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Combinatorics Difficulty 7.7 National olympiad, round 2 Prove it Saudi Arabia

How many permutations (s1,s2,,sn)\left(s_{1}, s_{2}, \cdots, s_{n}\right) of (1,2,,n)(1,2, \ldots, n) are there satisfying the condition si>sjs_{i}>s_{j} for all ij+3i \geq j+3 when n=5n=5 and when n=7n=7?

Solution

Let NnN_{n} be the number of permutations satisfying these conditions.

For n=5n=5, the conditions are s4>s1s_{4}>s_{1} and s5>s2,s1s_{5}>s_{2}, s_{1}. Among the 5!5! permutations of (1,,5)(1, \cdots, 5), half of them satisfy the condition s4>s1s_{4}>s_{1}. Among these permutations, half of them satisfy also the condition s5>s2s_{5}>s_{2}. Therefore, there are 3030 permutations satisfying both conditions s4>s1s_{4}>s_{1} and s5>s2s_{5}>s_{2}.

To compute N5N_{5}, it is easier to subtract from 3030 the number of permutations which do not satisfy the condition s5>s1s_{5}>s_{1}. These permutations satisfy the condition s4>s1>s5>s2s_{4}>s_{1}>s_{5}>s_{2} with no condition on s3s_{3}. Since there are 55 possibilities for s3s_{3}, there are 55 such permutations and
N5=305=25 N_{5}=30-5=25
For n=7n=7. There are more conditions and the method used for n=5n=5 becomes complicated. That is why, we will use a different method based on an inductive relation for NnN_{n}.

For n=1,2,3n=1,2,3 there are no conditions on the permutations. So
N1=1!=1,N2=2!=2,N3=3!=6. N_{1}=1!=1, \quad N_{2}=2!=2, \quad N_{3}=3!=6 .
For n=4n=4, there is only one condition: s4>s1s_{4}>s_{1}. This gives,
N4=124!=12 N_{4}=\frac{1}{2} 4!=12
For n5n \geq 5, we have the conditions sns1,s2,,sn3s_{n} \geq s_{1}, s_{2}, \ldots, s_{n-3}. This means that at most there are only sn1,sn2s_{n-1}, s_{n-2} at most which can be greater than sns_{n}. Therefore sn{n,n1,n2}s_{n} \in\{n, n-1, n-2\}.

(a) When sn=ns_{n}=n, there are as many permutations as for n1n-1, that is Nn1N_{n-1}.

(b) When sn=n1s_{n}=n-1, because of the conditions sns1,s2,,sn3s_{n} \geq s_{1}, s_{2}, \ldots, s_{n-3}, we have n{sn1,sn2}n \in\left\{s_{n-1}, s_{n-2}\right\}.
- If sn1=ns_{n-1}=n, there are as many permutations as for n2n-2, that is Nn2N_{n-2}.
- If sn2=ns_{n-2}=n, because of the conditions sn1s1,s2,,sn4s_{n-1} \geq s_{1}, s_{2}, \ldots, s_{n-4} we have sn1{n2,n3}s_{n-1} \in\{n-2, n-3\}.
i. If sn1=n2s_{n-1}=n-2, there are as many permutations as for n3n-3, that is Nn3N_{n-3}.
ii. If sn1=n3s_{n-1}=n-3 then sn3=n2s_{n-3}=n-2 and there are as many permutations as for n4n-4, that is Nn4N_{n-4}.

(c) When sn=n2s_{n}=n-2, because of the conditions sns1,s2,,sn3s_{n} \geq s_{1}, s_{2}, \ldots, s_{n-3}, we have either sn1=n,sn2=n1s_{n-1}=n, s_{n-2}=n-1 or sn1=n1,sn2=ns_{n-1}=n-1, s_{n-2}=n. In each case there are as many permutations as for n3n-3, that is Nn3N_{n-3}.

Hence, we obtain the inductive relation
Nn=Nn1+Nn2+3Nn3+Nn4 N_{n}=N_{n-1}+N_{n-2}+3 N_{n-3}+N_{n-4}
Therefore
N5=12+6+3×2+1=25N6=25+12+3×6+2=57N7=57+25+3×12+6=124 \begin{gathered} N_{5}=12+6+3 \times 2+1=25 \\ N_{6}=25+12+3 \times 6+2=57 \\ N_{7}=57+25+3 \times 12+6=124 \end{gathered}

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