrange the resulting three digits to form a three digit cube number is a b \dfrac{a}{b} where a a and b b are coprime positive integers.

What is a + b a+b ?


Image credit: http://study.com


The answer is 77.

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1 solution

Geoff Pilling
Jul 15, 2017

There are four three digit cube numbers containing only the digits 1 to 6 1\text{ to } 6 :

  • 5 3 = 125 5^3 = 125
  • 6 3 = 216 6^3 = 216
  • 7 3 = 343 7^3 = 343
  • 8 3 = 512 8^3 = 512

So, you must roll one of the following combinations of digits:

  • 1 , 2 , 5 1,2,5 - Six ways
  • 2 , 1 , 6 2,1,6 - Six ways
  • 3 , 4 , 3 3,4,3 - Three ways

Total: 15 15 Ways

And there are 6 3 = 216 6^3 = 216 ways to roll the three dice.

So, the probability is:

P = 15 216 = 5 72 P = \dfrac{15}{216} = \dfrac{5}{72}

5 + 72 = 77 5+72 = \boxed{77}

Arghh!! I neglected the fact that 125 and 512 are rearrangements of one another, so I ended up with 21 ways instead of 15. :( Nice problem; I hope I'm not the only one you managed to trick.

Brian Charlesworth - 3 years, 11 months ago

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Hahaha... :-)

Once I saw that, I thought... Whoa... I gotta post this one...

Anyway, if you didn't get it, I'm not sure who will... Let's see...

Geoff Pilling - 3 years, 11 months ago

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There's a similar trick with forming perfect squares, since 144 and 441 are both perfect squares, as are 256 and 625. I guess one of us should post that one too sometime. :)

Brian Charlesworth - 3 years, 11 months ago

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@Brian Charlesworth Haha... Yup!

Geoff Pilling - 3 years, 11 months ago

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