A non-empty set is called a good set of degree if . Denote by the number of good sets of degree . Prove that for any positive integer . (posed by Li Weigu)
Solutions — 2
Solution 1
Let be a good set of degree , and , then , so . Hence the number of good sets of degree with elements is . It follows that .
If is even, , then
If is odd, , then
In summary, the equality holds for all positive integers $n.
Solution 2
If , there is only one good set of degree , namely , so .
If , then there are only two good sets of degree : , so .
Recall that are the numbers of the non-empty good subsets of and , respectively, satisfying .
Consider the case : For any non-empty good set of degree , is a subset of , then we have the following three cases:
a. does not contain the element ;
b. contains , and has at least elements;
c. .
In the following, we focus on the number of good sets of types (a) and (b). For any good set in (a), it follows from and that is a good set of degree . Conversely, any good set of degree is also a good set of degree , therefore, there are exactly good sets of type (a).
For any good set of degree of type (b), where . As , one can consider the non-empty set , where , and satisfies , hence is a good set of degree . Conversely, any good set of degree can be represented in the form , where is a good set of degree of type (b), so the correspondence is one-to-one between and , and there are exactly good sets of degree of type (b).
According to the discussion on the number of good sets of types (a), (b) and (c), we have .