CS-210 Discrete Mathematics Fall 2019

Problem Set Counting Solution

1. How many functions are there from the set {a1 , a2 , . . . , an }, where n is a positive integer, to the set
{0, 1}?

2. How many functions are there from the set {a1 , a2 , . . . , an } where n is a positive integer, to the set
{b1 , b2 , . . . , bm }, where m is a positive integer?

3. How many one-to-one functions are there from the set A = {a1 , a2 , . . . , an } where n is a positive
integer, to the set B = {b1 , b2 , . . . , bm }, where m is a positive integer?

4. A coin is flipped eight times where each flip comes up either heads or tails. How many possible
outcomes:

(a) are there in total?

(b) contain exactly three heads?
(c) contain at least three heads?
(d) contain the same number of heads and tails?

5. How many elements are in the union of four sets if the sets have 50, 60, 70 and 80 elements, respec-
tively, each pair of the sets has 5 elements in common, each triple of the sets has 1 common element,
and no element is in all four sets?

6. How many bit strings of length 10 contain either five consecutive 0’s or five consecutive 1’s?

7. How many triangles are determined by the vertices of a regular polygon of n sides? How many if no
side of the polygon is to be a side of any triangle?

8. How many ways are there for a horse race with four horses to finish if ties are possible? (Note: Any
number of the four horses may tie)

9. How many permutations of the 10 digits either begin with the 3 digits 987, contain the digits 45 in
the fifth and sixth positions, or end with the 3 digits 123.

10. How many permutations of the 26 letters of English alphabet do not contain any of the strings f ish,
rat or bird.

11. (a) How many non-negative integer solutions are there to the pair of equations x1 +x2 +x+ . . .+x7 =
37, x1 + x2 + x3 = 6?
(b) How many solutions in part (a) have x1 , x2 , x3 > 0?

12. A palindromic integer or palindrome is a positive integer whose decimal expansion is symmetric and
that is not divisible by 10. In other words, it is an integer that reads the same backward as forward.
For example, the following integers are all palindromes: 1,8,11,99,101,131,999,1234321

1
 (a) How many five digit palindromes are there?

(b) How many are odd? How many are even?

13. A certain family has 6 children, consisting of 3 boys and 3 girls. Assuming that all birth orders are
equally likely, what is the number of ways that the 3 eldest children are the 3 girls?

14. You have n pennies to divide among k children, in how many ways can you distribute this money if

(a) Each child must have at least one penny

(b) The above constraint is not applied

15. Let p1 , p2 , p3 , . . . , pn ∈ Z+ . Prove that if p1 + p2 + p3 + .... + pn − n + 1 pigeons occupy n pigeonholes,

then either the first pigeonhole has p1 or more pigeons roosting in it, or the second pigeon has p2 or
more pigeons roosting in it,. . ., or the nth pigeonhole has pn or more pigeons roosting in it.

16. Prove that at a party where there are at least two people, there are two people who know the same
number of other people.

17. (a) Show that if five integers are selected from the first eight positive integers, there must be a pair
of these integers with a sum equal to 9.

(b) Is the conclusion in the original statement true if four integers are selected rather than five.

n
n 2 2n−1
P


18. Give a combinatorial proof that k k
=n n
k=1

19. Provide a combinatorial proof for the following:

For n ≥ 1

(
n+1
   

n n+1 n+1 n

, n odd
2 = + + ... + n+1
1 3 n+1
, n even

20. Theorem 1 :
The number of different permutations on n objects, where there are n1 indistinguishable objects of
type 1, n2 indistinguishable objects of type 2,..., and nk indistinguishable objects of type k, is
n!
n1 !n2 ! . . . nk !

Theorem 2 :
The number of the ways to distribute n distinguishable objects into k distinguishable boxes so that
ni objects are placed into boxes i, i = 1, 2, . . . , k, equals
n!
n1 !n2 ! . . . nk !

2
 Prove Theorem 2 by first setting up a one-to-one correspondence between permutations of n objects
with ni indistinguishable objects of type i, i = 1, 2, 3 . . . , k and the distributions of n objects in k
boxes such that ni objects are placed in boxes i, i = 1, 2, 3, . . . , k and then applying Theorem 1.

21. What is the coefficient of x8 y 9 in the expansion of (3x + 2y)17

22. What is the coefficient of x101 y 99 in the expansion of (2x − 3y)200

23. P
Prove that:

n k n
k=0 2 k
= 3n

24. Prove the binomial theorem using mathematical induction.