HMMT-Nov 2009 thm, Problem 7

Five guys are eating hamburgers. Each one puts a top half and a bottom half of a hamburger bun on the grill. When the buns are toasted, each guy randomly takes two pieces of bread off of the grill. What is the probability that each guy gets a top half and a bottom half?

Solution: Say a guy is content if he gets a top half and a bottom half. Suppose, without loss of generality, that the first guy's first piece of bread is a top. Then there is a $\frac{5}{9}$ chance that his second piece of bread is a bottom. By the same reasoning, given that the first guy is content, there is a $\frac{4}{7}$ chance that the second guy is content. Given that the first two guys are content, there is a $\frac{3}{5}$ chance that the third guy is content, and so on. Our final answer is $\frac{5}{9} \cdot \frac{4}{7} \cdot \frac{3}{5} \cdot \frac{2}{3} \cdot \frac{1}{1}=\frac{8}{63}$. $\fbox{\frac{8}{63}}$.

Answer: \frac{8}{63}