MATH 239 ASSIGNMENT 1

Due Friday, 13th January at 12 noon in the drop boxes outside the Math Tutorial Centre MC 4067 1. [15 marks] Let A = {a1 , . . . , an }, so A is a set with n elements. (a) How many subsets does A have? How many subsets of A contain a1 ? Explain. (b) Let S1 be the set of subsets of A which contain a1 , and S2 the set of subsets of A that do not contain a1 . Give a 1-to-1 correspondence between S1 and S2 . Show carefully why it is a 1-1 correspondence. Note that this implies |S1 | = |S2 |. (c) Call a subset of A odd if it has an odd number of elements, and even otherwise. Show that your correspondence in (b) is such that any odd subset of A in S1 corresponds to an even subset of A in S2 , and any even subset of A in S1 corresponds to an odd subset of A in S2 . (Or, if your answer to (b) does not have this property, nd a correspondence that does have this property.) (d) Assuming a correspondence with the property in (c) exists, show (with a combinatorial proof) that the number of odd subsets of A is equal to the number of even subsets of A. (e) Assuming the statement in (d) has been proved, show that for all n 0 n i =
0in: i is odd

0in: i is even

n . i

2. [12 marks] The king of Combinatoria is going to dene a new calendar with 365 days divided into twelve months, and wants to choose how many days to put into each month (they can be entirely dierent lengths). (a) Suppose the only rule is that each month has at least one day. Give a combinatorial proof that the king has 364 ways to determine the lengths of the months. (Hint: his High Adviser 11 tells him that its enough to decide on which day each month should end. Explain why the High Adviser is correct and how that can be used to solve the problem.) (b) Suppose the rule is that each month is at least 21 days long. Give a combinatorial proof that the king has 124 ways to determine the lengths of the months. (Hint: try to relate this to a 11 problem involving 125 days, and months that can be very short.) 3. [8 marks] In this question you may use algebraic as opposed to combinatorial proofs. (a) Show that n i = n2n1 (n 1). (Hint: dierentiate the binomial theorem w.r.t. x i i=0 and then set x equal to something.)
n n

(b) Show that

i=0 n

n i(i 1) = n(n 1)2n2 i n i 2 = 3n . i

(n 2).

(c) Show that

i=0

4. [5 marks] Find the generating function S (x) for the set S = {1, 2, . . . , 20} where the weight w(i) of i S is the largest power of 2 that divides i. For example, w(7) = 1, w(20) = 4.