Department of Mathematics AAU

Worksheet 1 on Discrete Mathematics and Combinatorics (Math2231)

Part I : On Basic Counting Principles

1. How many eight-words can be made using the letters of the English alphabet, if no letter is
repeated and
a. If no word begins with the letter “a” or “b”
b. If every word should begin with the letter “a” or “b”?
c. If every word should begin with the letter “a” or “b” and ends with “e” or “c”?
2. How many different fractions not equal to 1 could be made from the numbers 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13?
3. How many four-digit numbers could be made using the digits 0, 1, 3, 6, 8, 9 if each digit is used at
most once in the number?
4. How many 12-binary-strings begin either with 1111 or have a “1” at the ninth position?
5. A tourist wanted to visit three cities: Axum, Lalibela, Gondar, Harar, Bahirdar and Arbaminch. A
schedule for the trip includes a list of three cities and the order in which they are visited.
a. How many different schedules are possible?
b. How many of the schedules include Gondar?
c. In how many of the schedules is Gondar the first to be visited?
d. How many of the schedules include Harar or Axum?
6. Given nine different Math books, seven different Physics books, and five different History books,
how many ways are there to
a. select three books, one from each language
b. arrange three books on a shelf( in a row), where exactly one language is missing?
c. to arrange the books on a shelf( in a row), with all books of the same language grouped
together?
7. How many permutations of the word “propaganda” are there?
8. How many different five-letter words can be made using the letters A ,B,C,D with repetition
allowed, if those words having the string “BAD” are not counted.
9. Suppose we want to send 15 students to four rooms, in such a way that five of them go to B1, three
of them go to room B2, four of them go to B3 and three of them go to room B4. In how many
different ways can we do this job?
10. Find the number of different weights that could be made using iron bars of weights- 1gm, 2gm, 4gm,
8gm, 16gm and 32 gm? (Assuming there is only one piece of each weight)
11. In how many different ways can you give tips to the waitresses at the staff restaurant, if you have to
give a tip and you have five coins in your pocket: 5-cents, 10-cents, 25-cents, 50-cents and 100-
cents coins?
12. In how many ways can 12 students order 12 lunches from a restaurant where there are five types
on the menu, if
a. there is no restriction( there are enough from each type.)

1
 b. at least one lunch from each type should be ordered( it is a must)
13. In how many ways can 17 identical balls be distributed into four distinguishable boxes, if no box
should be left empty?
14. Expand 5 x  4 y 8 using Binomial theorem.
12
 1
15. Determine the constant term in the expansion of  2 x 2   .
 x
16. Expand 5 x  4 y  2 z  , and determine the number of terms the expanded form has. What is the
8

coefficient of the term x 2 y 3 z 3 in the expansion of 5 x  4 y  2 z  ?

8

17. If a set A of 210 elements has n subsets of size k, for a nonnegative integer k, then how many
subsets of A have 210-k elements?
18. How many integers not exceeding 10,000 are divisible by 2 or 3 or 5 or 7?
19. How many integers not exceeding 10,000 are relatively prime to 210?
20. In how many ways can 6 boys and 8 girls be seated in a row, if no two boys sit together?
21. In how many ways can 6 boys and 8 girls be seated around a circular table if no two boys can sit
together?
22. Out of sixteen people, of which 10 are women and 6 are men, in how many ways, can one pick at
least one man and at least twice as many women as men to form a committee( committee size is
not fixed)?
23. How many positive integer solutions does the following constrained equation problem have?

x  y  z  29 , 12  x  0 , 12  y  0 , 12  z  0

24. What should be the minimum number of students that should come from nine regions of Ethiopia to
be enrolled in Addis Ababa University, to make sure that there is at least one region 51 of the
students are from?