Combinatorial Proofs

Two Counting Principles

Some proofs concerning finite sets involve counting the number
of elements of the sets, so we will look at the basics of counting.

Addition Principle: If A and B are disjoint finite sets with |A|=n

and |B| = m, then |A ∪ B| = n + m.

Multiplication Principle: If a procedure can be broken into m

stages and if there are r outcomes in the first stage,s outcomes in
the second stage independent of the choice in the first stage, t
outcomes in the third stage again independent of the previous
choices then the total procedure has rst... composite outcomes.
 Examples

If I teach two classes and one class has 30 students and the other
has 12 students, how many students do I teach?

There is not enough information to answer the question!!!

If there is no overlap, then the addition principle gives 42, but if
there is an overlap the addition principle does not apply.
However, if we know that there are 2 students in both classes then
we can use the addition principle as follows:
#in first class only + #in second class only + #in both
28 + 10 + 2 = 40.
 Examples
Toss two dice. How many ways can the outcome not be doubles?

Think of the toss as a process with two stages, the first stage is the
toss of one die and the second is the toss of the other.

1st method: There are 6 outcomes for the first stage, and to not get
doubles, there are 5 outcomes for the second stage. By the product
rule there are 30 possibilities. [Note that the number of outcomes
for the second stage does not depend on which outcome occurred in
the first stage.]

2nd method: Total number of outcomes (including doubles) is, by the

product rule 6×6 = 36. Of these, 6 are doubles, so the number that
are not doubles is 36 – 6 = 30.
 Examples
There are 15 different apples and 10 different pears. How many
ways are there for Jack to pick an apple or a pear and then for
Jill to pick an apple and a pear?

There are two natural stages, Jack's pick followed by Jill's pick.
Jack chooses one out of 25 fruit, so there are 25 outcomes in this
stage. To calculate the number of outcomes for Jill's pick we must
know what Jack picked:
If Jack picked an apple, then Jill has 14(10) = 140 choices.
If Jack picked a pear, then Jill has 15(9) = 135 choices.
The product rule does not apply directly, but we can use the addition
rule to break up the problem into subproblems in which it does apply.
Jack picks an apple + Jack picks a pear
15(140) + 10(135) = 2100 + 1350 = 3450
 Lists (ordered arrangements)
In general when creating lists, if there are n1 selections for first
place, n2 for second, ... nr for the r-th place (each selection
independent of the preceding) then the number of lists that can be
created equals n1 n2 ...nr (product rule).

If the selections are taken from an n-set and repeats (replacement)

are allowed then the number of lists is given by n n n ... n = nr .

If no repeats are allowed then the number of lists is given by

P(n,r) = n(n-1)(n-2)...(n-r+1)

In the special case of complete lists (permutations) we have

P(n,n) = n!
 Permutation Problems
How many ways are there to pick 2 successive cards from a
standard deck of 52 such that:
a. The first card is an Ace and the second is not a Queen?
b. The first is a spade and the second is not a Queen?

a) We are creating a list of two things. There are 4 choices for the
first item and (51 – 4) = 47 choices for the second, so there are
4(47) = 188 ways to do this.

b) This time there are 13 choices for the first item, but the number
of choices for the second depends on what was chosen first. If the
Queen of Spades was picked first, there are (51 – 3) = 48 choices
for the second card. If a different spade had been selected then
there are 51-4 = 47 choices for the second card. So, we get
1(48) + 12(47) ways to do this.
 Permutation Problems
There are 50 cards numbered 1 to 50. Two different cards are
chosen at random. How many ways can this be done? In how
many of these picks will one card be twice the other?

In this case we are not forming a list (there is no first card of the
two selected), but we can still use the list idea to solve the
problem. If we were forming a list, the number of possible lists
would be 50(49) since the cards are different. But, two cards A and
B would appear twice in these lists, once as A,B and again as B,A.
So, to answer the question we should divide by 2 to get
½(50)(49) = 25(49).
To answer the second question, we note that the two cards are now
distinguished, there is a larger one and a smaller one. If we select
the larger one first there are 25 choices (it must be even), and then
the smaller card is determined, so there are no additional choices.
 Permutation Problems
How many integers greater than 6600 have distinct digits, not
including the digits 7,8,or 9?

Since only 7 digits are allowed, we can not have any integers with
more than 7 decimal places. We also can not have any with less
than 5 decimal places and still be greater than 6600.
We look at the cases of 5, 6 and 7 decimal places separately.
For a 5 place integer, there are only 6 choices for the first digit
since we can't use 0 there. There are also 6 choices for the second
digit since we can't use the digit used in the first place, but we are
now allowed to use 0. The total number is thus 6(6)(5)(4)(3).
Similarly, for a 6 place number we get 6(6)(5)(4)(3)(2) and a 7
place number give 6(6)(5)(4)(3)(2)(1). So, our answer is:
6(6)(5)(4)(3) + 6(6)(5)(4)(3)(2) + 6(6)(5)(4)(3)(2)(1) = 10,800
 Permutation problems
Use the prime decomposition to show that every square
integer has an odd number of divisors (including 1 and itself),
and every non-square integer has an even number of divisors.

Observe that the divisors of an integer are made up of the same

primes that make up the integer. We can count the number of
divisors (factors) by listing, for each prime divisor, the number of
times that prime appears in the factor (including the possibility
that it doesn't appear at all). Thus, looking at the prime
decomposition of an integer n we can say:
a1 a2 ak
p p ⋯ p hasa 11a 21⋯a k 1 factors.
1 2 k
If n is a square, all the exponents are even, so the number of
factors is a product of odd numbers and so is odd.
If n is not a square, then at least one exponent is odd, so the
number of factors has an even integer divisor and is even.
 r-sets of an n-set
Subsets of size r of a set of size n are called combinations of n
elements taken r at a time. The number of such subsets is given by
the binomial coefficient C(n,r), also written as  n  and read as "n
r
choose r".

We determine a formula for C(n,r) by using an obvious, but

important counting principle:

If you count the elements of a set in two different ways -

YOU GET THE SAME ANSWER!

Duh!!
 Combinations
Example: We have already counted the number of lists of r
elements taken from a set of n elements, P(n,r). Now we count
these in a different way. First select the r elements (this can be
done in C(n,r) ways) then arrange the r elements in lists in all
possible ways (P(r,r) ways to do this). So, ...

P(n,r) = C(n,r) × P(r,r)


C n , r  = n
r
=
P n , r  nn−1n−2⋯n−r1
P r , r 
=
r!

nn−1⋯n−r1 n−r  n−r−1⋯21 n!

= = .
r!  n−r ! r ! n−r !
 Combinations
Given a set of n elements, there is only one subset that has 0
elements, i.e., the empty set. So,
C(n,0) = 1 ∀ n ∈ ℕ.

Also, there is only one subset that contains n elements. Thus

C(n,n) =1 ∀ n ∈ ℕ.

Our formula for computing C(n,r) would, in these two cases, give:


n = n!
0 0! n! n 
n = n!
n!0!
In order to have these formulas make sense, we must define 0! = 1.

It is also convenient to define C(n,r) = 0 if r < 0 or r > n.

 Poker Hands
A poker hand consists of 5 cards from a deck of 52 cards.

A four of a kind hand has 4 cards of the same denomination.

1  
There are 13 48 =1348=624 four of a kind hands.
1
A full house consists of 3 cards of one denomination and 2
cards of another denomination.

    
There are 13
1
4
3
12
1
4 = 134126=3,744 full house hands.
2

A flush consists of 5 cards of the same suit but not consecutive.

 [  ]
There are 4
1
13 −10 =5,108 flush hands.
5
 Committee Selections
Suppose that there are 10 Republicans, 8 Democrats and 2
Independent legislators who are eligible for committee membership.

There are C(20,5) 5 member committees that can be formed.

How many 5 member committees have at least 2 Republicans?

C(10,2) C(18,3)

How many 6 member committees have as many Republicans as

Democrats?
C(10,2) C(8,2) C(2,2) + C(10,3) C(8,3)

How many 5 member committees have no more than 2 Republicans?

C(10,5) + C(10,1) C(10,4) + C(10,2) C(10,3)
 The Binomial Theorem

A binomial is an algebraic expression with two terms, like x + y.

When we multiply out the powers of a binomial we can call the
result a binomial expansion.

Of course, multiplying out an expression is just a matter of using

the distributive laws of arithmetic, a(b+c) = ab + ac and (a + b)c =
ac + bc. In the examples below, I have multiplied out a few
binomial expansions, without combining like terms or even
writing products as powers. To make things easier to see, I have
used a different color for the terms in each factor, so that you can
see where they came from.
The Binomial Theorem
 Binomial Theorem
Notice that each term of the binomial expansions is a product
composed of one item of each color. This suggests another way to
look at this process of multiplication. Think of each factor in the
product as a box containing two items, an x and a y (the colors are
used here to keep track of which box an x or a y came from). We
form one of the terms in the binomial expansion by picking either
an x or a y from each of the boxes and multiplying our selections
together. Since there are 2 choices for what we can pick from each
of the boxes, the total number of possible different selections is
2×2×2 ... ×2 = 2 . Now look at the examples again, and notice that
n

the number of terms in the binomial expansions is exactly the total

number of possiblities, i.e., for the cube there are 8 terms, for the
4th power there are 16 terms, etc. This means that every possible
way of choosing one item from each box gives a term in the
binomial expansion.
Binomial Theorem
 Binomial Theorem
We would like to be able to say exactly how many terms are in each
group (this would be the coefficient of the term if it was written out in
the normal way). We can do this by counting because we know how the
terms are formed. To get a term with, say, 3 x's and 1 y, all we have to
do is decide which box we are going to pick the y from and then pick the
x's from all the other boxes. Thus, the number of terms of this type is the
number of ways we can pick 1 (box) from a set of 4 (boxes). This is the
number of subsets of size 1 in a set of size 4 , i.e. C(4,1). Looking at the
group of terms having 2 x's and 2 y's, we know that we get them by
picking 2 of the 4 boxes to take the y's from, so there are C(4,2) = 6 such
terms. Now, consider the first and last terms of this example. In order to
get xxxx, you don't pick any boxes to take y's from, and you can only do
this in one way, i.e., C(4,0) = 1. Similarly, to get yyyy, you must pick all
the boxes to take y's from, and again there is only one way to do this
since C(4,4) = 1. These two statements are true for any number of
boxes, since C(n,0) = C(n,n) = 1 for any n.
 Binomial Theorem
We can now drop the colors and write things normally to get:

The general case can be written as:

Because the numbers C(n,k) appear as the coefficients of the terms

in a binomial expansion, they are called binomial coefficents.
 Counting Proofs
Using the formula for C(n,r) it is easy to see that C(n, r) = C(n, n-r).

 
n =
n−r
n!
=
n!
n−r ! n−n−r ! n−r ! r !
= n .
r 
However, it is also possible to see this relationship without resorting
to the formulas. To every subset of size r in an n set, there
corresponds a unique subset of size n-r, namely, the complement of
the r set. Thus, the total number of size r subsets must equal the total
number of size n-r subsets.

Reasoning this way is supplies a combinatorial proof as opposed

to the algebraic proof of manipulating formulas.
 Combinatorial Proofs
C(n,m) C(m,k) = C(n,k) C(n-k, m-k)
To give a combinatorial proof of this binomial identity, we need to
find a counting problem for which one side or the other is the answer
and then find another way to do the count.

Let S be a set with n elements. Consider the ordered pairs (M,K)

where M ⊆ S with m elements and K ⊆ M with k elements. The
number of these ordered pairs is, C(n,m) C(m,k) using the product
rule and first counting the number of choices for M and then the
number of choices for K. Now we count the ordered pairs in a
different way. First choose a K, this can be done in C(n,k) ways, and
next count the number of M's that contain this K. Since we must add
m-k elements to K to get an M, and these are in the complement of
K, of size n-k , we have C(n-k,m-k) ways to do this. So,
C(n,m) C(m,k) = C(n,k) C(n-k, m-k)
since these represent two ways to count the same thing.
 An old favorite
n
Thm: If a set S has n elements then its power set has 2 elements.

Pf: We count the number of subsets by size. There are C(n,0) of

size 0, C(n,1) of size 1, ... , C(n,r) of size r, etc. Thus, the total
number of subsets of S is the sum:

  
n
n  n ⋯ n = n .
0 1 n
∑
i=0 i

On the other hand, the binomial theorem gives, by setting x = y = 1:


n
 x y  = ∑
n n x i y n−i
i=0 i

i  
n n
2 = 11 = ∑ n 1 1 =∑ n .
n n i n−i

i=0 i=0 i
 Combinatorial Proofs
C(n,r) = C(n-1,r-1) + C(n-1,r).

C(n,r) counts the number of r-sets in an n-set. We now count these

in a different way. Single out one element of the n-set and think of
it as being colored red.
Every r-set either contains the red element or not, so
C(n,r) = # r-sets with red element + # r-sets without red element.
To get a subset without the red element, we must select r elements
out of n-1 (i.e., those that are not the red element) and there are
C(n-1,r) ways to do this.
To get a subset with the red element, we must select r-1 additional
elements from the n-1 non-red elements to add to the red element.
This can be done in C(n-1, r-1) ways. So,
C(n, r) = C(n-1, r-1) + C(n-1, r).
 Pascal's Triangle
This last binomial identity is the formation rule for what is known as
Pascal's Triangle:
1
1 1
1 2 1
1 3 3 1
1 4 6 4 1
1 5 10 10 5 1
1 6 15 20 15 6 1
By numbering the rows (top down) starting at 0, and the entries in
a row (left to right) starting at 0, then the entry in the rth position of
the nth row is C(n,r).
C(n,r) = C(n-1,r-1) + C(n-1,r)
 Pascal's Triangle
Pascal's Triangle has many properties:
1
1 1
1 2 1
1 3 3 1
1 4 6 4 1
1 5 10 10 5 1
1 6 15 20 15 6 1
1 7 21 35 35 21 7 1

Triangular Numbers:

1 3 6 10 15
 Pascal's Triangle
Pascal's Triangle has many properties:
1
1 1
1 2 1
1 3 3 1
1 4 6 4 1
1 5 10 10 5 1
1 6 15 20 15 6 1
1 7 21 35 35 21 7 1

Tetrahedral Numbers:

1 4 10
 Pascal's Triangle
1
1 1
2
1 1 3
5
1 2 1 8
1 3 3 1 1321
1 4 6 4 1
1 5 10 10 5 1
1 6 15 20 15 6 1
1 7 21 35 35 21 7 1

Fibonacci numbers hidden in the triangle

 Pascal's Triangle
1
1 1
1 2 1
1 3 3 1
1 4 6 4 1
1 5 10 10 5 1
1 6 15 20 15 6 1
1 7 21 35 35 21 7 1

Illustrates the binomial identity:

C(n,0) + C(n+1,1) + ... + C(n+k,k) = C(n+k+1,k)

Pascal's Triangle
We call the triangle Pascal's Triangle in
honor of the French mathematician
Blaise Pascal (1623 – 1662) who in 1653
wrote Traité du triangle arithmétique
(Treatise on the Arithmetic Triangle). The
properties we have mentioned, and many
more, are collected in this work, many of
them first discovered by Pascal.

HOWEVER, ...
Pascal's (?) Triangle
 Pascal's (?) Triangle

Even this is not the earliest reference we have to the triangle:

~1100 Omar Khayyam mentions the triangle and does not claim
credit for it. So he probably obtained it from earlier Chinese or
Indian sources.
 One More Counting Proof
    
2 2 2
2 n = n  n ⋯ n
n 0 1 n
Let a set S consist of n red balls and n blue balls. We want to
count how many ways there are to select n balls (regardless of
color) from S. The answer to this problem is clearly C(2n, n). We
now count in a different way.
Each selection of n balls contains a certain number, say x, of red
balls and also n-x blue balls. Clearly, x ranges from 0 to n. For
any particular value of x, we can choose the red balls in C(n,x)
ways and the blue balls in C(n, n-x) ways. So the number of ways
2
to get an n set with x red balls is C(n,x) C(n, n-x) = C(n,x) since
we know that C(n,x) = C(n, n-x). So, counting the n-sets by how
many red balls they contain, gives:
2 2 2
C(2n,n) = C(n,0) + C(n,1) + ... + C(n,n)