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Exam 2 Practice Problems

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Exam 2 Practice Problems

Uploaded by

masterofgamingiii
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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MA 374 – C OMBINATORICS E XAM 2 P RACTICE P ROBLEMS

The following document serves as a set of practice problems for MA 347, Exam 2. This
Exam covers the material on HW 05 - 09. Note: This is NOT an exhaustive list of problems
that you can see on your exam, but should serve as a good starting point for guiding your study-
ing/review.

1. a. Find the coefficient of x3 y 7 in (2x − y)10 .

b. Find the coefficient of x3 y 5 z 2 in (2x − y + 3z + 4)20 .

c. Find the total number of terms in the expansion of (2x − y + 3z + 4)20 after like
terms have been combined.

1
2

2. Give a combinatorial proof of the identity:


 
n+2
1(n) + 2(n − 1) + 3(n − 2) + · · · + (n − 1)2 + n(1) = .
3
Hint: Consider the middle element of a 3-element subset.
3

n  
n−1
X n k−1
3. a. Use the Binomial Theorem to show n(1 + x) = k x .
k=1
k

n  
X
2 n
b. Show n(n + 1)2n−2 = k . Hint: Multiply the identity in (a) by x and
k=1
k
differentiate.
4

4. Find the number of solutions to


x1 + x2 + x3 + x4 = 20,
0 ≤ xi ≤ 8, 1 ≤ i ≤ 4.
Clearly state any conditions that you are using and show all work.
5

5. A pair of 4-sided dice, one red and the other green, is rolled four times. The out-
come of each roll can be represented by an ordered pair. For example, (2,4) repre-
sents rolling a 2 on the red die and a 4 on the green die. Suppose we know that the
ordered pairs (1,1), (1,4), (2,2), (3,1), and (4,3) did not appear. Find the probability
that each number 1 through 4 appeared on both the red die and the green die. Do
this in the following steps:

a. Write down some properties Pi .

b. Draw the board in question.

c. Find the appropriate rook polynomial.

d. Finish answering the question:


6

6. Find the number of 10-permutations of {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10} with no consecu-


tive entries of the form i(i + 1) where i is odd.
7

7. Find the number of 10-permutations of {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10} in which no integer


i is in position 2i for 1 ≤ i ≤ 5.
8

8. a. Suppose that 4 cards labeled 1 to 4 are placed randomly into 4 boxes also
labeled 1 to 4, one card per box. What is the probability that no card gets
placed into a box having the same label as the card?

b. In how many ways can you put 7 letters into their respective envelopes such
that exactly 3 go into the right envelope?
9

9. Suppose we have 12 different colored balls and six containers numbered 1, 2, 3, 4,


5, and 6.

a. In how many ways can we distribute the balls so that no container is left empty?

b. In this collection of 12 colored balls, one of them is purple. In how many ways
can we distribute the balls so that no container is empty and the purple ball is
in container 2?

c. If we remove the numbers from the containers so that we can no longer distin-
guish them, in how many ways can we distribute the 12 colored balls among
the six identical containers with no containers empty?

d. If we remove the numbers from the containers so that we can no longer distin-
guish them, in how many ways can we distribute the 12 colored balls among
the six identical containers if some containers may be empty?

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