Combinatorial Problems and Exercises - 1. Basic enumeration(1)

1. In a shop there are $k$ kinds of postcards. We want to send postcards to $n$ friends. How many different ways can this be done?
   ${N_1=k^n}$
   What happens if we want to send them different cards?
   ${N_2=P(k,n)}$
   What happens if we want to send two different cards to each of them(but different persons may get the same card)?
   ${N_3=P(C(k,2),n)}$
2. We have $k$ distinct postcards and want to send them all to our $n$ friends (a friend can get any number of postcards, including 0). How many ways can this be done?
   ${N_1={(n+k-1)! \over (n-1)! }}$
   What happens if we want to send at least one card to each friend?
   ${N_2=C(k-1, n-1)}$
3. How many anagrams can be formed from the word CHARACTERIZATION? (An anagram is a word having the same letters, each occurring the same number of times; this second word does not need to have a meaning.)
   ${N={16! \over 3!\cdot 2! \cdot 2! \cdot 2! \cdot 2!} = 217945728000 }$
4. (a) How many possibilities are there to distribute $k$ forints among $n$ people so that each receives at least one?
   ${N_a=C(k-1,n-1)}$
   (b) Suppose that we do not insist each perso n receive something. What will be the number of distributions in this case?
   ${N_b={(n+k-1)! \over k! \cdot (n-1)!}}$
5. There are $k$ kinds of postcards, but only in a limited number of each, there being $a_i$ copies of the $i^{th}$ one. What is the number of possible ways of sending them to $n$ friends? (We may send more than one copy of the same postcard to the same person).
   ${N = {(\sum_{i=1}^ka_i)! \cdot C(\sum_{i=1}^ka_i-1,n-1) \over \prod_{i=1}^ka_i!} }$
6. (a) Find recurrence relations for the Stirling partition numbers $\{{\begin{smallmatrix} n \\ k\end{smallmatrix}\}}$ and the Stirling cycle numbers $[\begin{smallmatrix} n \\ k \end{smallmatrix}]$, and tabulate them for ${n \le 6}$
   Stirling Number of the 1st kind:
   $[\begin{smallmatrix} n \\ k \end{smallmatrix}]= [\begin{smallmatrix} n-1 \\ k-1 \end{smallmatrix}]+(n-1) \cdot [\begin{smallmatrix} n-1 \\ k \end{smallmatrix}]$
   $$\begin{array}{c\lcr} n & 0 & 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5 & 6 \\ \hline 0 & 1 \\ 1 & 0 & 1 \\ 2 & 0 & 1 & 1 \\ 3 & 0 & 2 & 3 & 1 \\ 4 & 0 & 6 & 11 & 6 & 1 \\ 5 & 0 & 24 & 50 & 35 & 10 & 1 \\ 6 & 0 & 120 & 274 & 225 & 85 & 15 & 1\end{array}$$
   Stirling Number of the 2nd kind:
   $\{\begin{smallmatrix} n \\ k \end{smallmatrix}\}= \{\begin{smallmatrix} n-1 \\ k-1 \end{smallmatrix}\}+k \cdot \{\begin{smallmatrix} n-1 \\ k \end{smallmatrix}\}$
   $$\begin{array}{c\lcr} n & 0 & 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5 & 6 \\ \hline 0 & 1 \\ 1 & 0 & 1 \\ 2 & 0 & 1 & 1 \\ 3 & 0 & 1 & 3 & 1 \\ 4 & 0 & 1 & 7 & 6 & 1 \\ 5 & 0 & 1 & 15 & 25 & 10 & 1 \\ 6 & 0 & 1 & 31 & 90 & 65 & 15 & 1\end{array}$$
   (b) Prove that $\lbrace \begin{smallmatrix} n\\n-k \end{smallmatrix}\rbrace$ and $[\begin{smallmatrix} n \\ n-k \end{smallmatrix} ]$ are polynomials in $n$ for each fixed $k$.
   ???
   (c) Show that there is a unique way to extend the definition of $\{ \begin{smallmatrix} n \\ k \end{smallmatrix} \}$ and $[ \begin{smallmatrix} n \\ k \end{smallmatrix} ]$ over all integers $n$ and $k$ so that the recurrence relations in (a) are preserved and the “boundary conditions” $\{ \begin{smallmatrix} 0 \\ 0 \end{smallmatrix} \} = [\begin{smallmatrix} 0 \\ 0 \end{smallmatrix}] = 1$ and $\{ \begin{smallmatrix} 0 \\ m \end{smallmatrix} \} = [\begin{smallmatrix} m \\ 0 \end{smallmatrix}] = 0 (m \neq 0)$ are fulfilled.
   ???
   (d) Prove the duality relation
   $$\begin{Bmatrix}n\\k\end{Bmatrix}=\begin{bmatrix}-k\\-n\end{bmatrix}$$
   ???