Due Date: 13 November 2021

Discrete Structures
Assignment-02

Sets

Problem 1 (2+2+3 = 7)
a. List all subsets of {𝑎, 𝑏, 𝑐, 𝑑, 𝑒} containing {𝑎, 𝑒} but not containing 𝑐.
b. Three sets have 5, 10, and 15 elements, respectively. How many elements can their union and their
intersection have?
c. Prove that for any three sets 𝐴, 𝐵, 𝐶,
((𝐴 \ 𝐵) ∪ (𝐵 \ 𝐴)) ∩ 𝐶 = ((𝐴 ∩ 𝐶) ∪ (𝐵 ∩ 𝐶)) \ (𝐴 ∩ 𝐵 ∩ 𝐶)

Numbers
Problem 2 (2+3+3 = 8)
a. Compute the binary form of 25 and 35, using division method and compute their sum in the binary
notation.
b. Check the results against adding 25 and 35 in the usual decimal notation and then converting it to binary.
c. How many bits does 10100 have if written in base 2?

Simple Counting
Problem 3 (3+3+3+3 =12)
a. How many strings of the 8 English letters are there that contains no vowels, if letters can be repeated?
b. How many strings of the 8 English letters are there that contains no vowels, if letters CANNOT be repeated?
c. How many strings of the 8 English letters are there that start with a vowel, if letters CAN be repeated?
d. How many strings of the 8 English letters are there that start with a vowel, if letters CANNOT be repeated?

Problem 4 (3+3+3+3 = 12)

a. How many permutations of the letters 𝐴𝐵𝐶𝐷𝐸𝐹𝐺 contain the strings 𝐴𝐵𝐶 and 𝐷𝐸?
b. How many permutations of the letters 𝐴𝐵𝐶𝐷𝐸𝐹𝐺 contain the strings 𝐶𝐵𝐴 and 𝐵𝐸𝐷?
c. How many permutations of the letters 𝐴𝐵𝐶𝐷𝐸𝐹𝐺 contain the strings 𝐵𝐴 and 𝐺𝐹?
d. How many permutations of the letters 𝐴𝐵𝐶𝐷𝐸𝐹𝐺 contain the strings 𝐴𝐵𝐶 and 𝐶𝐷𝐸?

Problem 5 (3)
A palindrome is a string whose reversal is identical to the string. How many bit strings of length n are
palindromes?

Principle of Inclusion–Exclusion
Problem 6 (8)
There is a class of 40 girls. There are 18 girls who like to play chess, and 23 who like to play soccer. Several of
them like biking. The number of those who like to play both chess and soccer is 9. There are 7 girls who like
chess and biking, and 12 who like soccer and biking. There are 4 girls who like all three activities.
In addition we know that everybody likes at least one of these activities. How many girls like biking?

Problem 7 (5+5 = 10)

a. How many positive integers not bigger than 20 are divisible by either 2 or 3?
b. Find all primes less than a specified positive integer n. (let’s say n =100).
 Due Date: 13 November 2021

More on Counting

Problem 8 (4)
In how many ways can you seat 12 people at two round tables with 6 places each?
Think of possible ways of defining when two seatings are different, and find the answer for each.

Problem 9 (5)
Starting from Washington, DC, how many ways can you visit 5 of the 50 state capitals and return to
Washington?.

Problem 10 (4+5 = 9)
Alice has 10 balls (all different). First, she splits them into two piles; then she picks one of the piles with at least
two elements, and splits it into two; she repeats this until each pile has only one element.
(a) How many steps does this take?
(b) Show that the number of different ways in which she can carry out this procedure is
10 9 8 3 2
( ) ⋅ ( ) ⋅ ( )⋯( ) ⋅ ( )
2 2 2 2 2
[Hint: Imagine the procedure backward.]

Problem 11 (3+3+4 = 11)

You want to send postcards to 12 friends. In the shop there are only 3 kinds of postcards. In how many ways
can you send the postcards, if
(a) there is a large number of each kind of postcard, and you want to send one card to each friend;
(b) there is a large number of each kind of postcard, and you are willing to send one or more postcards to each
friend (but no one should get two identical cards);
(c) the shop has only 4 of each kind of postcard, and you want to send one card to each friend?

Problem 12 (2)
What is the number of ways to color n objects with 3 colors if every color must be used at least once?

Problem 13 (2)
How many different “words” can you get by rearranging the letters in the word “MATHEMATICS”?

Problem 14 (3)
20 persons are sitting around a table. How many ways can we choose 3 persons, no two of whom are neighbors?

Problem 15 (4)
How many students must be in a class to guarantee that at least two students receive the same score on the final
exam, if the exam is graded on a scale from 0 to 100 points?