ASSIGNMENT

SUBJECT: IOQM Topic: Combinatorics

READ THE INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY

1. Questions 1 to 10 carry 2 marks each; Questions 11 to 20 carry 3 marks each;
Questions 21 and 30 carry 5 marks each.
2. There are no negative marks.
3. Use of mobile phones, smartphones, ipads, calculators, programmable wrist watches is
STRICTLY PROHIBITED. Only ordinary pens and pencils are allowed inside the examination hall.
4. The correction is done by machines through scanning. On the OMR Sheet, darken bubbles
completely with a black pencil or a black or blue ball pen. Darken the bubbles completely only
after you are sure of your answer; else, erasing may lead to the OMR sheet getting damaged
and the machine may not be able to read the answer.
5. The name, email address, and date of birth entered on the OMR sheet will be your login
credentials for accessing your PRMO score.
6. Incomplete/Incorrectly and carelessly filled information may disqualify your candidature.
7. Each question has a one, two or three digit number as answer.

1. In the expansion of (ax + b)2000, where a and b are relatively prime positive integers,
the coefficients of x and x are equal. Find a + b.
2 3

Ans. (667)
 2000  1998 2  2000  1997 3
Sol. Using the binomial theorem, 
 1998  b a =   b a  b = 666a .
   1997 
Since a and b are positive relatively prime integers, a = 1 and b = 666, and a + b = 667.

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 N
2. Given that + + + + + + + = find the greatest
2! 17 ! 3! 16! 4! 15! 5! 14! 6! 13! 7 ! 12! 8! 11! 9! 10! 1! 18!
N
integer that is less than .
100
Ans. (137)
19! 19! 19! 19! 19!
Sol. Multiplying both sides by 19! yields: + + + +
2! 17 ! 3! 16! 4! 15! 5! 14! 6! 13!
19! 19! 19! 19!N  19   19   19   19   19   19   19   19 
+ + + = .   +   +   +   +   +   +   +   = 19N
7 ! 12! 8! 11! 9! 10! 1! 18! 2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9 
19
 19   19   19 
Recall the Combinatorial Identity 219 =   n  .
n=0
Since   = 
 n   19 − n  ,
   
it follows

9
 19  219  19   19 
( )
2
 − 20 = (512) − 20 = 262124 .
2
that   = = 218 . Thus, 19N = 218 −   −   = 218 −19 − 1 = 29
n  2  1  0 
n= 0     

262124  N 
So, N = = 13796 and   = 137 .
19  100 
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3. In a group of nine people each person shakes hands with exactly two of the other people from the
group. Let N be the number of ways this handshaking can occur. Consider two handshaking
arrangements different if and only if at least two people who shake hands under one arrangement
do not shake hands under the other arrangement. Find the remainder when N is divided by 1000.
Ans. (16)
Sol. Given that each person shakes hands with two people, we can view all of these through graph
theory as 'rings'. This will split it into four cases: Three rings of three, one ring of three and one
ring of six, one ring of four and one ring of five, and one ring of nine. (All other cases that sum to
nine won't work, since they have at least one 'ring' of two or fewer points, which doesn't satisfy
the handshaking conditions of the problem.)
9 6  3
     
3 3 3
Case 1: To create our groups of three, there are       . In general, the number of ways we
3!

can arrange people within the rings to count properly is

(n − 1) ! , since there are (n – 1)! ways to
2
arrange items in the circle, and then we don't want to want to consider reflections as separate

entities. Thus, each of the three cases has

( 3 − 1) ! = 1 arrangements. Therefore, for this case, there
2
 9 6  3 
       
 3 3 3  3
are         ( 1) = 280
3!
 
 
 
9
Case 2: For three and six, there are   = 84 sets for the rings. For organization within the ring, as
6
 

before, there is only one way to arrange the ring of three. For six, there is
(6 − 1) ! = 60 . This means
2
there are (84)(1)(60) = 5040 arrangements.
 9 4!
Case 3: For four and five, there are   = 126 sets for the rings. Within the five, there are = 12 ,
5 2
 
3!
and within the four there are = 3 arrangements. This means the total is (126)(12)(3) = 4536.
2
9 8!
Case 4: For the nine case, there is   = 1 arrangement for the ring. Within it, there are = 20160
9 2
 
arrangements.
Summing the cases, we have 280 + 5040 + 4536 + 20160 = 30016 → 016.

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4. Ten points are marked on a circle. How many distinct convex polygons of three or more sides can
be drawn using some (or all) of the ten points as vertices?
Ans. (968)
Sol. Any subset of the ten points with three or more members can be made into exactly one such
polygon. Thus, we need to count the number of such subsets. There are 210 = 1024 total subsets
 10   10 
of a ten-member set, but of these   = 1 have 0 members,   = 10 have 1 member and
0  1 
   
 10 
  = 45 have 2 members. Thus the answer is 1024 – 1 – 10 – 45 = 968.
2 
n  n n   n
Note   +   +   + ... +   is equivalent to 2n.
 0  1   2  n
       

5. A positive integer is called ascending if, in its decimal representation, there are at least two digits
and each digit is less than any digit to its right. How many ascending positive integers are there?
Ans. (502)
Sol. Note that an ascending number is exactly determined by its digits: for any set of digits (not
including 0, since the only position for 0 is at the leftmost end of the number, i.e. a leading 0),
there is exactly one ascending number with those digits.
So, there are nine digits that may be used: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. Note that each digit may be
present or may not be present. Hence, there are 29 = 512 potential ascending numbers, one for
each subset of {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9}.
However, we've counted one-digit numbers and the empty set, so we must subtract them off to
get our answer, 512 – 10 = 502.

6. The nine horizontal and nine vertical lines on an 8 × 8 checkerboard form rectangles, of which s
are squares. The number s/r can be written in the form m/n, where m and n are relatively prime
positive integers. Find m + n.
Ans. (125)
Sol. To determine the two horizontal sides of a rectangle, we have to pick two of the horizontal lines
 9  9
of the checkerboard, or   = 36 . Similarly, there are   ways to pick the vertical sides, giving us
2 2
   
r = 1296 rectangles.
For s, there are 82 unit squares, 72 of the 2 × 2 squares, and so on until 12 of the 8 × 8 squares.
Using the sum of squares formula, that gives us s = 12 + 22 + ... + 82

=
(8)(8 + 1)(2  8 + 1) = 12 * 17 = 204 .
6
s 204 17
Thus = = , and m + n = 125.
r 1296 108

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7. Each of the 2001 students at a high school studies either Spanish or French, and some study both.
The number who study Spanish is between 80 percent and 85 percent of the school population,
and the number who study French is between 30 percent and 40 percent. Let m be the smallest
number of students who could study both languages, and let M be the largest number of students
who could study both languages. Find M – m.
Ans. (298)
Sol. Let S be the percent of people who study Spanish, F be the number of people who study French,
and let S F be the number of students who study both. Then
80%  2001 = 1601  S  85%  2001 = 1700 , and 30%  2001 = 601  F  40%  2001 = 800 . By the

Principle of Inclusion-Exclusion, S + F − S  F = S  F = 2001

For m = S  F to be smallest, S and F must be minimized.
1601 + 601 – m = 2001  m = 201
For M = S  F to be largest, S and F must be maximized.
1700 + 800 – M = 2001  M = 499
Therefore, the answer is M – m = 499 – 201 = 298.

8. Let the set S = {8, 5, 1, 13, 34, 3, 21, 2}. Susan makes a list as follows: for each two-element subset
of S, she writes on her list the greater of the set's two elements. Find the sum of the numbers on
the list.
Ans. (484)
Sol. Order the numbers in the set from greatest to least to reduce error: {34, 21, 13, 8, 5, 3, 2, 1}. Each
element of the set will appear in 7 two-element subsets, once with each other number.
34 will be the greater number in 7 subsets.
21 will be the greater number in 6 subsets.
13 will be the greater number in 5 subsets.
8 will be the greater number in 4 subsets.
5 will be the greater number in 3 subsets.
3 will be the greater number in 2 subsets.
2 will be the greater number in 1 subsets.
1 will be the greater number in 0 subsets.
Therefore the desired sum is 34.7 + 21.6 + 13.5 + 8.4 + 5.3 + 3.2 + 2.1 + 1.0 = 484.

9. Let set A be a 90-element subset of {1, 2, 3, …, 100}, and let S be the sum of the elements of A.
Find the number of possible values of S.
Ans. (9001)
Sol. The smallest S is 1 + 2 + … + 90 = 91.45 = 4095. The largest S is 11 + 12 + … + 100 = 111.45 = 4995.
All numbers between 4095 and 4995 are possible values of S, so the number of possible values of
S is 4995 – 4095 + 1 = 901.
Alternatively, for ease of calculation, let set B be a 10-element subset of {1, 2, 3, …, 100}, and let T
be the sum of the elements of B. Note that the number of possible S is the number of possible T
= 5050 - S. The smallest possible T is 1 + 2 + … + 10 = 55 and the largest is 91 + 92 + … + 100 =
955, so the number of possible values of T, and therefore S, is 955 – 55 + 1 – 901.

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10. Given eight distinguishable rings, let be the number of possible five-ring arrangements on the
four fingers (not the thumb) of one hand. The order of rings on each finger is significant, but it is
not required that each finger have a ring. Find the leftmost three nonzero digits of n.
Ans. (376)
 8
Sol. There are   ways to choose the rings, and there are 5! distinct arrangements to order the rings
5
 
[we order them so that the first ring is the bottom-most on the first finger that actually has a ring,
and so forth]. The number of ways to distribute the rings among the fingers is equivalent the
number of ways we can drop five balls into 4 urns, or similarly dropping five balls into four
compartments split by three dividers. The number of ways to arrange those dividers and balls is
 8
just   .
3
 
 8  8
Multiplying gives the answer:     5! = 376320 , and the three leftmost digits are 376.
5  3
  

11. Let A1, A2, A3, …A12 be the vertices of a regular dodecagon. How many distinct squares in the plane
of the dodecagon have at least two vertices in the set {A1, A2, A3, …, A12}?
Ans. (183)
Sol. There are 66 ways of picking two vertices. Note with any two vertices one can draw three squares
(two with the vertices forming a side, another with the vertices forming the diagonal). So so far
we have 66(3) = 198 squares, but we have overcounted since some squares have their other two
vertices in the dodecagon as well. All 12 combinations of two distinct vertices that form a square
side only form 3 squares, and all 12 combinations of two vertices that form a square diagonal only
form 6 squares. So, in total, we have overcounted by 9 + 6 = 15, and 198 – 15 = 183.

12. In a shooting match, eight clay targets are arranged in two hanging columns
of three targets each and one column of two targets. A marksman is to
break all the targets according to the following rules:
(1) The marksman first chooses a column from which a target is to be
broken.
(2) The marksman must then break the lowest remaining target in the
chosen column.
If the rules are followed, in how many different orders can the eight targets
be broken?
Ans. (560)
Sol. Clearly, the marksman must shoot the left column three times, the middle column two times, and
the right column three times.
From left to right, suppose that the columns are labeled L, M and R, respectively. We consider the
string LLLMMRRR:
Since the letter arrangements of LLLMMRRR and the shooting orders have one-to-one
8!
correspondence, we count the letter arrangements: = 560 .
3! 2! 3!

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13. Let S be a set with six elements. In how many different ways can one select two not necessarily
distinct subsets of S so that the union of the two subsets is S? The order of selection does not
matter; for example, the pair of subsets {a, c}, {b, c, d, e, f} represents the same selection as the
pair {b, c, d, e, f}, {a, c}.
Ans. (365)
Sol. Call the two subsets m and n. For each of the elements in S, we can assign it to either m, n or
both. This gives us 36 possible methods of selection. However, because the order of the subsets
does not matter, each possible selection is double counted, except the case where both m and n
36 − 1
contain all 6 elements of S. So our final answer is then + 1 = 365 .
2

14. Two squares of a 7 × 7 checkerboard are painted yellow, and the rest are painted green. Two color
schemes are equivalent if one can be obtained from the other by applying a rotation in the plane
board. How many inequivalent color schemes are possible?
Ans. (300)
 49 
Sol. There are   possible ways to select two squares to be painted yellow. There are four possible
2 
 
ways to rotate each board. Given an arbitrary pair of yellow squares, these four rotations will either
yield two or four equivalent but distinct boards.

For most pairs, there will be For those symmetric about the center,
three other equivalent boards. there is only one other.

Note that a pair of yellow squares will only yield 2 distinct boards upon rotation iff the yellow
49 − 1
squares are rotationally symmetric about the center square; there are = 24 such pairs. There
2
 49 
are then   − 24 pairs that yield 4 distinct boards upon rotation; in other words, for each of the
2 
 
 49 
  − 24 pairs, there are three other pairs that yield an equivalent board.
2 
 49 
  − 24
2 24
Thus, the number of inequivalent boards is   + = 300 . For a (2n + 1) × (2n + 1) board,
4 4
this argument generalizes to n(n + 1)(2n2 + 2n + 1) inequivalent configurations.
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15. Let n be the number of ordered quadruples (x1, x2, x3, x4) of positive odd integers that satisfy
4
n
x
i= 1
i = 98 . Find
100
.

Ans. (196)
Sol. We want x1 + x2 + x3 + x4 = 98. This seems like it can be solved with stars and bars, however note
that the quadruples all need to be odd. This motivates us to set x i = 2y1 + 1, as for all integers yi,
2yi + 1 will be odd. Substituting we get 2y1 + 2y2 + 2y3 + 2y4 + 4 = 98  y1 + y2 + y3 + y4 = 47. Note
that this is an algebraic bijection, we have simplified the problem and essentially removed the odd
 50 
condition, so now we can finish with plain stars as bars, which gives us n =   . Computing this
3 
 
and dividing by 100 gives us an answer of 196.

16. How many different 4 × 4 arrays whose entries are all 1's and -1's have the property that the sum
of the entries in each row is 0 and the sum of the entries in each column is 0?
Ans. (90)
Sol. The problem is asking us for all configurations of 4 × 4 grids with 2 1's and 2 -1's in each row and
column. We do casework upon the first two columns:
4
The first two columns share no two numbers in the same row. There are   = 6 ways to pick two
2
 
1's in the first column, and the second column is determined. For the third and fourth columns,
4
no two numbers can be in the same row (to make the sum of each row 0), so again there are  
2
 
ways. This gives 62 = 36.
4
The first two columns share one number in the same row. There are   = 4 ways to pick the
1 
 
 3
position of the shared 1, then   = 3 ways to pick the locations for the next two 1s, and then 2
 2
 
ways to orient the 1s. For the third and fourth columns, the two rows with shared 1s or -1s are
fixed, so the only things that can be changed is the orientation of the mixed rows, in 2 ways. This
gives 4 . 3 . 2 . 2 = 48.
4
The first two columns share two numbers in the same row. There are   = 6 ways to pick the
2
 
position of the shared 1s. Everything is then fixed. Adding these cases up, we get 36 + 48 + 6 = 090.

17. An integer is called parity-monotonic if its decimal representation a1a2a3 … ak satisfies ai < ai+1 if ai
is odd, and ai > ai+1 if ai is even. How many four-digit parity-monotonic integers are there?
Ans. (640)
Sol. Let's set up a table of values. Notice that 0 and 9 both cannot appear as any of a 1, a2, a3 because
of the given conditions. (Also note that 0 cannot appear as 0 cannot be the first digit of an integer.)
A clear pattern emerges.

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 For example, for 3 in the second column, we note that 3 is less than 4, 6, 8, but greater than 1, so
there are four possible places to align 3 as the second digit.

Digit 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

0 0 0 0 64

1 1 4 16 64

2 1 4 16 64

3 1 4 16 64

4 1 4 16 64

5 1 4 16 64

6 1 4 16 64

7 1 4 16 64

8 1 4 16 64

9 0 0 0 64

For any number from 1-8, there are exactly 4 numbers from 1-8 that are odd and less than the
number or that are even and greater than the number (the same will happen for 0 and 9 in the
last column). Thus, the answer is 4k-1 . 10 = 43 . 10 = 640.

18. Let Si be the set of all integers n such that 100i  n < 100(i + 1). For example, S4 is the set 400, 401,
402, …, 499. How many of the sets S0, S1, S2, …, S999 do not contain a perfect square?
Ans. (708)
Sol. The difference between consecutive squares is (x + 1)2 – x2 = 2x + 1, which means that all squares
above 502 = 2500 are more than 100 apart.
Then the first 26 sets (S0, … S25) each have at least one perfect square because the differences
between consecutive squares in them are all less than 100. Also, since 316 is the largest x such
that x2 < 100000 (100000 is the upper bound which all numbers in S 999 must be less than), there
are 316 – 50 = 266 other sets after S25 that have a perfect square.
There are 1000 – 266 – 26 = 708 sets without a perfect square.

19. Define an ordered quadruple of integers (a, b, c, d) as interesting if 1  a < b < c < d  10, and a +
d > b + c. How many interesting ordered quadruples are there?
Ans. (80)
Sol. Rearranging the inequality we get d – c > b – a. Let e = 11, then (a, b – a, c – b, d – c, e – d) is a
partition of 11 into 5 positive integers or equivalently: (a – 1, b – a – 1, c – b – 1, d – c – 1, e – d –
1) is a partition of 6 into 5 non-negative integer parts. Via a standard stars and bars argument, the
 6 + 4   10 
number of ways to partition 6 into 5 non-negative parts is 
4  =   = 210 . The interesting
  4 

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 quadruples correspond to partitions where the second number is less than the fourth.
By symmetry, there are as many partitions where the fourth is less than the second. So, if N is the
number of partitions where the second element is equal to the fourth, our answer is (210 – N)/2.
We find N as a sum of 4 cases:
 8
two parts equal to zero,   = 28 ways,
2
 
6
two parts equal to one,   = 15 ways,
2
 
4
two parts equal to two,   = 6 ways,
2
 
 2
two parts equal to three,   = 1 way.
 2
 
Therefore, N = 28 + 15 + 6 + 1 = 50 and our answer is (210 – 50)/2 = 080.

20. An integer between 1000 and 9999, inclusive, is called balanced if the sum of its two leftmost
digits equals the sum of its two rightmost digits. How many balanced integers are there?
Ans. (615)
Sol. If the common sum of the first two and last two digits is n, such that 1  n  9, there are n choices
for the first two digits and n + 1 choices for the second two digits (since zero may not be the first
9
digit). This gives  n (n + 1) = 330 balanced numbers. If the common sum of the first two and last
n= 1

two digits is n, such that 10  n  18, there are 19 – n choices for both pairs. This gives
18 9

 ( 19 − n) =  n
2 2
= 285 balanced numbers. Thus, there are in total 330 + 285 = 615 balanced
n= 10 n= 1

numbers. Both summations may be calculated using the formula for the sum of consecutive
n n (n + 1)( 2n + 1)
squares, namely k
k =1
2
=
6
.

21. Let S = {20, 21, 22, …, 210}. Consider all possible positive differences of pairs of elements of S. Let N
be the sum of all of these differences. Find the remainder when N is divided by 1000.
Ans. (398)
Sol. When computing N, the number 2x will be added x times (for terms 2x – 20, 2x – 21, ..., 2x – 2x-1),
and subtracted 10 – x times. Hence N can be computed as N = 10.210 + 8.29 + 6.28 + … - 8.21 – 10.20.
Evaluating N mod 1000 yields:
N = 10(210 – 1) + 8(29 – 21) + 6(28 – 22) + 4(27 – 23) + 2(26 – 24)
= 10(1023) + 8(510) + 6(252) + 4(120) + 2(48)
= 10(1000 + 23) + 8(500 + 10) + 6(250 + 2) + 480 + 96
= (0 + 230) + (0 + 80) + (500 + 12) + 480 + 96
= 398

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22. Define an ordered triple (A, B, C) of sets to be minimally intersecting if A  B = B  C = C  A = 1
and A  B  C =  . For example,({1, 2}, {2, 3}, {1, 3, 4}) is a minimally intersecting triple. Let N be the
number of minimally intersecting ordered triples of sets for which each set is a subset of {1, 2, 3,
4, 5, 6, 7}. Find the remainder when N is divided by 1000.
Note: |S| represents the number of elements in the set S.
Ans. (760)
Sol. Let each pair of two sets have one element in common. Label the common elements as x, y, z.
Set A will have elements x and y, set B will have y and z, and set C will have x and z. There are
7.6.5 = 210 ways to choose values of x, y and z. There are 4 unpicked numbers, and each number
can either go in the first set, second set, third set, or none of them. Since we have 4 choices for
each of 4 numbers, that gives us 44 = 256.
Finally, 256. 210 = 53760, so the answer is 760.

23. In a sequence of coin tosses, one can keep a record of instances in which a tail is immediately
followed by a head, a head is immediately followed by a head, and etc. We denote these by TH,
HH, and etc. For example, in the sequence TTTHHTHTTTHHTTH of 15 coin tosses we observe that
there are two HH, three HT, four TH, and five TT subsequences. How many different sequences of
15 coin tosses will contain exactly two HH, three HT, four TH, and five TT subsequences?
Ans. (560)
Sol. Let's consider each of the sequences of two coin tosses as an operation instead; this operation
takes a string and adds the next coin toss on (eg, THHTH + HT = THHTHT). We examine what
happens to the last coin toss. Adding HH or TT is simply an identity for the last coin toss, so we
will ignore them for now. However, adding HT or TH switches the last coin. H switches to T three
times, but T switches to H four times; hence it follows that our string will have a structure of
THTHTHTH.
Now we have to count all of the different ways we can add the identities back in. There are 5 TT
subsequences, which means that we have to add 5 T into the strings, as long as the new Ts are
adjacent to existing Ts. There are already 4 Ts in the sequence, and since order doesn’t matter
between different tail flips this just becomes the ball-and-urn argument. We want to add 5 balls
5 + 3
into 4 urns, which is the same as 3 dividers; hence this gives 
3  = 56 combinations. We do the
 
 2 + 3
same with 2 Hs to get 
3  = 10 combinations; thus there are 56 . 10 = 560 possible sequences.
 

24. A game show offers a contestant three prizes A, B and C, each of which is worth a whole number
of dollars from $1 to $9999 inclusive. The contestant wins the prizes by correctly guessing the
price of each prize in the order A, B, C. As a hint, the digits of the three prices are given. On a
particular day, the digits given were 1, 1, 1, 1, 3, 3, 3. Find the total number of possible guesses for
all three prizes consistent with the hint.
Ans. (420)
Sol. [Clarification: You are supposed to find the number of all possible tuples of prices, (A, B, C), that
could have been on that day.]
Since we have three numbers, consider the number of ways we can put these three numbers
together in a string of 7 digits. For example, if A = 113, B = 13, C = 31, then the string is 1131331.

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 7
Since the strings have seven digits and three threes, there are   = 35 arrangements of all such
3
 
strings.
In order to obtain all combination of A,B,C, we partition all the possible strings into 3 groups.
Let's look at the example. We have to partition it into 3 groups with each group having at least 1
digit. In other words, we need to find the solution to x + y + z = 7, x, y, z > 0.
6
This gives us   = 15 , ways by balls and urns. But we have counted the one with 5 digit numbers;
2
 
that is, (5, 1, 1), (1, 1, 5), (1, 5, 1).
6
Thus, each arrangement has   − 3 = 12 ways per arrangement, and there are 12 × 35 = 420 ways.
2
 

25. For each permutation a1, a2, a3, …, a10 of the integers 1, 2, 3, …, 10, form the sum |a1 – a2| + |a2 – a4|
+ |a5 – a6| + |a7 – a8| + |a9 – a10|.
p
The average value of all such sums can be written in the form , where p and q are relatively
q
prime positive integers. Find p + q.
Ans. (58)
Sol. Because of symmetry, we may find all the possible values for |an – an-1| and multiply by the number
of times this value appears. Each occurs 5.8!, because if you fix a n and an+1 there are still 8! spots
for the others and you can do this 5 times because there are 5 places a n and an+1 can be.
To find all possible values for |an – an-1| we have to compute
|1 – 10| + |1 – 9| + … + |1 – 2| + |2 – 10| + … + |2 – 3| + |2 – 1| + … + |10 – 9|
9 k
This is equivalent to 2  j = 330 .
k = 1 j= 1

330  8! 5 55
The total number of permutations is 10!, so the average value is = , and m + n = 085.
10! 3
Note from SuperJJ: Another way to think about this is that the total sum is 330. Because you have
330 11
a total of 10.9 possible "pairs" or "differences", the average difference is = . Because the
90 3
question asks for the expected value of the sum of 5 of these pairs / differences, our answer is
11 55
just 5 = .
3 3
26. In a 6 x 4 grid (6 rows, 4 columns), 12 of the 24 squares are to be shaded so that there are two
shaded squares in each row and three shaded squares in each column. Let N be the number of
shadings with this property. Find the remainder when N is divided by 1000.

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Ans. (860)
6
Sol. Consider the first column. There are   = 20 ways that the rows could be chosen, but without
3
 
loss of generality let them be the first three rows. (Change the order of the rows to make this
true.) We will multiply whatever answer we get by 20 to get our final answer.
Now consider the 3x3 that is next to the 3 boxes we have filled in. We must put one ball in each
row (since there must be 2 balls in each row and we've already put one in each). We split into
three cases:
All three balls are in the same column. In this case, there are 3 choices for which column that is.
From here, the bottom half of the board is fixed.
Two balls are in one column, and one is in the other. In this case, there are 3 ways to choose
which column gets 2 balls and 2 ways to choose which one gets the other ball. Then, there are 3
ways to choose which row the lone ball is in. Now, what happens in the bottom half of the board?
Well, the 3 boxes in the column with no balls in the top half must all be filled in, so there are no
choices here. In the column with two balls already, we can choose any of the 3 boxes for the third
ball. This forces the location for the last two balls. So we have 3.2.3.3 = 54.
All three balls are in different columns. Then there are 3 ways to choose which row the ball in
column 2 goes and 2 ways to choose where the ball in column 3 goes. (The location of the ball in
column 4 is forced.) Again, we think about what happens in the bottom half of the board. There
are 2 balls in each row and column now, so in the 3x3 where we still have choices, each row and
column has one square that is not filled in. But there are 6 ways to do this. So in all there are 36
ways.
So there are 20(3 + 54 + 36) = 1860 different shadings, and the solution is 860.

27. The Annual Interplanetary Mathematics Examination (AIME) is written by a committee of five
Martians, five Venusians, and five Earthlings. At meetings, committee members sit at a round table
with chairs numbered from 1 to 15 in clockwise order. Committee rules state that a Martian must
occupy chair 1 and an Earthling must occupy chair 15, Furthermore, no Earthling can sit
immediately to the left of a Martian, no Martian can sit immediately to the left of a Venusian, and
no Venusian can sit immediately to the left of an Earthling. The number of possible seating
arrangements for the committee is N . (5!)3. Find N.
Ans. (346)
Sol. Since the 5 members of each planet committee are distinct we get that the number of
arrangement of sittings is in the form N * (5!)3 because for each M, V, E sequence we have 5!
arrangements within the Ms, Vs, and Es.
Pretend the table only seats 3 "people", with 1 "person" from each planet. Counting clockwise, only
the arrangement M, V, E satisfies the given constraints. Therefore, in the actual problem, the
members must sit in cycles of M, V, E, but not necessarily with one M, one V, and one E in each
cycle(for example, MMVVVE, MVVVEEE, MMMVVVEE all count as cycles). These cycles of MVE must
start at seat 1, since an M is at seat . We simply count the number of arrangements through
casework.
1. The entire arrangement is one cycle- There is only one way to arrange this, MMMMMVVVVVEEEEE
2. Two cycles - There are 3 Ms, Vs and Es left to distribute among the existing MVEMVE. Using
4
stars and bars, we get   = 4 ways for the members of each planet. Therefore, there are 4 3 = 64
1 
 
ways in total.

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 4
3. Three cycles - 2 Ms, Vs, Es left, so   = 6 , making there 63 = 216 ways total.
2
 
4. Four cycles - 1 M, V, E left, each M can go to any of the four MVE cycles and likewise for V and
E, 43 = 64 ways total
5. Five cycles - MVEMVEMVEMVEMVE is the only possibility, so there is just 1 way.
Combining all these cases, we get 1 + 1 + 64 + 64 + 216 = 346.

28. A 7 × 1 board is completely covered by m × 1 tiles without overlap; each tile may cover any number
of consecutive squares, and each tile lies completely on the board. Each tile is either red, blue, or
green. Let N be the number of tilings of the 7 × 1 board in which all three colors are used at least
once. For example, a 1 × 1 red tile followed by a 2 × 1 green tile, a 1 × 1 green tile, a 2 × 1 blue tile,
and a 1 × 1 green tile is a valid tiling. Note that if the 2 × 1 blue tile is replaced by two 1 × 1 blue
tiles, this results in a different tiling. Find the remainder when N is divided by 1000.
Ans. (106)
Sol. Firstly, we consider how many different ways possible to divide the 7 × 1 board. We ignore the
cases of 1 or 2 pieces since we need at least one tile of each color.
6
Three pieces: 5 + 1 + 1, 4 + 2 + 1, 4 + 1 + 2, etc,   = 15 ways in total (just apply stars and bars
2
 
here)
6
Four pieces:   = 20
3
 
6
Five pieces:   = 15
4
 
6
Six pieces:   = 6
5
 
6
Seven pieces:   = 1
6
 
Secondly, we use Principle of Inclusion-Exclusion to consider how many ways to color them:
Three pieces: 33 – 3 × 23 + 3 = 6
Four pieces: 34 – 3 × 24 + 3 = 36
Five pieces: 35 – 3 × 25 + 3 = 150
Six pieces: 36 – 3 × 26 + 3 = 540
Seven pieces: 37 – 3 × 27 + 3 = 1806
Finally, we combine them together: 15 × 6 + 20 × 36 + 15 × 150 + 6 × 540 + 1 × 1806 = 8106.
So, the answer is 106.

29. Ten chairs are arranged in a circle. Find the number of subsets of this set of chairs that contain
at least three adjacent chairs.
Ans. (581)
Sol. We know that a subset with less than 3 chairs cannot contain 3 adjacent chairs. There are only 10
sets of 3 chairs so that they are all 3 adjacent. There are 10 subsets of 4 chairs where all 4 are
adjacent, and 10.5 or 50 where there are only 3. If there are 5 chairs, 10 have all 5 adjacent, 10.4 or
5
40 have 4 adjacent, and 10    or 100 have 3 adjacent. With 6 chairs in the subset, 10 have all 6
 2
 

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 4 10  3
adjacent, 10(3) or 30 have 5 adjacent, 10    or 60 have 4 adjacent, or 15 have 2 groups of
2 2
 
5 
3 adjacent chairs, and 10     − 3  or 70 have 1 group of 3 adjacent chairs. All possible subsets
 2 
  
 10   10 
with more than 6 chairs have at least 1 group of 3 adjacent chairs, so we add   or 120,   or
7  8 
   
 10   10 
45,   or 10, and   or 1 Adding, we get 10 + 10 + 50 + 10 + 40 + 100 + 10 + 30 + 60 + 15 + 70
9   10 
   
+ 120 + 45 + 10 + 1 = 581.

30. Consider sequences that consist entirely of A's and B's and that have the property that every run
of consecutive A's has even length, and every run of consecutive B's has odd length. Examples of
such sequences are AA, B, and AABAA, while BBAB is not such a sequence. How many such
sequences have length 14?
Ans. (172)
Sol. Let an and bn denote, respectively, the number of sequences of length n ending in A and B. If a
sequence ends in an A, then it must have been formed by appending two As to the end of a string
of length n – 2. If a sequence ends in a B, it must have either been formed by appending one B to
a string of length n – 1 ending in an A, or by appending two Bs to a string of length n – 2 ending in
an − an−2 + bn−2
a B. Thus, we have the recursions By counting, we find that a1 = 0, b1 = 1, a2 = 1, b2 =
bn = an− 1 + bn−2
0.

Therefore, the number of such strings of length 14 is a14 + b14 = 172.

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