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Decide if the following statements are true or false.

(1) If A and B are subsets of a set X, then A = (A ∩ B) ∪ (A ∩ B c ), where B c denotes


the complement of B in X.

T . Since X = B ∪ B c , we have

A = A ∩ X = A ∩ (B ∪ B c ) = (A ∩ B) ∪ (A ∩ B c )

where the last equality follows by De Morgan.


(2) If there are infinitely many even prime numbers, then 148 is an even integer.
T . The statement is of the form “If A, then B”. Since the statement A is false (as 2 is
the only even prime) and B is true, the statement is of the form F =⇒ T , which is True.
For the following 3 questions (Questions 3, 4 and 5), consider the following sentences:
P: He is super smart.
Q: He knows all the answers in this exam.
R: He is a great guy.

(3) The English sentence “He is super smart because he knows all the answers in this
exam” is the converse of Q =⇒ P .
F . The given sentence is of the form Q =⇒ P . Thus its converse should be P =⇒ Q.
(4) The English sentence “Just because he is super smart, it does not mean that he is a
great guy” is logically equivalent to P =⇒ (Not R).
F . The sentence is of the form “P does not imply R”. This is different from “P implies
(Not R)”, which reads “He is super smart, so he is not a great guy”.
(5) The sentence “Not unless he knows all the answers in this exam is he a great guy” is
the contrapositive of the sentence “If he is not a great guy, then he doesn’t know all the
answers in this exam”.
F . The first sentence is of the form “R =⇒ Q”. The second sentence is “(Not R) =⇒
(Not Q)”. So the contrapositive of the second sentence is Q =⇒ R, which is different
from the first sentence.
(6) If f is a surjective function from a finite set A to a finite set B, and A and B have
the same number of elements, then f is necessarily injective as well.
T . Think of it this way: if there are the same number of boys (elements of A) and girls
(elements of B), and suppose each boy sends out exactly one email to some girl and all
girls receive an email, then no two boys send emails to the same girl.
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(7) Let f and g be two functions from a nonempty set X to a nonempty set Y . Consider
the set
A = {x ∈ X : f (x) = g(x)}.
Then A is necessarily nonempty.
F . Consider 2 functions f and g with f (x) = y for all x ∈ X, and g(x) = z for all x ∈ X,
and such that y 6= z. Then there is no x ∈ X such that f (x) = g(x). So A is empty in
such an instance.
(8) You borrowed $10, 000 from a moneylender, who charged a monthly interest rate 5%.
Given that your monthly payment for the loan is $1, 000, it will take you slightly more
than 14 months to clear your debt.
T . Using a formula from class, if the debt is repaid after N months, then we have:
105 · (0.05) · (1.05)N
104 = ,
(1.05)N − 1
so that
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2= .
1 − 1/(1.05)N
Hence, we see that

2 = (1.05)N , so that N = log 2/ log(1.05) = 14.2....

(9) The method of division known as “Sealed bids” or “Knaster Inheritance Procedure”
is equitable when used with 2 players.
F . In the second-last step of Sealed Bids, everyone receives their fair share. So if there
are 2 players, each will have received exactly half of the total value of the assets according
to his valuation. However, if there is a surplus, then the surplus is divided evenly (in
monetary value) among the two players. But, in the eyes of the two players, this same
amount of extra money may be equal to different proportions of the value of the assets (this
happens when the total value oft he assets is different for the two players). Thus, after
the distribution of the surplus amount, one player will have received a higher proportion
of the total value of the assets (in her eyes) compared to that received by the other player
(in his eyes).
(10) The sets

{n ∈ Z : n is divisible by 4} and {n ∈ Z : n leaves remainder 1 when divided by 7}

have the same cardinality. Here Z denotes the set of all integers.
T . The elements in the first set has the form 4k, for k ∈ Z. The elements in the second
set has the form 7k + 1, for k ∈ Z. The function f (4k) = 7k + 1 sets up a bijection
between the two sets.
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(11) Sequential Pairwise Voting satisfies the Condorcet Winner Criterion.


T . If A is a Condorcet Winner, this means A beats every other candidate in head-to-
head contest. But then A will win every matchup in SPV, and thus be the winner under
SPV.

The following 3 questions (Questions 12, 13 and 14) concern the adjusted winner procedure
applied to 2 companies who are merging. The following table shows the number of points
that each company bids for each of the items, with each company having 100 points.

Items CEO Name Layoff Logo Office Board of Directors Products


Apple 20 15 10 15 5 8 27
Facebook 22 11 14 11 10 5 27

Let’s perform the adjusted winner procedure. We see that Apple gets Name, Logo and
Board of Directors (for a total of 38), whereas Facebook gets CEO, Layoff and Office (for
a total of 46). Since Apple has fewer points, Apple is allocated Products, and so has a
total of 65 points. Now Apple has more points than Facebook, and the preference ratio of
Products is 1 (both want it equally badly). So the item Products has to be transferred.
Let x be the proportion of Products that Apple needs to transfer to Facebook, so that
both sides have equal points. Then

38 + 27(1 − x) = 46 + 27x so that x = 19/54.

This implies that both sides end up with 55.5 points.


(12) In the initial allocation, Facebook gets the item “Products”.
F . Apple gets Products.

(13) In the final allocation, the item which needs to be transferred is “CEO”.
F . The item which needs to be transferred is Products.

(14) In the final allocation, the point total that each company gets is 55.5.
T , as shown above.

(15) If the poorest 40% of the population have no income and the other 60% of the
population have the same nonzero income, then the Gini coefficient of the country is 0.4.
T . The Lorenz curve is the horizontal line along the x-axis in the interval [0, 0.4].
After that, it is the straight line joining (0.4, 0) to (1, 1). The area under the triangle is
1/2 × (0.6) = 0.3. Then the Gini coefficient is (0.5 − 0.3)/(0.5) = 0.4.
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(16) In a transportation problem, if a row of the cost matrix is multiplied by 3, the new
cost matrix is equivalent to the original one.
F . The new cost function is related to the original one as follows: some coefficients of the
cost function is scaled by 3, while others remain the same. Can come up with an example,
but let’s not do it here. Instead, think of a simpler example of linear programming in the
xy-plane, and imagine the cost function changes from x + y to 3x + y.

(17) There is a graph with 8 vertices such that the degrees of the vertices are 4, 7, 6, 5,
4, 4, 3 and 2.
F . One cannot have 3 vertices of odd degree.
(18) If the degrees of the vertices of a graph are 2, 4, 5, 4, 3, 6, 4, 2 and 4, then one can
find a vertex coloring of the graph using 5 colors.
T . Arrange the degrees in decreasing order: 6, 5, 4, 4, 4, 4, 3, 2, 2. COlor the first 5
vertices with 5 different colors. After that, all remaining vertices have degree ≤ 4, and so
can be coloured using the 5 colors already used.
(19) There does not exist a graph with an odd number of edges and such that the degree
of any vertex is either 4 or 8.
T . By the handshaking lemma, the sum of the degrees of the vertices is twice the number
of edges. If the degree of each vertex is 4 or 8, then the sum of degrees is divisible by 4.
But if the number of edges is odd, then twice their number is not divisible by 4.
(20) The following shows the payoff matrix for a zero sum game between two players A
and B, with the rows representing the strategies for A, the column representing strategies
for B and the entries of the matrix indicating the payoff for A. There is a saddle point
for this particular game.
 
2 4 −3 −1 3
 −4 −2 1 8 4 
 
 3 2 3 −5 6 
 
 
 1 −4 −5 3 7 
−4 −3 4 3 −2
F . The maximum of the row minima is −3 in the first row. The minimum of the column
maxima is 3 int he first column. Since these are not equal, there is no saddle point.

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