Lecture 2.

Properties of Combinations
June 25, 2014
Symmetry. We can say without calculations that 82 = 86 . Indeed, for every subset of



{1, 2, . . . , 8} of two elements there is a subset of six elements: its complement. For example,
{3, 5} corresponds to {1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8}. This is a one-to-one correspondence.

So
there are equally
many subsets of two elements and subsets of six elements. Similarly, 83 = 85 . More generally,
   
n n
=
k n−k

Power set. How many subsets does the set {1, 2, . . . , n} contain? Answer: 2n . Indeed, to
construct an arbitrary subset E, you should answer n questions:
• Is 1 ∈ E? Yes/No
• Is 2 ∈ E? Yes/No
• ...
• Is n ∈ E? Yes/No
For each question, there are two possible answers. The total number of choices is |2 · 2 ·{z. . . · 2} =
n times
2n . The set of all subsets of {1, . . . , n} is called a power set, and it contains 2n elements. But
we can also write the quantity of all subsets as the sum of binomial coefficients:
       
n n n n
+ + + ... + .
0 1 2 n
So we get the following identity:
     
n n n
+ + ... + = 2n
0 1 n
2
Example. n = 2. Then
the set {1, 2} has 4 = 2 subsets: ∅, {1}, {2}, {1, 2}. Two of
them
have one element: 1 = 2, one has two elements, 2 = 1, and one has zero elements, 20 = 1.
2 2


Total: 1 + 2 + 1 = 4.
Reduction property. We can claim that
     
5 4 4
= + .
2 2 1

Indeed, the total number of subsets E ⊆ {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} which contain two elements is 52 . But


there are two possibilities:
Case 1. 5 ∈ E. Then E \ {5} is a one-element subset of {1, 2, 3, 4}; there are 41 such


subsets.
4


Case
2. 5 ∈/
E. Then E is a two-element subset of {1, 2, 3, 4}. There are 2
such subsets.
4 4 5


So 1 + 2 = 2 . In general,
     
n n−1 n−1
= +
k k k−1
 Pascal’s Triangle.
0


n = 0: 1 n = 0: 0
1 1



n = 1: 1 1 n = 1: 0 1
2 2 2




n = 2: 1 2 1 n = 2: 0 1 2
3 3 3 3





n = 3: 1 3 3 1 n = 3: 0 1 2 3
4 4 4 4 4






n = 4: 1 4 6 4 1 n = 4: 0 1 2 3 4
Each element is the sum of two elements immediately
above it: this is the reduction formula.
n n


We start from the edges, fill them with ones: 0 = n = 1, see the previous lecture. Then we
fill the inside from top to bottom using this rule, which is the reduction formula.
Newton’s Binomial Formula. We can expand (x + y)2 = x2 + 2xy + y 2 , and (x + y)3 =
x + 3x2 y + 3xy 2 + y 3 . The coefficients are taken from corresponding lines in Pascal’s triangle.
3

Why is this? Let us show this for n = 3.

(x + y)3 = (x + y)(x + y)(x + y) = xxx + xxy + xyx + yxx + xyy + yxy + yyx + yyy.
Each term has slots occupied by y: xxy ↔ {3},
yxy ↔ {1, 3}. If there is one slot
occupied by
y, this corresponds to x2 y, and there are 31 such combinations. So we have: 31 x2 y. Other
terms give us:        
3 3 3 2 3 2 3 3
x + x y+ xy + y .
0 1 2 3
The general formula looks like this:
     
n n n n n−1 n n
(x + y) = x + x y + ... + y
0 1 n

Let x = y = 1. Then we get:

     
n n n n
2 = + + ... + .
0 1 n
This formula was already proven above. Let x = 1, y = −1. Then
       
n n n n
0= − + − + ...,
0 1 2 3
so        
n n n n
+ + ... = + + ...
0 2 1 3
The quantity of subsets with even number of elements is equal to the quantity of subsets with
odd number of elements.