MTL180 - Discrete Mathematical Structures

Lecture 12

Course Instructor : Prof. Biplab Basak

Department of Mathematics
Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

(Maths Dept., IIT Delhi) MTL180 - Discrete Mathematical Structures, Tutorial-1 1 / 11

Permutations
The number of permutations of n things taken k at a time is
n!
P(n, k) = n(n − 1)(n − 2) · · · (n − k + 1) = .
(n − k)!

Combinations
The number of subsets of size k of a set of size n (also called an n-set) is
!
P(n, k) n! n
C (n, k) = = = .
n! (n − k)!n! k
n

The notation C (n, k) is rarely used; instead we use k , pronounced “n
choose k”.
n
n

We define 0! = 1 and −1 = n+1 = 0.
n
n

Note that, 0 = n = 1.

(Maths Dept., IIT Delhi) MTL180 - Discrete Mathematical Structures, Tutorial-1 2 / 11

Theorem
! ! !
n n−1 n−1
= + .
k k k −1

Proof:
Consider an n-set A = {a1 , . . . , an }.
We consider two types of subsets: those that contain an and those
that do not.
If a k-subset of A does not contain
an , then it is a k-subset of
{a1 , . . . , an−1 }, and there are n−1
k of these.
If it does contain an , then it consists of an and k − 1 elements of
{a1 , . . . , an−1 }.
n−1
n−1

Since there are k−1 of these, there are k−1 subsets of this type.
is n−1 n−1



Thus the total number of k-subsets of A k + k−1 .

(Maths Dept., IIT Delhi) MTL180 - Discrete Mathematical Structures, Tutorial-1 3 / 11

Problem 1
Let A and B be two finite sets, with |A| = m and |B| = n. How many
distinct functions (mappings) can you define from set A to set B,
f : A → B?
Proof:
Let A = {a1 , a2 , a3 , . . . , am } and B = {b1 , b2 , b3 , . . . , bn }.
Note that to define a mapping from A to B, we have n options for
f (a1 ), i.e., f (a1 ) ∈ B = {b1 , b2 , b3 , . . . , bn }.
Similarly we have n options for f (a2 ), i.e.,
f (a2 ) ∈ B = {b1 , b2 , b3 , . . . , bn }, and so on.
Thus, the total number of distinct functions f : A → B is
n · n · · · n = nm .

(Maths Dept., IIT Delhi) MTL180 - Discrete Mathematical Structures, Tutorial-1 4 / 11

Problem 2
Let A and B be two finite sets, with |A| = m and |B| = n. How many
distinct How many distinct one-to-one functions (mappings) can you
define from set A to set B, f : A → B?

Proof:
Let A = {a1 , a2 , a3 , . . . , am } and B = {b1 , b2 , b3 , . . . , bn }.
Since the map is one-to-one f (ai ) ̸= f (aj ) for 1 ≤ i ̸= j ≤ m.
Thus, (f (a1 ), f (a2 ), . . . , f (am )) is an m-tuple of distinct elements,
where f (ai ) ∈ B = {b1 , b2 , b3 , . . . , bn }, where m ≤ n.
Thus, the total number of distinct one-to-one functions f : A → B is
n!
P(n, m) = n(n − 1)(n − 2) · · · (n − m + 1) = (n−m)! .

(Maths Dept., IIT Delhi) MTL180 - Discrete Mathematical Structures, Tutorial-1 5 / 11

Problem 3
An urn consists of 30 red balls and 70 green balls with numbers. What is
the number of ways of getting exactly 9 red balls in a sample of size 20 if
the sampling is done without replacement (repetition not allowed)?

Proof:
We have drawn 20 balls.
Since 9 balls are red, the remaining 11 balls are green.
30

The number of ways of getting 9 red balls from 30 red ball is 9 .
The
number of ways of getting 11 green balls from 70 green ball is
70
11 .
Thus, the number of ways of getting exactly 9 red balls in a sample of
size 20 is 30

70

9 11 .

(Maths Dept., IIT Delhi) MTL180 - Discrete Mathematical Structures, Tutorial-1 6 / 11

Bell numbers
A partition of a set S is a collection of non-empty subsets Ai ⊂ S,
1 ≤ i ≤ k (the parts of the partition), such that ∪ki=1 Ai = S and for every
i ̸= j, Ai ∩ Aj = ∅.
For a set S with n elements, the number of partitions is called the Bell
number for an n-element set, and it is denoted by Bn .

Examples
For convenience we let B0 = 1.
It is quite easy to see that B1 = 1 and B2 = 2.
The partitions of the set {a, b, c} are {{a}, {b}, {c}},
{{a, b}, {c}}, {{a, c}, {b}}, {{b, c}, {a}}, and {{a, b, c}}. Thus,
B3 = 5.

(Maths Dept., IIT Delhi) MTL180 - Discrete Mathematical Structures, Tutorial-1 7 / 11

Theorem
The Bell number Bn satisfying
n
!
X n
Bn+1 = Bk .
k=0
k

Proof:
Consider a partition of S = {1, 2, . . . , n + 1}, A1 , . . . , Am .
Without loss of generality, assume that n + 1 ∈ A1 , and that
|A1 | = k + 1, for some 0 ≤ k ≤ n.
Then A2 , . . . , Am , form a partition of the remaining n − k elements of
S, that is, of S \ A1 .
There are Bn−k partitions of the set S \ A1 , i.e., there are Bn−k
partitions of S in whose one part is the set A1 .

(Maths Dept., IIT Delhi) MTL180 - Discrete Mathematical Structures, Tutorial-1 8 / 11

 There are kn sets of size k + 1 containing the element n + 1 as one

element is fixed and we choose a k-element set from an n-element set.

Thus, the total number of partitions of S in which n + 1 is in a set of
size k + 1 is !
n
Bn−k .
k
Adding up over all possible values of k, we have
n
!
X n
Bn+1 = Bn−k .
k=0
k
Thus,
n
!
X n
Bn+1 = Bn−k
k=0
n−k
n
n

as =
k n−k .
Written backwards, we have
n
!
X n
Bn+1 = Bk .
k=0
k
(Maths Dept., IIT Delhi) MTL180 - Discrete Mathematical Structures, Tutorial-1 9 / 11
Binomial Theorem
n
n n
n−1 1 n
n−2 2 n
1 n−1 n
n
(x + y )n = 0 x + 1 x y + 2 x y + ··· + n−1 x y + n y

Proof:
We shall prove by Mathematical Induction.
0

When n = 0, both sides equal 1, since x 0 = 1 and 0 = 1.
Now suppose
that the equality holds for a given n, i.e.,
n n n
n−1 1 n
n−2 2 n
1 n−1
n + nn y n =


(x +y ) = 0 x + 1 x y + 2 x y +· · ·+ n−1 x y
Pn n n−k k


k=0 k x y .
We shall prove it for n + 1.
(x + y )n+1 = x (x + y )n + y (x + y )n shows that (x + y )n+1 is also a
polynomial in x and y .
n+1
By the induction hypothesis, (x
! + y) = x (x + y )n + y (x + y )n =
n n
!
X n X n
x x n−k y k + y x n−k y k .
k=0
k k=0
k

(Maths Dept., IIT Delhi) MTL180 - Discrete Mathematical Structures, Tutorial-1 10 / 11

 n n
! !
X n n−k k X n n−k k
Recall, (x + y )n+1 = x x y +y x y .
k=0
k k=0
k
n n
! !
n+1
X n n−k+1 k X n n−k k+1
This implies, (x + y ) = x y + x y .
k=0
k k=0
k
This implies,
n
n n−k+1 k n−1
! !
X X n
n+1 n+1
(x + y ) =x + x y + x n−k y k+1 + y n+1 .
k=1
k k=0
k
− 1 in the second summation
Replacing k by k ! we have, (x + y )n+1
n n
!
X n X n
= x n+1 + x n−k+1 y k + x n−k+1 y k + y n+1 .
k=1
k k=1
k − 1
n+1
This implies,
! (x + y )n ! !! !
n + 1 n+1 X n n n−k+1 k n + 1 n+1
= x + + x y + y
0 k=1
k k −1 n+1
n+1
!
X n + 1 (n+1)−k k
= x y . This completes the proof.
k=0
k

(Maths Dept., IIT Delhi) MTL180 - Discrete Mathematical Structures, Tutorial-1 11 / 11