MATH 465 - INTRODUCTION TO COMBINATORICS

PROBLEM SET 1

Problem 1. Determine the number of circular permutations of {0, 1, 2, ..., 9} in which 0 and 9 are
not opposite.

Solution. There are (10 − 1)! circular permutations. Let us count the number of circular permu-
tations in which 0 and 9 are opposite. This is the number of linear orders so that 0 is in position
1, 9 is in position 5. We can permute the remaining 8 numbers among the remaining 8 positions
arbitrarily, so there are 8! options. Therefore we get 9! − 8! = 322560.

Problem 2. How many different words can be made from permutations of the letters in the word
MISSISSIPPI?

Solution.
This is the number of ways to permute the multiset {M, I, I, I, I, S, S, S, S, P, P }, which
11
is 1,2,4,4 = 34650.

Problem 3. A student needs to work five days in January. He does not want to work on more
than one Sunday. In how many ways can he select his five working days? (Assume that in the year
in question, January has five Sundays.)

Solution. Either the student works on one Sunday or no Sundays. Therefore we have
    
5 26 26
+ = 140530
1 4 5

ways.

Problem 4. How many sets of 3 numbers each can be formed from the numbers {1, 2, . . . , 20} if
no two consecutive numbers are to be in a set?

Solution. This is equal to the number of words over the alphabet {0, 1} consisting of three 1s and
seventeen 0s such that no two 1s are together. We write seventeen 0s in a row, and then put the 1s
in any
3 of 18 possible places (the two ends and the 16 places in between two 0s). Therefore there
are 18
3 ways of picking the set.

Problem 5. A host invites n couples to a party. She wants to ask a subset of the 2n guests to
give a speech, but she does not want to ask both members of any couple to give speeches. In how
many ways can she proceed?

Solution. For each couple, the host can choose one of three options:

1. Member 1.

2. Member 2.

1
 3. Neither.

Therefore she has 3n options.

Problem 6. In how may ways can 5 indistinguishable rooks be placed on an 8 × 8 chessboard so

that no rook can attack another and neither the first row nor the first column is empty? (The only
fact about chess that one needs to know for this problem is that a rook is a type of piece and two
rooks attack each other if and only if they lie in the same row or column.)

Solution. Let f (n, k) := number of ways k distinguishable rooks can be placed on a n × n board
so that no rook attacks another. Let us label the rooks from 1 to k. For the first rook, we have
n2 positions in which it may be placed. For the second rook, we have (n − 1)2 options, because we
cannot place it in the same row or column as the first rook and so on. Therefore we get

f (n, k) = n2 (n − 1)2 ...(n − k + 1)2 .

We split into two cases:

1. There is a rook on the square (1, 1), which we can choose in 5 ways. We then have to place
the remaining 4 rooks on the 7 × 7 board obtained by removing the first row and column. We
can do this in f (7, 4) = 705600 ways.

2. There is no rook on the square (1, 1). We have to place a rook on one of the other 7 squares in
the first row and one of the other 7 squares in the first column. We can do this in 49 ways. We
can choose 2 rooks for these positions in 5 · 4 = 20 ways. Now we have to place the remaining
3 rooks on the 6 × 6 board obtained by removing the rows and columns corresponding to the
two rooks already placed. Therefore we have 49f (6, 3) = 49 × 14400 = 705600 ways.

Since we have counted distinguishable rooks, we have overcounted each configuration by a factor
of 5!, so by the division principle we have
5 · 705600 + 20 · 705600
= 147000
5!
ways of placing indistinguishable rooks.

Problem 7. Let P be a convex n-gon in which no three diagonals intersect in one point. How
many intersection points do the diagonals of P have?

Solution. The intersection points of the diagonals are in bijection with subsets of the vertices of P
of size 4. Therefore, the number of intersection points is n4 .

Problem 8. There are an even number 2n of people at a party, and they walk together in pairs
with everyone talking with someone (so n pairs). Compute the number of different ways that the
2n people can be talking like this in two different ways to get a combinatorial proof of the identity

(2n)!
(2n − 1).(2n − 3)...3.1 = .
2n · n!
1 2n


Hint: The expression on the right is equal to n! 2,2,...,2 .

2
Solution. Let {1, 2, ..., 2n} be the set of people. 1 can be paired with any of the 2n − 1 other
numbers. For the next smallest unpaired number, there are 2n − 3 options and so on. Therefore
we get
(2n − 1).(2n − 3)...3.1.
2n


We can also compute this in a different way. Each of the 2,2,...,2 permutations of the multiset
{1, 1, 2, 2, . . . n − 1, n − 1, n, n} gives a pairing of the 2n people. However each pairing appears n!
times because we have counted labeled pairs. Therefore by the divison principle, we get
 
1 2n (2n)!
= n .
n! 2, 2, . . . , 2 2 · n!

Problem 9. Determine the number of ways to distribute 10 orange drinks, 1 lemon drink and 1
lime drink to 4 thirsty students so that each student gets at least 1 drink, and the lemon and lime
drinks go to different students.

Solution. We first distribute 2 orange drinks, 1 lemon drink and 1 lime drink among the 4 students,
such that each student gets a drink. This can be done in 4!/2! = 12 ways. Now we distribute the
remaining 8 orange drinks. The number of ways of doing this is the number of weak compositions
of 8 with 4 parts, which is 8+4−1


8 . By the multiplication principle, we get
 
11
12 = 1980.
8

Problem 10. How many ways are there to seat 5 men, 5 women and 1 dog around a table, such
that no man is to sit next to a man, and no woman is to sit next to a woman?

Solution. There is a bijection between circular orders and linear orders where the dog is in position
1. Then we have to arrange 5 men and 5 women to the right of the dog, such that no two men
or women sit next to each other. There are 2.5!.5! ways of doing this: we first order the multiset
{M, M, M, M, M, W, W, W, W, W } such that no two M s and no two W s are together. This can be
done in 2 ways, since M and W must alternate, and the sequence starts with either M or W . Now
we label the men and women, which can be done in 5!5! ways.