Math 3012-B Homework 8 Fall 2021

Due: Tuesday November 23 at 11:59 pm

Total Questions: 4
Instructions:

1. Late work, for any reason other than a documented dean-approved excuse, will receive a 0. Do
not email me asking for an extension unless you have paperwork from the Dean of Students.

2. Justify all answers, even if it does not explicitly say to do so, unless the question specificially
states justification is not needed.

3. Giving an example, or drawing a diagram, is not in general rigorous enough to be a proof.

4. Label, define, and explain all variables, and explain from which sets they are.

5. Your answer should be an explanation with a logical flow of ideas, not simply symbols on a
page.

6. Correct answers but without good explanations will result in little to 0 credit.

7. You may use a calculator and matrix equation solver to simplify tedious calculations and systems
of equations, but explicitly say when you are doing so.

8. NOTE: for Hasse Diagrams, you may hand draw and upload these (trying to TeX them will be
very time consuming...)

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Problem 1. Useful generating function identity
Show for integer k ≥ 0,
∞  
1 X i i−k
k+1
= x .
(1 − x) i=k
k
Hint: induct on k.

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Problem 2. Return of the Fruit Basket Problem
Use generating functions to solve the following: A fruit basket contains n ≥ 0 pieces of fruit
from among four types of fruit: apples, bananas, cherries, and dates.
Part A: How many fruit baskets exist if there must be at least 2 of each fruit?
Part B: How many fruit baskets exists if there must be at most 2 of each fruit? (Hint: don’t
write the generating functions as a fraction. Write them in a form you can use multinomial
theorem with).
Using techniques other than generating functions will not count.

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Problem 3. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Generating Functions
Harry Potter and his wizarding friends arrive at Hogwarts School for another year of classes.
During potions class, a particular brew requires a mandrake root to be chopped into pieces. If
the mandrake root is of size n ≥ 2 grams, how many ways can it be chopped (i.e., partitioned)
into smaller pieces so that each piece (partition) is of size at least 2 grams? (Assume the only
thing that matters is the final number of each piece of each size: that is, order of the pieces and
chops don’t matter.)
Part A: Let fn be the number of ways to partition the root of size n. Let F (x) be its generating
function. Write F (x) in its polynomial (i.e., closed) form.
Part B: Now use F (x) to find the answer when n = 15. (You will need to use a computer
algebra software, such as wolframalpha.com. Type in ”series F(x)” where you plug in your
expression from part A into F(x). Then click on ”more terms” on the right hand side.

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Problem 4. Recurrences Again
Use generating functions to solve the following recurrence relation:

fn − 4fn−1 = n + 2

for n ≥ 1, f0 = 1.