MH 1301 Discrete Mathematics

Lectures 1-6 Extra Exercises

1. How many 0-1 bits strings are there of length six or less?
2. How many functions are there from the set {1, 2, . . . , n} to the set {0, 1}
(a) that assign both 1 and n to 0?
(b) that assign exactly one of the positive integers less than n to 0?
3. Find the number of elements in A ∪ B ∪ C if there are 100 elements in
A, 1000 in B, and 10, 000 in C, if
(a) A ⊆ B and B ⊆ C.
(b) the sets are pairwise disjoint.
(c) there are two elements common to each pair of sets and one ele-
ment in all three sets.
4. How many elements are in the union of four sets if each of the sets has
100 elements, each pair of the sets has 50 elements, each three of the
sets share 25 elements, and there are 5 elements in all four sets?
5. Find the value(s) of n in each of the following:
(a) P (n, 2) = 90
(b) P (n, 3) = 3P (n, 2)
(c) 2P (n, 2) + 50 = P (2n, 2)
6. How many 4-letter words can be formed from the letters G,R,O,U,P if
no letter is to be used more than once in any word?
7. An exam has 40 true/false questions. Of the statements in these ques-
tions, 17 are true. If the questions can be positioned in any order, how
many different answer keys are possible?
8. A coin is flipped 10 times where each flip comes up either head or tail.
How many possible outcomes

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 (a) are there in total?
(b) contain exactly three heads?
(c) contain at least three heads?
(d) contain the same number of heads and tails?

9. What is the coefficient of x101 y 99 in the expansion of (2x − 3y)200 ?

10. Use combinatorial argument to prove C(n, r)C(r, k) = C(n, k)C(n −

k, r − k), where n, r, k are non-negative integers with r ≤ n and k ≤ r.

11. (a) How many different 0-1 bit strings can be formed using six 1s and
eight 0s?
(b) How many different strings can be made from the letters in M ISSISSIP P I,
using all the letters?
(c) How many different strings can be made from the letters in AARDV ARK,
using all the letters and all three As must be consecutive?

12. An employee joined a company in 2000 with a starting salary of $50,000.

Every year this employee receives a raise of $1000 plus 5% of the salary
of the previous year.

(a) Find a recurrence relation for the salary of this employee n years
after 2000.
(b) Find an explicit formula for the salary of this employee n years
after 2000.
(c) What will be the salary of this employee in 2009?

13. Show that the Fibonacci numbers satisfy the recurrence relation fn =
5fn−4 + 3fn−5 for n = 5, 6, 7, · · · together with the initial conditions
f0 = 0, f1 = 1, f2 = 1, f3 = 2, f4 = 3.

14. Solve these recurrence relations together with the initial conditions
given

(a) an = 4an−2 for n ≥ 2, a0 = 0 and a1 = 4.

(b) an = an−1 + 6an−2 for n ≥ 2, a0 = 3 and a1 = 6.
(c) an = −6an−1 − 9an−2 for n ≥ 2, a0 = 3 and a1 = −3.

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(d) an = −4an−1 + 5an−2 for n ≥ 2, a0 = 2 and a1 = 8.
(e) an = −4an−1 − 4an−2 for n ≥ 2, a0 = 0 and a1 = 1.
(f) an = 2an−1 +5an−2 −6an−3 for n ≥ 3, a0 = 7, a1 = −4 and a2 = 8.
(g) an = 2an−1 + 2n2 for n ≥ 2, a1 = 4.
(h) an = 2an−1 + 3n for n ≥ 2, a1 = 5.