CIS 160

Recitation Guide - Week 3

Topics Covered: Proofs (Irrationality Proofs), Multisets

Problem 1:
√
Prove that 15 is irrational.
Solution:
√ √
Assume toward contradiction that 15 is rational. That is, let’s assume 15 can be written as a
simplified fraction ab , where b 6= 0. Note that a and b must be co-prime here (meaning they have
no common factors) since the fraction is simplified. This will become important later.

√ a
15 =
b
Let’s square both sides of the equation to get:

a2
15 =
b2
We then multiply both sides by b2 to get rid of the fraction.

15b2 = a2

We now know that a2 must be divisible by 15, since it equals 15b2 (and b2 is an integer since b is
one as well). This must mean that 3 and 5 also divide a2 .

We can further say that 3 and 5 also divide a. Why is this the case? We know that 3 and 5 are
both primes, and that a2 = a × a. If the prime 3 divides a2 , it must also divide one of the factors
(try to think of why this is the case). Therefore, 3 must divide a.

If 3 divides a, let’s substitute a in our earlier equation with 3k, for k ∈ Z.

15b2 = (3k)2 = 9k 2

Divide by 3 on each side:

5b2 = 3k 2

By our earlier logic, 5b2 must also be divisible by 3, and since 5 is definitely not divisible by 3, b2
must be divisible by 3. This means, by our earlier logic, that b is divisible by 3.

Now we have found that both a and b are divisible by 3. We have reached a contradiction: ab can’t
possibly
√ be a simplified fraction since a and b have a common factor. Therefore, we have proven
that 15 must be irrational.

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Problem 2:
How many 5 letter sequences can be made from the letters in the word “PIAZZA”?
Solution:
The letters from the word “PIAZZA” can be represented as the multiset {2·A, 1·I, 1·P, 2·Z}
There are then 4 cases for the 5 letters to be chosen for the word, because exactly one letter must
be left out from the multiset:
Case 1: P is left out. In this case, our multiset of letters to choose from is {2·A, 1·I, 2·Z}
5!
and there are 2!1!2! sequences of letters.
5!
Case 2: I is left out. Similar to Case 1, there are 2!1!2! sequences of letters.
Case 3: A is left out. In this case, our multiset of letters to choose from is
5!
{1 · A, 1 · I, 1 · P, 2 · Z} and there are 1!1!1!2! sequences of letters.
5!
Case 4: Z is left out. Similar to Case 3, there are 1!1!1!2! sequences of letters.
5! 5! 5! 5!
Thus, in total, there are 2!1!2! + 2!1!2! + 1!1!1!2! + 1!1!1!2! = 180 sequences of letters from the letters
in “PIAZZA”
Alternate Solution:
We can also approach the problem in the following way. Let S be the set of 5 letter sequences
from the letters in “PIAZZA.” We can then count the number of 6-letter sequences in the following
way:
Step 1: Choose a 5 letter sequence from the letters in the word “PIAZZA.” This can
be done in |S| ways.
Step 2: Choose a letter to be the final letter in our sequence. Since we have already
used 5 letters in step 1, this can only be done in 1 way.
Therefore, we can count the number of 6 letter sequences in |S| × 1 = |S| ways.
We can also compute the number of sequences of 6 letters as the number of permutations of the
6!
multiset {2 · A, 1 · I, 1 · P, 2 · Z}. From lecture, we know this can be done in 2!1!1!2! = 180 ways.
Since we have simply counted the same problem in two different ways, we get |S| = 180.

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Problem 3:
A janitor needed to distribute soap bars and toilet paper to customers of the hotel. He starts his
shift with 10 bars of soap and 10 rolls of toilet paper. After the 6th room, he discovers that he
has run out of supplies. How many ways could he have distributed the toilet paper rolls and soap
bars to the different rooms? He cannot tell the difference between any two toilet paper rolls and
between any two soap bars. However, he can easily tell the difference between toilet paper and
soap bars.
Solution:
We can break this problem down into separate stars and bars problems and combine them at the
end.
There are 6 rooms in which we distribute 10 toilet paper rolls. Arrange 10 stars in a row. These
stars represent the toilet paper rolls. Since the toilet paper rolls are indistinguishable, their ordering
is irrelevant. We now also have 6 − 1 = 5 bars to represent the rooms. Place the 5 bars between
some of the stars (toilet paper rolls). The bars would then separate the stars into 6 parts, each of
which represent one room. The number of arrangements of toilet paper rolls is then
   
10 + 6 − 1 15
=
10 10

We can do the same for the soap bars. 10 indistinguishable soap bars distributed along 6 rooms
gives us
   
10 + 6 − 1 15
=
10 10

But this isn’t the end! We still have to combine them. We can do this by using the multiplication
rule, since the order in which the toilet paper rolls is distributed is independent of the order in
which the soap bars are distributed.
Step 1:
Choose the order in which toilet paper rolls is distributed. From above, there
are 15
10 ways.

Step 2: Choose the order in which soap bars are distributed. Again, there are 15


10 ways.

which gives us

     2
15 15 15
× =
10 10 10