Maths Olympiad Prep

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Combinatorics Difficulty 5.2 AIME, harder Find the answer

Determine the number of 8-tuples of nonnegative integers (a1,a2,a3,a4,b1,b2,b3,b4)\left(a_{1}, a_{2}, a_{3}, a_{4}, b_{1}, b_{2}, b_{3}, b_{4}\right) satisfying 0akk0 \leq a_{k} \leq k, for each k=1,2,3,4k=1,2,3,4, and a1+a2+a3+a4+2b1+3b2+4b3+5b4=19a_{1}+a_{2}+a_{3}+a_{4}+2 b_{1}+3 b_{2}+4 b_{3}+5 b_{4}=19.

A number or a short expression. Fractions can be typed as 3/2, and spacing doesn't matter.

Solution

For each k=1,2,3,4k=1,2,3,4, note that set of pairs (ak,bk)\left(a_{k}, b_{k}\right) with 0akk0 \leq a_{k} \leq k maps bijectively to the set of nonnegative integers through the map (ak,bk)ak+(k+1)bk\left(a_{k}, b_{k}\right) \mapsto a_{k}+(k+1) b_{k}, as aka_{k} is simply the remainder of ak+(k+1)bka_{k}+(k+1) b_{k} upon division by k+1k+1. By letting xk=ak+(k+1)bkx_{k}=a_{k}+(k+1) b_{k}, we see that the problem is equivalent to finding the number of quadruples of nonnegative integers (x1,x2,x3,x4)\left(x_{1}, x_{2}, x_{3}, x_{4}\right) such that x1+x2+x3+x4=19x_{1}+x_{2}+x_{3}+x_{4}=19. This is the same as finding the number of quadruples of positive integers (x1+1,x2+1,x3+1,x4+1)\left(x_{1}+1, x_{2}+1, x_{3}+1, x_{4}+1\right) such that x1+x2+x3+x4=23x_{1}+x_{2}+x_{3}+x_{4}=23. By a standard "dots and bars" argument, we see that the answer is (223)=1540\binom{22}{3}=1540.

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Source: Omni-MATH, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.