Discrete Structures – Fall-2021 Assignment-01

Due Date: 12 Nov 2021

Note: Each question carries 10 marks. Only hand-written assignment is accepted. Marks will be
deducted if student's registration id, name, and section title are not written.

Sets
Problem 1
a. List all subsets of {𝑠, 𝑢, 𝑣}. How many do you get?
b. List all subsets of {𝑣, 𝑤, 𝑥, 𝑦, 𝑧}, containing 𝑦 but NOT containing 𝑧.
c. Define a set of which both {1, 3, 4} and {0, 3, 5} are subsets. Find such a set with the smallest possible number of
elements. Also find such a set with the largest possible number of elements.
d. What is the number of subsets of a set with n elements, containing a given element (one element becomes fixed;
it is part of every subset)?
Problem 2
a. We form the union of a set with 5 elements and a set with 9 elements. Which of the following numbers can
we get as the cardinality of the union: 4, 6, 9, 10, 14, 20?
b. We form the union of two sets. We know that one of them has n elements and the other has m elements. What
can we infer about the cardinality of their union?
c. We form the intersection of two sets. We know that one of them has n elements and the other has m elements.
What can we infer about the cardinality of their intersection?
d. What is the intersection of
i) the sets { } and {𝑥, 𝑦, 𝑧};
ii) the set of girls in this class and the set of boys in this class;
iii) the set of prime numbers and the set of even numbers?
Problem 3
Use Venn-diagram to prove following:
a. Prove equations (1.2), (1.3), and (1.4) given in the reading pages (book by Lovasz)
b. Prove that |𝐴 ∪ 𝐵| + |𝐴 ∩ 𝐵| = |𝐴| + |𝐵|.

Problem 4
a. What is the symmetric difference of the set ℤ of nonnegative integers and the set 𝔼 of odd integers (𝔼 =
{. . . , −3, −1, 1, 3, . . . } contains both negative and positive odd integers).
b. Let 𝐶 be the symmetric difference of 𝐴 and 𝐵 (that is 𝐴Δ𝐵 = 𝐶). Now, form the symmetric difference of A
and C. What did you get? Give a proof of the answer using Venn diagram.

Counting
Problem 5
From section 1.1 (Lovasz book) of the given reading, what is the number of pairings (in all the various senses as
discussed) in a party of 12?
a. Handshakes b. Seating arrangements c. Playing chess (with 6 chess-boards)

Problem 6
(a) How many words of 10 letters can you form, using the English alphabet? (there are 26 different letters, of which
5 are vowels).
(b) How many words of length 10 can you form, where no letter is repeated?
(c) How many words of length 10 can you form, where the first letter is the same as the last letter?
(d) How many words of length 10 can you form, which contain exactly one vowel?

Problem 7
Discrete Structures – Fall-2021 Assignment-01
Due Date: 12 Nov 2021
In how many ways can a photographer at a wedding arrange 10 people in a row, including the bride and groom, if
a) the bride must be next to the groom?
b) the bride is not next to the groom?
c) the bride is positioned somewhere to the left of the groom?

Problem 8
In how many ways can you seat 10 people at two round tables with 5 places each?
Think of possible ways of defining when two seatings are different, and find the answer for each.

Problem 9
Part A: How many permutations of the letters ABCDEFGH contain
a) the string ED? b) the string CDE? c) the strings BA and FGH? d) the strings AB, DE, and
GH? e) the strings CAB and BED? f ) the strings BCA and ABF?

Part B: The English alphabet contains 21 consonants and five vowels. How many strings of six lowercase letters of
the English alphabet contain
a) exactly one vowel? b) exactly two vowels? c) at least one vowel? d) at least two vowels?

Problem 10
a. Prove the extended version of binomial identity. Prove by both methods:
i. Algebraic way (evaluate the given expression)
𝑛 𝑛−2 𝑛−2 𝑛−2
= +2 +
𝑘 𝑘−2 𝑘−1 𝑘
ii. By combinatorial argument of counting
𝑛 𝑛−2 𝑛−2 𝑛−2
= +2 +
𝑘 𝑘−2 𝑘−1 𝑘

b. Prove (again in two way – algebraic and combinatorial) that

𝑛 𝑛 𝑛−1
=
𝑘 𝑘 𝑘−1
c. Prove (again in two way – algebraic and combinatorial) that
𝑎 𝑏 𝑎 𝑎−𝑐
=
𝑏 𝑐 𝑎−𝑐 𝑏−𝑐

Graphs
Problem 11
A friendship graph is given below.
a. Make a 4 × 4 array to show who is friend of whom.
(All rows are labelled A, B, C, D and all columns are labelled A, B, C, D. Mark the corresponding entry if
they are friends, and cross if they are not).
b. Represent the friendship relation, from the graph below, as sets (e.g. 𝐴 = {𝐸, 𝐵, 𝐶, 𝐷}, all friends of A.
Similarly do for others).

Problem 12
a. Draw graph of the following chemical bonds:
Discrete Structures – Fall-2021 Assignment-01
Due Date: 12 Nov 2021

b. Draw graph of the following maze. You make an edge whenever one labelled corridor is connected to another
one.