MATH/STAT 414.

001 Summer 2019

Homework 1 Solution
(Due: June 28th, Friday at the beginning of class)

Show your work in the answers.

Unless stated otherwise, your final numerical answers can be in unreduced forms
like 10/3, 410 and 10


4
.
Grading Rule for Homework 1:

(i) 5 points are given for completion and 5 points are given for correctness, per each
question;

(ii) For a total of 8/8 problems graded, the maximum possible score is 80, if all questions
are completed and done correctly

Required Questions
For questions about combinatorial analysis, some numbers in the solutions mean the number
of possible choices for certain experiments/steps.
Chapter 1.
Problems 1 Solution:

(a) First 2 places: 262 . The other 5 places: 105 . In total: 262 × 105

(b) First 2 places: 26 × 25. The other 5 places: 10 × 9 × 8 × 7 × 6.

In total: 26 × 25 × 10 × 9 × 8 × 7 × 6

Problems 2 Solution:
By generlized basic principle of counting, the answer is 64 .
Problems 8 Solution:

(a) Since ”Fluke” has five unique letters we have 5! = 120 possible arrangements.

1
(b) Since ”Propose” has seven letters of which four (the ”o”’s and the ”p”’s) repeat we have
7!
2!×2!
= 1260 possible arrangements.

(c) ”Mississippi” has eleven characters with the ”i” repeated four times, the ”s” repeated
11!
four times, and the ”p” repeated two times, so we have 4!×4!×2! possible arrangements.
7!
(d) ”Arrange” has seven characters with a double ”A” and a double ”r” so it has 2!×2!
possible arrangements.

Problems 20 Solution:

(a) There are a total of 85 possible groups of friends that could attend (assuming no feuds).

We have 22 × 63 sets with our two feuding friends in them, giving 85 − 22 × 63 = 36

possible groups of friends. Alternative Solution: The possible outcomes that only
one of the feuding people attend is 22 × 64 and the possible outcomes that none of the

two attend is 20 × 65 , giving 64 × 22 + 65 × 20 = 36 possible groups of friends.

(b) If none of the two people attend, the number of possible groups is 65 . If they attendto-

gether, there are 22 × 63 possible arrangements, giving a total of 65 + 22 × 63 = 26

choices. Alternative Solution: There are a total of 85 possible groups of friends that

could attend (assuming no feuds). The possible outcomes that the second person of the
pair attend is 64 and the possible outcomes that the second person of the pair attend

is 64 as well, giving a total of 85 − 64 − 64 = 26 choices.

Problems 24 Solution:
5   5  
2 2 5
X 5 2 k 2 5−k
X 5 k 2l 2(5−k)
(3x + y ) = (3x ) (y ) = 3 x y
k=0
k k=0
k

Problems 27 Solution: It is given by the multinomial coefficient

 
12 12!
= = 27720
3, 4, 5 3! × 4! × 5!

Theoretical Exercise 5 Solution: To have the sum evaluate to exactly k, we must select
at k components from the vector x to have the value one. Since there are n components
in the vector x, this can be done in nk ways. To have the sum exactly equal k + 1 we


n


must select k + 1 components from x to have a value one. This can be done in k+1 ways.
Continuing this pattern we see that the number of binary vectors x that satisfy
n
X
xi ≥ k
i

2
is given by
n          
X n n n n n
= + + ··· + +
l=k
l n n−1 k+1 k

Alternative method: Since (x1 , · · · , xn ) is a binary sequence of length n, the question is

asking how many binary sequences of length n that have at least k 1’s is possible. Since
the number of binary sequences of length n that have exactly l 1’s is nn


l
, adding all these
number for l = k, k + 1, · · · , n will lead to the same answer.
Theoretical Exercise 13 Solution: From the binomial theorem we have
n  
n
X n k n−k
(x + y) = x y
k=0
k

If we let x = −1 and y = 1, we can get that

n  
X n
0= (−1)i
i=0
i