There are k identical bookshelves in which each shelf cannot contain m or more books. In how many ways can n distinct books be arranged on these k bookshelves?

metal1fc

metal1fc

Answered question

2022-09-07

Arranging books in bookshelves with the capacity of each shelf given
There are k identical bookshelves in which each shelf cannot contain m or more books. In how many ways can n distinct books be arranged on these k bookshelves?
If there is no condition on the capacity of each shelf, the number of ways to arrange books equals i [ k ] L ( n , i ), where L(n,i) denotes the Lah number. However, because of that constraint, I have trouble in solving the problem.
I tried several ways to solve this problem by separating the cases via (1) the number of shelves which contains the full-number of books, or (2) the number of non-empty shelves. For the second trial, I observed that, if j denotes the number of non-empty shelves, then the number of ways to arrange the books is zero if j < n / m .
However, these methods does not proceed quite well, since it looks like these methods result in the recurrence relation rather than the exact form of the number.
For the related concepts, I have studied Catalan number, (both signed and unsigned) first and second Stirling number, Bell and Lah number, and the integer partition.
Any insight or comment are welcomed.

Answer & Explanation

Lorenzo Aguilar

Lorenzo Aguilar

Beginner2022-09-08Added 18 answers

Step 1
It is given that books are distinct, and shelves identical
The formula that emerges is neatly encapsulated by the multinomial coefficient, corrected for identical number of books in multiple shelves.
Step 2
For 4 books with a shelf capacity of 3 placed in 4 shelves, possible configurations and their count would be
3 1 0 0 : ( 4 3 , 1 , 0 , 0 )
2 2 0 0 : ( 4 2 , 2 , 0 , 0 ) / 2 !
2 1 1 0 : ( 4 2 , 1 , 1 , 0 ) / 2 !, and
1 1 1 1 : ( 4 1 , 1 , 1 , 1 ) / 4 !
I hope the formula is clear, I don't quite know how to represent the final divisors symbolically in the formula

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