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Combinatorix problems


AlbaLed

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These are simple ones, but usually overlooked

1. How many bit strings oflength 10 have
a. exactry three 0-s ?
b. same number of 0-s as 1-s?
c. at least seven 1-s?
d. at least three 1-s ?


2. The English alphabet contains 21 consonants and 5 vowels. How many strings of 6 lowercase letters of the English alphabet contain:
a. exactly 1 vowel ?
b. exactly 2 vowels ?
c. at least 1 vowel ?
d. at least 2 vowels?


3. What is the coefficient of x^101y^99 in the expanssion of (2x - 3y)^200? 

AlbaLed

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1)

a) 10 C 3 = 120

b) 10 C 5 = 252

c) 10 C 7 + 10 C 8 + 10 C 9 + 10 C 10 = 176

d) 2^10 - 10 C 0 - 10 C 1 - 10 C 2 = 968

 

2)

a) 5.6.21.21.21.21.21

b) 15 . 6 C 2 . 21 . 21 . 21 . 21

c) 26^6 - 21^6

d) 26^6 - 21^6 - 5.6.21.21.21.21.21

 

3) 200 C 101 * 2^101 * (-3)^99

 

Any explaination would be highly appreciated. :)

Jaideep

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Originally posted by jaideep

 

1)

a) 10 C 3 = 120

Correct !!

b) 10 C 5 = 252

Correct !!

c) 10 C 7 + 10 C 8 + 10 C 9 + 10 C 10 = 176

Correct !! But working with the big numbers might get you to trouble, you can recognize from above that 10 C 7 = 10 C 3, 10 C 8 = 10 C 2, 10 C 9 = 10 C 1 and 10 C 10 = 10 C 0, and start working with smaller numbers, or you can reverse the problem into bit-string of length 10 with at most three 0-s in it, which would directly yield an expression with smaller number. It's all a matter of preference.

d) 2^10 - 10 C 0 - 10 C 1 - 10 C 2 = 968

 

2)

The trick here is to note that repetitions are permitted.

Let v denote number of vowels, and c number of consonants

More formally for a string of length n with exatly m vowels we have

 

v^m*(n C m)*c^(n-m) Why ?????

 

First let's find in how many different combinations of m vowels and n-m consonants there are. This problem is dentical to the problem of finding how many bit-strings of length n contain m 0-s (or 1-s) [(n C m)]. Now for each group (consonants and vowels we have different choices 5-vowels, 21-consonants). For each group find how many permutations (allowing repetition in this case) of length m (vowels) and n-m (consontants) exist[v^m, c^(n-m)]. Does this make any sense? What I am basically doing is solving the problem piece by pience and matchin any piece with any existing problem whose solution is apparent.

 

 

a) 5.6.21.21.21.21.21

Correct !!

 

b) 15 . 6 C 2 . 21 . 21 . 21 . 21

Don't understand where 15 comes from, maybe you meant 25 ???

c) 26^6 - 21^6

Correct !!! This set of strings can be thought of as the set of all string with length 6 - the set of all string of length 6 with no vowels on them

 

d) 26^6 - 21^6 - 5.6.21.21.21.21.21

Correct !!! This set of strings can be thought of as the set of all string with length 6 - the set of all string of length 6 with no vowels on them

- the set of all string of length 6 with 1 vowel. (no vowel an 1 vowel in the string violate the request - at least two vowels) Of course you can solve this problem by counting all strings (length 6), with 2,3,4,5,6 vowels but that is quite a long way, same goes for C.

 

3) 200 C 101 * 2^101 * (-3)^99

Great, binomial expanssion is the right choice here

Any explaination would be highly appreciated. :)

Jaideep

 

Good job Jaideep

 

AlbaLed

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Hey AlbaLed,

 

Q2)b)

Here is the explainations for the answer.

You can select two vowels in 5 C 2 ways = 10

You can also select same vowel twice in 5 ways so total = 10 + 5 = 15

You can arrange these 2 vowels in a string of length 6 in 6 C 2 ways.

And rest of the places can be filled by 21 choices given by consonants.

 

Hey Alba can you explain why you think it should be 25 and not 15.

Jaideep

 

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