Homework 1

Due Oct 3, 2018

Problem 1. A licence plate consists of seven symbols: digits or letters.

How many license plates are there if the following is true:
(1) there must be three letters and four digits, and symbols may repeat?
(2) no restrictions on the quantity of letters and numbers, and symbols
may repeat?

Solution. Part (1). First choose which among the seven symbols should
7


be letters. This can be chosen by 3 ways. For each such choice, the three
letters can be chosen in 263 ways and symbols may be chosen in 104 ways.
Thus the total number of ways the license plate can be chosen is
 
7
263 104 .
3

For part (2), there are a total of 26+10 = 36 letters and symbols together
to be placed in seven locations with no restrictions. This can be done in
367 ways.

Problem 2. There are two computers and a printer. Consider the fol-
lowing events: A = {first computer works}, B = {second computer works},
C = {the printer works}. The system is functioning if at least one of the
computers is working and the printer is working. Express this event in terms
of A, B and C.
Solution. A ∪ B = {first or second computer working}, so the required
event is (A ∪ B) ∩ C .

Problem 3. We roll a fair die twice. Describe the sample space Ω and
a probability measure P to model this experiment. Let A be the event that
the second roll is larger than the first. Find P (A).
Solution. The sample space Ω is the set of all ordered pairs (2-tuples) of
numbers between 1 and 6, i.e.,
Ω = {(1, 6), (2, 6), (3, 6), . . . , (6, 5), (6, 6)} .
Hence, Ω has 36 elements, #Ω = 36. Since the die is fair, we can model this
probability to have equally likely outcomes. That is, for any event A ⊆ Ω,
P (A) = #A/36.
Now, let A be the event that the second roll is larger than the first. The
elements in A are
{(1, 2), (1, 3), . . . , (1, 6), (2, 3), (2, 4), . . . (2, 6), (3, 4), (3, 5), (3, 6), (4, 5), (4, 6), (5, 6)}.
1
Thus #A is 5 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 1 = 15. Hence
15
P (A) = .
36

Problem 4. Calculate:
     
10 12 8
, , .
4 9 2

Solution.  
10 10 · 9 · 8 · 7
= = 210
4 4!
   
12 12 12 · 11 · 10
= = = 220
9 3 3!
 
8 8·7
= = 28
2 2

Problem 5. Using the binomial theorem, expand (1 + x)5 .

Solution.
           
5 5 0 5 1 5 2 5 3 5 4 5 5
(1 + x) = x + x + x + x + x + x
0 1 2 3 4 5
= 1 + 5x + 10x2 + 10x3 + 5x4 + x5 .

Problem 6. Show that

          
n m n m n m n+m
+ + ... + = .
0 p 1 p−1 p 0 p
Hint: Consider n males and m females; choose p people among them.
Solution. Consider n males and m females;
choose p people among them.
The total number of ways to do this is n+m
p . The number of ways to choose
n m



0 males and p females is 0 p , the number of ways to choose 1 male and
p − 1 females is n1 p−1

m

, etc. The number of ways to choose p males and 0
n m



females is p 0 . So another way to write the total number of ways is
        
n m n m n m
+ + ... + .
0 p 1 p−1 p 0
Since both the methods of counting must give us the same answer this proves
the statement. Note that this problem is a generalization of the reduction
property of binomial coefficients which follows if we take n = 1 and m and
p to be arbitrary.