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/Solutions

1. Presidents and vice presidents

Show that, for all nāˆˆā„•,

\[
\sum_{k=0}^{n} k(k-1) {n \choose k} = n(n-1)2^{n-2}.
\]

Hint: What does each side of the equation count?

2. Mystery chocolates

A box of n chocolates contains m in flavors that you don't like. Assuming that you choose r of the chocolates to eat uniformly at random, what is the probability that at least one of them is a flavor that you don't like?

3. Monochrome sets

Suppose we have a set S of n elements, and we assign each element one of r colors. Call a subset A of S monochrome if every element of A is assigned the same color. Given n, r, and k, show that there exists a coloring of S in which at most ${n \choose k}r^{1-k}$ subsets A of size k are monochrome.

Hint: On average, how many subsets are monochrome in a random coloring?


2014-06-17 11:57