MathDB
Painful Paths

Source: 2019 AMC 12B #10

February 14, 2019
AMCAMC 12 BAMC 12

Problem Statement

The figure below is a map showing 1212 cities and 1717 roads connecting certain pairs of cities. Paula wishes to travel along exactly 1313 of those roads, starting at city AA and ending at city L,L, without traveling along any portion of a road more than once. (Paula is allowed to visit a city more than once.) How many different routes can Paula take?
[asy] import olympiad; unitsize(50); for (int i = 0; i < 3; ++i) { for (int j = 0; j < 4; ++j) { pair A = (j,i); dot(A);
} } for (int i = 0; i < 3; ++i) { for (int j = 0; j < 4; ++j) { if (j != 3) { draw((j,i)--(j+1,i)); } if (i != 2) { draw((j,i)--(j,i+1)); } } } label("AA", (0,2), W); label("LL", (3,0), E); [/asy]
<spanclass=latexbold>(A)</span>0<spanclass=latexbold>(B)</span>1<spanclass=latexbold>(C)</span>2<spanclass=latexbold>(D)</span>3<spanclass=latexbold>(E)</span>4<span class='latex-bold'>(A) </span> 0 \qquad<span class='latex-bold'>(B) </span> 1 \qquad<span class='latex-bold'>(C) </span> 2 \qquad<span class='latex-bold'>(D) </span> 3\qquad<span class='latex-bold'>(E) </span> 4