Discrete Math - Calculating sum_k^n. sum_{k=2}^25 ((25),(k)) ((k),(2))

ridge041h

ridge041h

Answered question

2022-09-04

Discrete Math - Calculating k n
I have a question regarding on how to calculate expressions like (I need to write it without and without k):
k = 2 25 ( 25 k ) ( k 2 )
And also like:
k = 1 10 k ( 10 k ) ( 20 10 k )
Unfortunately I didn't learn how to do it, but this is a part of the material for my exam today.

Answer & Explanation

faliryr

faliryr

Beginner2022-09-05Added 15 answers

Step 1
S = k = 0 n ( n k ) ( k 2 )
S = 1 2 k = 0 n ( k 2 k ) n ! k ! ( n k ) !
S = 1 2 k = 0 n n ( n 1 ) ( n 2 ) ! ( k 2 ) ! ( n 2 ( k 2 ) ) !
S = n ( n 1 2 k = 0 n ( n 2 k 2 )
Step 2
Let k 2 j, then
S = n ( n 1 2 j = 2 n 2 ( n 2 j ) = n ( n 1 2 j = 0 n 2 ( n 2 j ) = n ( n 1 ) 2 n 3
So requried
k = 2 25 ( 25 k ) ( k 2 ) = k = 0 25 ( 25 k ) ( k 2 ) = 25.24.2 22
Clarence Mills

Clarence Mills

Beginner2022-09-06Added 18 answers

Step 1
Sometimes the easiest way to attack one of these questions is to find a useful combinatorial interpretation. For instance, imagine that you have 25 white balls numbered 1 through 25. Then ( 25 k ) ( k 2 ) can be thought of as the number of ways to choose k of them to paint red and then to choose 2 of the red balls and attach a gold star to each of them. In the end we have 25 k white balls and k red balls, two of which have gold stars.
k = 2 25 ( 25 k ) ( k 2 )
is then the total number of possible outcomes when we allow all possible values of k.
We can generate the same outcomes by first choosing 2 balls to be painted red and given gold stars, and then choosing any subset of the remaining 23 balls to be painted red: choosing ℓ balls in that last step gives the outcomes corresponding to k = + 2. And if we think of it this way, it’s easy to get the final result in a closed form: there are ( 25 2 ) ways to choose the balls that get gold stars, and there are 223 ways to choose a subset of the remaining 23 balls to be painted red, so
k = 2 25 ( 25 k ) ( k 2 ) = 2 23 ( 25 2 ) = 25 24 2 2 23 = 25 24 2 22 .
Step 2
For the second one I would first use a very basic identity to get rid of the annoying factor of k:
k ( 10 k ) = 10 ( 9 k 1 ) ..
(Combinatorial interpretation: Picking a team of k people from a pool of 10 and then designating one of them captain produces the same outcomes as first picking one of the 10 to be captain and then picking k 1 more people from the 9 remaining to fill out the team of k.)
Thus,
k = 1 10 k ( 10 k ) ( 20 10 k ) = 10 k = 1 10 ( 9 k 1 ) ( 20 10 k ) (1) = k = 0 9 ( 9 k ) ( 20 9 k ) .
If you know the Vandermonde identity, you can simply apply it. If not, imagine that you have a pool of 9 men and 20 women, from which you want to select a committee of 9 people. There are ( 9 k ) ( 20 9 k ) ways to choose a committee of 9 people that contains exactly k men, so (1) is just the total number of possible committees of 9 people, and that is clearly ( 29 9 ) .

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